When I arrived to interview roommates and track teammates junior Shean Perry and senior Travis Oman they were intently watching the National Dog Show on Animal Planet. Sophomore Katie Au got in on the fun and soon all three were proudly proclaiming their Irish heritage while reminiscing about yachts and full rows of teeth.

TO: This is my favorite channel.
KA: Look at how many people turn out to watch dog shows.(judge picks a dog)
TO: Are you kidding? That’s the last dog I’d choose.

What events do you do?
TO: 400 and 800.
SP: Pole vault.
KA: I throw. Shot put, discus, javelin.

Is there competition between the runners, vaulters and throwers?
KA: Sometimes the shot-putters aim for the long jumpers.

Shean, I noticed there are some holes in your mouth.
SP: I have the worst luck. The day after Valentine’s Day we were just doing drills and the crossbar fell and smacked me right in the face.

Do you have the tooth somewhere?
SP: We found the one that was partially chipped.

Was there another one?
SP: The second is completely gone. It was cracked and impacted. I had to go to a dentist and have it pulled out. I busted my lip and had to get stitches.

Does the crossbar fall a lot?
SP: Yes. I just never saw it coming this time. (Travis laughs)

Does the public realize how dangerous your sport is?
SP: Pole vaulting is safer than all those X-game sports, but when you do injure yourself on the vault, it’s likely to be more serious.

Are you getting replacement teeth?
SP: Eventually. I’ll be like this for a while. I think I might get an implant in three weeks. But they won’t fix the chipped one until the summer.

How do you get the pole to away meets?
SP: It fits on the busses the College gets. In high school when we drove ourselves to meets I had to roll the window down and hold the pole outside along the length of the car. I would just rest it on the side mirror and make sure I kept it close to the car.

Have you ever considered doing a different sport?
SP: I’ve done everything except bullfighting and what’s that one...
KA: Curling?
SP: Yeah, curling. I love all the other sports, I’m just not coordinated enough. But pole vault was rated the third most difficult sport by Newsweek.
KA: What were the first two?
SP: First was hitting a Major League Baseball pitch. Second was driving in NASCAR, which I think is bullshit. I think vaulting should be rated higher.

Does the track team have any stories you can share with our readers?
TO: Shean and Adam Morse have stories.
KA: But you don’t want Adam to tell you a story. His stories take hours.
TO: The other problem with Adam’s stories is that none of them are true and none of them happened to him.

Shean, does the Irish flag belong to you?
SP: Yeah, I’m Irish.
TO: I’m part Irish.
KA: Me, too.
SP: Yeah, right, everyone’s part Irish. I’m 100%.Can you back up your heritage with your drinking ability?
SP: No comment.
TO: Unfortunately, that’s where most of our stories come from.
SP: One crazy night we broke into a yacht and ended up in a strip club in downtown Cleveland. Actually, that was my birthday. Coach doesn’t need to know about that.
TO: He does know about that.

What do you mean you broke into a yacht?
SP: It wasn’t a real yacht. Well, I guess it was a real yacht. There was a bar inside. It was a yacht converted into a restaurant. It would go onto the lake for cruises.

So you broke into a restaurant?
TO: A yacht restaurant.
SP: Yeah, it was on the water.
TO: It was a floating boat...

Did you get caught?
SP: We never get caught.

Is the indoor season over yet?
KA: Saturday is the conference final at Denison.

Is there any tradition that marks the end of the season?
TO: There will be a boxing match between Andrew Pike and me. All 5’ 9’’, 120 pounds of him.

How tall are you?
TO: Well, I’m 5’8’’...
SP: Yeah, but you outweigh him by about 50 pounds.

How did this start?
TO: There was a girl that was calling our room, and I was here but Pike picked up the phone and started saying some pretty lewd things to her, pretending to be me. She got pissed off and hung up, thinking I was saying all this...
SP: Perverse.
TO: Perverse stuff to her. So I told him I was going to beat him up and we decided to do it in a boxing ring with sock’em boppers on. Every time he did something stupid throughout the year I added to the amount of time he’d have to fight me.

How much time are you up to now?
SP: We lost track.
TO: Yeah, we’re into rounds now. It could be all night.

Have you found a venue?
KA: It might be my house.

Why did you guys decide to live together?
SP: I wanted to live in a super quad.
TO: We both lived in Zeke last year. I saw him in the bathroom a few times. Even though he lived on the second floor I would go up there sometimes just to shower, hoping I’d bump into him.