HERMON – When she pole vaults, Chantelle Haggerty is up over the world. To do that, she came from a whole other part of it.

Haggerty said she tried pole vaulting “because it looked like a lot of fun, [but] I didn’t know what to expect. Some girls suggested I do it [pole vault], so I said OK.”

The rest is Maine high school track and field history. She set the state indoor record of 11 feet on Feb. 18 at the state Class B track and field championship in Lewiston and the outdoor record of 10-9 on May 25 at the Eastern Maine Class B state championship in Winslow.

Haggerty’s coach, Ben Poland, said that she set another state recordwith a time of 1 minute, .08 seconds in the 400 meter dash on Feb. 18 at the indoor state Class B track and field championship in Lewiston in February, as well as 14 Hermon school records in track and field.

Poland served as a volunteer when Haggerty began her freshman year. He quickly noticed qualities in her that he thought would serve her well.

“[A couple of her] greatest assets [are her] speed and the spring in her legs. She has a powerful lower body,” he said.

The coaching staff also saw other attributes, such as “her positive attitude, and unbelievable work ethic,” he added.

She may have learned the work ethic from her missionary parents, Brian and Diane. Chantelle spent much of her early life in Gabon, Africa, where her parents served for the Christian Missionary Alliance. They would spend three years in Africa before a one-year respite in America. Then, the cycle would begin again.

She says her time there was “fun.” She lived at a private boarding school where other missionary children were taught. She and her older siblings Alicia and Ben, and younger brother Adam learned French and tribal languages along with the other subjects at school.

The home had indoor plumbing and electricity, but no telephone. To communicate with those in the city, an eight-hour drive, they relied on mail until citizen band radios arrived. CBs were used for essential communication such as to hospitals.

When the CBs came, she was about 10 and was able to talk to her parents every night. Before CBs, the dorm parents would have children sit down once a week to write to their parents.

She returned to the United States for good at the beginning of seventh grade at Houlton Junior/Senior High School. It was where she faced culture shock.

She said getting used to an American school system was a big adjustment.

“[The school was] huge compared to what I was used to. Getting used to lockers, oh, it was hard for me,” she said. “So many more people. So big, compared to the small setting I was used to.”

After two years in Houlton, the family moved to Hermon, where she began high school. She thought about trying the pole vault, but decided to go to the long jump instead. In the outdoor season, she followed up on the suggestion of fellow athletes and started the pole vault.

That first year, she said, girls taught each other how to pole vault, because they didn’t have a coach. She loved the event.

“I got a great kick out of it [pole vaulting],” she said.

Haggerty is quick to point out, however, that a guidance counselor, and former college pole vaulter, Ken Frederick,taught the girls “some form that really helped a lot.”

Frederickcame to the meets to help the girls out, and Haggerty describes how clearing a height of what she believes was either 8 feet or 8-6 was “huge.” The height of 7-6 was the record when she started and at the time, seemed unreachable, but she got over that mental block and the height.

This occurred despite the fact she couldn’t really practice at the school because Hermon doesn’t have a track facility.

Poland said they’ve been able to go to other schools, for instance at the field house at the University of Maine at Orono, to practice indoor vaulting and found an advantage.

“[Without a facility, it’s helpful, because we can emphasize the form,” Poland said.

They did drills and everything they could at practice, and worked on vaulting at meets, asking input from other coaches.

When Poland was a volunteer, he noticed Haggerty running many events, like the 200-, 400- and 800-meter races. So, when he became an assistant coach her junior year, he took her off the 800, and the vaulting went through the roof.

Her high finishes in pole vaulting allowed her to vault in other competitions. This past March, she competed in the National Indoor Championships in New York, where she came in 21st with a height of 9-7.

“She was excited to be there, and happy to be around that caliber of athlete,” Poland said.

She also earned a fifth-place finish in the 600 meters in the New England Championships, held March 2 at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

A Massachusetts pole vaulting coach, Jeff Robbins, a man who coached a national high school vault champion, Ashley Nolet, saw great potential in Haggerty, Poland said. Robbins saw how she was doing the right things, and couldn’t believe Haggerty didn’t have the facilities and didn’t vault every day.

Her greatest strength, Poland said, is “[you] tell her to do something, and she does it. She listens, and tries to do it until she gets it, and then moves on to the next stage.”

The next stage for the honor student is college. She chose Nyack, near New York City’s Manhattan borough. It’s a small Christian school without track.

“It’s just the place I need to be right now. It was a lot closer to home than other schools I looked at,” she said. “I prayed about it, and decided that’s the place I felt I needed to be right now.”

She says she’ll be able to play soccer and there are plans to start a track club. She looks forward to getting that started because she thinks she’ll miss track.

Hermon will miss her.

“[She’s just a “special, special person,” Poland said.

He attended an award ceremony where Haggerty was selected by school students as female athlete of the year. As she went to accept the award, she received a standing ovation. That, Poland says, doesn’t just happen for anyone.