Wagner named SDHSSA, school female student-athlete for Fallbrook High

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Each year the San Diego High School Sports Association honors a male Senior

Student-Athlete and a female Senior Student-Athlete from each CIF member school, and each year Fallbrook High School recognizes a male Student-Athlete of the Year and a female Student-Athlete of the Year. This year Rose Wagner received both female awards for Fallbrook High School.

“Just really honored that they chose me for it because I know there are a ton of student-athletes in Fallbrook,” Wagner said.

“I’m just really proud of her,” said Fallbrook High School assistant track and field coach for pole vaulting Jim Curran. “She deserves all of that.”

The Senior Student-Athlete awards are based on grades and leadership criteria as well as athletic achievements.

“Rose was a tremendous competitor. She has been a big deal at Fallbrook High School,” said Fallbrook High School athletic director Patrick Walker.

“Just really impressed for her to be able to manage both academics and athletics at a high level,” said Fallbrook head track and field coach Marco Arias. “She was able to manage and excel at both.”

Wagner graduated with a cumulative 4.48 grade point average, and she was on the track and field team for three years. “I worked really hard at it all,” she said.

She broke her ankle her freshman year and joined the track and field team as a sophomore, although she was involved in club pole vaulting during the summer of 2019 following her freshman year. Wagner’s first high school track and field meet was on March 5, 2020. At the time the girls pole vault school record was 11’7”, which was set by Becky Gausepohl in 2003. Wagner broke that record by clearing 11’8”.

The Warriors’ scheduled March 12, 2020, meet was canceled due to rain. The school was then shut down for the remainder of the academic year and the CIF canceled the rest of the 2020 spring season, so Fallbrook had only one meet in 2020.

An April 29, 2021, meet included Wagner clearing 12’2” to break her own school record. That year she competed in the Valley League championship meet and won the league championship by clearing 10’6”. Wagner also finished sixth in the 100-meter dash at the 2021 league meet and was part of the fourth-place 4x100 relay team. In the 2021 CIF Division II preliminaries, she shared third place with a pole vault height of 10’0”, and in the CIF finals her height of 10’0” shared fifth place among Division II girls.

Fallbrook’s 2022 track and field season began March 3 with a dual meet at Rancho Buena Vista. Wagner cleared 13’0” in the pole vault to set a new school record, and she was also part of the winning 4x100 relay team.

This year’s league championship meet took place May 6. Wagner had a pole vault height of 12’0” to win the league championship. She cleared 12’3” in the Division II preliminaries May 14 to place third and also cleared 12’3” in the CIF San Diego Section finals May 21 which gave her third among Division II girls and also qualified her for the state meet May 27-28 in Clovis. Wagner cleared 12’7” in the state meet preliminaries before settling for the 12th-place height of 11’11” in the state finals.

“It proves that hard work does really pay off,” Wagner said. “It was definitely rewarding.”

The leadership criteria for the Senior Student-Athlete award does not require official leadership positions. “I was a leader in my actions, in my hard work,” Wagner said. “I was a leader by example.”

She was the unofficial leader of the girls pole vault group. “I got really close to my other pole vaulters, and I think I was able to help them a little bit,” she said.

Fallbrook had the top four girls pole vault heights at the 2021 league meet. This year, only three Fallbrook girls participated in the pole vault at the league meet, but the Warriors swept the top three positions.

Wagner also co-founded Fallbrook High School’s Surf Club.

Although all three of the school record heights Wagner had were at regular-season meets rather than in the CIF meet, having the entire team present when she set a school record helped make that her favorite Fallbrook High School track and field memory. “My favorite memory is the friends that I made with the pole vaulting team, and it made setting the record a special moment,” she said.

Wagner will continue her track and field career at the University of Massachusetts. “She’s well prepared to go to college and continue her education and continue her vaulting career, and I wish her all the best,” Arias said.