LAKEWOOD — When she stays in her box, Renata Bergstrom can jump through the sky.
The was struggling with performance anxiety throughout last season and into this one. But after talking with a sports psychologist, Bergstrom started employing a “box of control.”
“I just draw a little box (in black Sharpie) on the bottom of my left wrist, and it reminds me to focus on what I’m able to control and not what other people are doing or what other people are thinking,” Bergstrom said. “Last year and even at the start of this one, I was stressing out at every single meet, and I kind of stopped enjoying the sport because I was putting so much pressure on myself. I was focused only on the number.
“But the box really helped me change my mindset, so I started enjoying pole vault more and just having a lot more fun with the sport. By being free from worrying about results, I got better.”
With that new approach, Bergstrom won the Class 5A pole vault title on Thursday morning at the 2026 CHSAA state track and field championships at Jeffco Stadium. Her personal best was 13-feet, 5-inches coming into the meet — a mark that ranks — but she only needed to jump 12-feet, 7-inches to win on Thursday over runner-up Madison Shirley-Holzhauer of Castle View.
Bergstrom’s showing came with plenty of smiles and a bubbly, competitive attitude that her teammates have come to love this spring.
“If she was a color, she’d be like the color yellow,” Cherry Creek high jumper Luke Saville said. “She’s super fun to be around when she’s in her zone, just having a good time while also still going out and executing at a really high level.”
Thursday’s gold was the payoff following last season’s heartbreak at state, when, as a junior, Bergstrom finished third and narrowly missed out on the title.
She and three other girls, including champion Sienna Boughen of Castle View, all jumped 12-feet, 1-inch. But because Boughen had the least amount of misses, she won the title, while Bergstrom — who narrowly missed a jump for 12-feet, 7-inches that would’ve clinched her first — settled for bronze.
Bergstrom competed all throughout last year with an ailing knee, a season after she was sidelined at state due to a stress fracture in her foot. The foot injury occurred during gymnastics and was worsened by pushing through it during track and field practices and meets. So after the injury issues of the last two seasons, Bergstrom says her ascent to the title in 2026 was underscored by “listening to my body more.”
“I find it really difficult to rest and take breaks,” Bergstrom said. “But coming up just short of the state title last year helped me realize that rest is equally as important as training. So, that really helped. Plus, coming so close and the disappointment (of third) fueled my fire more. It made me realize that pole vaulting is something I could actually pursue in college.”
Bergstrom quit gymnastics ahead of her junior year to focus on track full-time, and her consistent improvement in her jumps over the past two seasons led to a college commitment to UC San Diego. But Cherry Creek pole vault coach David Ladd says the skills and athleticism from her old sport still translate.
“Oftentimes, what happens with the female vaulters, a lot of them ,” Ladd said. “Some of the best pole vaulters, they are gymnasts who get too tall (like Bergstrom at 5-foot-8). Once you’re in the air, you’re a gymnast. So it is an advantage.
“I often joke that my number one job coaching elite girls high school pole vaulters is to get them to quit gymnastics.”
While Bergstrom’s strength and agility were on full display on Thursday, she also demonstrated her pure finesse last year at state — off the track, and behind Jeffco Stadium’s east bleachers.
There, each year the U.S. Army sets up a recruiting station with a pull-up bar to entice the hordes of athletes who walk by to take on the Army recruiter in a pull-up contest. Bergstrom accepted the challenge and promptly beat the older male recruiter, rapping out 18 pull-ups while the recruiter could muster only 15.
Call it an omen for the accomplishment that Bergstrom pulled off on Thursday, sprinting down the runway and flying through the air to assert herself as the top pole vaulter in Colorado.
“My family and friends who were there watching the pull-up contest, they kept saying they weren’t surprised I was able to beat him,” Bergstrom said. “But that (feat is a good example) of what I’m capable of when I’m having fun and people are cheering me on. … That really helped me realize that challenging myself mentally and physically is just a lot of fun, especially when I’m not worried about the outcome and I’m staying in my box of control.”
Next up for Bergstrom is competing for the Slovakian national team this summer. Bergstrom, whose mother is from Slovakia, will pole vault at a meet in Germany in June, followed by the World Athletics U20 Championships at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., in August.
