A challenge to get the heart pumping is what drives Bryan senior pole vaulter Mikey Piatt.

"I'm a huge adrenalin junkie," Piatt said. "For my 18th birthday, my Dad took me skydiving. We've got season passes to Six Flags, and I think I went three times over the summer. But the rollercoasters just aren't the same after you've jumped out of a plane."

It seems to take that kind of mentality to handle the daredevil event.

"A vaulter is always a little different type of person," said Bryan track coach Justin Smith, laughing. "You've got to be a different person to get on that pole and jump. That definitely fits his mold, skydiving. That's definitely him. I can see that."

The pole vault will be one of the first events held when the Vikings Relays begin Friday at Merrill Green Stadium. Piatt won't be one of the first to compete. He'll wait until they raise the bar.

His best vault this year was 14 feet at Montgomery two weeks ago.

"We had like a 30-mile-an-hour crosswind," Piatt said. "It was really cold, but other than, it was not a bad meet."

Piatt said that that his event combines athleticism with a fearless nature.

"You have to be an athlete, but there also has to be a mindset where you're not afraid to push a bigger pole," Piatt said. "If you're not on a bigger pole, you're not going to jump higher. That's what got me from 13-6 to unofficially 15 feet yesterday. It's a bigger pole. There's no real secret to it."

Well, maybe one.

"You have to plant it the same way you did on a smaller one," Piatt said. "It's hard taking a bigger pole and transferring all of it to a bigger pole. You don't want to change your run. You don't want to run faster and push it."

Piatt cleared 13-6 at Sam Houston last week after hyperextending his right knee. He was unsure if he would be able to go because he suffered the injury two days before the meet. It still bothers him when he turns.

Piatt also has a recurring problem with shin splints on his takeoff leg. He missed the district meet as a sophomore with an ankle injury. He rebounded to qualify for the Class 5A Region II meet last year.

"My sophomore year they told me that I rolled my ankle so badly that I would have been better if I had broken it," Piatt said. "That was two days before district."

He advanced from the District 12-5A meet with the silver medal last year, clearing 13 feet.

"I had never been to the district meet, and I didn't really know what it was going to take [to advance]," Piatt said. "This year, I do. There's a kid from Harker Heights who jumped 15-6 but broke his pole [at the district meet]. This year is not about making it to regionals or state. I want to get over 15. If you do that, [colleges] start looking at you, and that's where my goal is right now."

He's getting training from former Baylor coach Carl Erickson, the co-owner of Altius, a pole-vault company in Jacksonville.

"That's a good place to go because you don't have to bring poles," Piatt said. "The Altius factory has as many poles as you could work on. When it's cold, it's a great place. It's not heated, but it gets you out of the wind. I actually went there the day it snowed here."

Piatt opened his season indoors with a meet at Joshua.

"It was a week before our first meet and I think I jumped 13-6 there, which is what I ended with last year," Piatt said. "To start off where you ended is great, especially since I didn't do much in between. I went to two meets in the summer."

Competing at home this week is a plus.

"We have an Olympic-sized pit, and when you go to a different meet, you feel like you're taking off from further out," said Piatt of vaulting at Merrill Green Stadium. "I practice here, and I know where my mark is."

Piatt does not work out the day before a meet. On Thursday, he was helping with the JV and freshman meet and selling concessions for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

His coach said he may have his thrill-seeking side but he's also down to earth.

"Mikey Piatt is, number one, an exceptional person," Smith said. "He's a genuine person, and what you see is what you get. He's going to give you 100 percent on everything, whether it be in the classroom or out here on the track. If you're on the side of the road, he'd stop and probably help you change a tire."