At all levels of sport, there is a seemingly inexorable, perhaps even unreasonable love for firsts: a first home run, a first goal, a first championship.
Binghamton University’s infatuation with pole vaulter Rory Quiller, Pipe Dream’s 2008 Male Athlete of the Year, however, is not born out of the love for trivia, but appreciation for the transcendence of one the greatest athletic achievements in the school’s 63-year existence.
On April 14, Quiller, a 24-year-old graduate student in the School of Management, became the first athlete to win a national championship in BU’s six-year history as a competitor on the NCAA Division I level — the highest of collegiate competition — reaching a height of 18 1/2 at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships hosted at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.
Quiller’s eligibility as a Bearcat expired at the conclusion of the indoor season, making the national title his last official act in a BU uniform and a perfect cap to a career that began nearly five years ago.
It wasn’t until the last five months, however, that Quiller, a three-time All-American, got his full due.
He began 2008 with an off-the-field honor, starring in a 30-second commercial that debuted on YouTube in early January, which promoted Quiller not just for his ability to pole vault, but his 3.7 undergraduate GPA. Then the records started falling on the field.
A week before heading to Arkansas, Quiller reached 18-6 1/2 at the ECAC/IC4A Championship, the second straight outing that he set a personal record. That performance turned out to be the best of all NCAA pole vaulters this season.
Quiller believed he’d have to set a personal record yet again to win in Arkansas, but he actually reached the same height he had at the championships the year before, 18 1/2. No one, in fact, jumped higher at the meet in 2007, but Quiller had to settle for second place because another pole vaulter cleared the bar more times.
Still, coming off last year’s performance and his incredible spring, Quiller was looked at as the favorite entering nationals only cautiously. That might be a credit to his competitors, but it’s more a discredit to the reputation of Binghamton, a school that should consider itself lucky to have one game televised on ESPN2 per year.
Thanks to Quiller’s title, however, that reputation could start to change. After the championship, he was featured in the April 17 issue of Sports Illustrated as one of the “Faces in the Crowd.” Quiller, as well as BU track and field coach Mike Thompson, were honored with a day in their names by the City of Binghamton upon returning from Arkansas.
But the token honors aren’t what it’s about — it’s about showing just how serious Binghamton is. That even though it’s a bargain, BU is still a first-rate university that can produce not only some of the world’s best minds, but some of the world’s best athletes. That it’s just as worthy of being called BU as the other BU.
Now Quiller turns his attention to not just national prominence, but world prominence. He is eligible to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials, scheduled from June 27 to July 6 in Eugene, Ore.
Whether Quiller makes it to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing or not, he won’t be remembered as just the Athlete of the Year, as just the school’s first national champion. He’ll be remembered as one of the few who have made Binghamton University’s name ring out.