The age-old saying goes, “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

Jaime Roberts, the Northern Michigan University women’s pole vault record-holder, couldn’t beat Grand Valley State. A few years later, she became a Laker.

“When I was at Northern competing against Grand Valley, who constantly beat me, I thought maybe I should transfer to this school,” said Roberts with a chuckle.

One of the major reasons GVSU was able to beat Roberts while she was at NMU was because it had future national champion Kristen Hixson. Both Hixson and Roberts entered college in the same year and, despite being competitors, the two formed a connection.

“It was friendly competition,” Hixson said. “We were both really young. We were freshmen. Being that good at such an early age, we sort of bonded about that a little bit, but it was always a neck-and-neck competition. We wanted to beat each other.”

They didn’t realize they would eventually be teammates.

“When she came to Grand Valley it was a different story,” Hixson said. “We wanted each other to jump really high.”

A torn labrum and a coaching change at NMU presented Roberts, now a senior, with the opportunity to transfer. The shoulder surgery allowed her to take time off from pole vaulting to rehab and get acclimated to life at GVSU.

“It was about three months where I couldn’t move it at all,” she said. “After six months I started being able to do light lifting. From there it was slowly building up the lifts and really stabilizing the shoulder back up. It was a long journey. I had about a year off.”

The difficulty of rehab wasn’t the only challenge Roberts had to face after she transferred to GVSU.

“I mentally started doubting myself as a vaulter and transferring schools was hard,” she said. “I lost sight of why I love pole vault.

“(Coach) Lou (Andreadis) kicked me out of practice for 10 days. He said, ‘You need to figure out if this is what you want to do and if this is the sport you want to compete in.’ But it was nice. He shows a lot of, I don’t want to call it tough love, but it’s tough. You have to commit, and I’m thankful for that because it has definitely helped me for this year.”

Hixson was present when Roberts was going through this struggle.

“Grand Valley’s program, especially the pole vault program, is very different than a lot of other schools, especially Division II schools,” Hixson said. “It’s hard work and we have this level of work ethic that I think is much higher. It was a little bit of a harder transition for her coming from a more relaxed and small team to a really high-intensity, fast-paced and high-volume team.

“She ended up adjusting just fine. She did get kicked out of a few practices, but it worked out for the better.”

What got Roberts through the tough time was her teammates, something she didn’t have at NMU.

“I was the only vaulter for the three years I was there (at NMU),” she said. “It was about pepping myself up and getting confidence in myself from myself versus other teammates helping me.

“I definitely would not have survived Grand Valley and Lou’s conditioning without my teammates.”

Andreadis, GVSU’s pole vault coach, has brought the pole vault program to new heights, producing standouts like Hixson and now Roberts.

At one of Roberts’ first GVSU practices, Andreadis had the pole vaulters running 10 100-meter dashes with 20-second breaks in between. Roberts said she struggled to finish the workout.

During her struggles she remembers him saying, “Welcome to Grand Valley. We eat nails for breakfast.”

Andreadis demands the best from his athletes.

“Lou focuses a lot on mental toughness,” Roberts said. “We don’t touch a pole until November. It’s a lot of running and a lot of hills. He always says it will correlate to the runway that we’re mentally tough. If we survived his running, we can handle this pole vault. We buy into it, so it helps.”

Another advantage Andreadis provides for his vaulters is an extensive pole selection.

“Our head coach, Jerry Baltes, made a commitment to the pole vault when I got here, to hire a vault coach and spend money getting a pole selection which would help us be successful,” Andreadis said. “His commitment to the pole vault is why we are successful.”

That commitment has created an unparalleled arsenal of poles, something that blew Roberts away when she came to GVSU.

“It’s any pole you could ever dream of,” she said. “Lou has it staggered so you’re never worried about the pole you’re going on because you know it’s something you can handle. I swear he just somehow will show up one practice with a new pole.”

Roberts set her personal best height of 4.10 meters (13’ 5¼”) on Feb. 5 at the Hillsdale Wide Track Meet. That mark is tied for the best in NCAA Division II in 2016. She credits her improvement to the specificity of Andreadis’ workouts.

“The vault-specific workouts are what have helped me grow,” she said. “Little things that I never would have even known to fix he sees.”

Hixson has also fulfilled a kind of coaching role for Roberts and the other GVSU vaulters. Her role is one of encouragement.

Hixson didn’t have any redshirt years like Roberts has had, so she finished competing for GVSU in 2014. She is still a major part of the team, however, as she trains for the Olympic trials in July 2016.

“She is just like another teammate, but she’s always there to offer advice, tips or compliments,” Roberts said.

Hixson has watched Roberts grow into what she calls “the glue of the team.”

“All of the girls and the boys look up to her now,” Hixson said. “She’s their go-to. It’s really neat to see where she came in, and might have had that struggle in the beginning, but now she is the role model and the leader of the team.”

It’s the years of experience that have transformed Roberts into a true leader for the GVSU pole vaulters.

“She has the experience and the wisdom for every situation that she’s in,” Hixson said. “That’s what makes her such a unique pole vaulter.”