By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Jonathan Horn’s big moment in the Atlantic Coast Conference track and field championships came in nerve-wracking fashion as he achieved a personal-best mark in the pole vault.
The Duke junior grazed the bar with his chest, so upon landing there were a few seconds of anxiety.
“I honestly didn’t think it stayed on,” he said. “It was wiggling a ton.”
The bar didn’t fall and so Horn, a Burlington Christian Academy alum from Mebane, posted a sixth-place finish.
Horn scored in a meet when every point mattered to the Blue Devils, who ended up with their first ACC men’s track and field championship in program history. Duke’s 86 points topped North Carolina’s 82 among 17 competing teams in mid-May at Wake Forest’s Kentner Stadium in Winston-Salem.
For Horn, it was a highlight of what he considered a breakthrough year.
“Being able to be a part of that, it was an amazing thing in my life,” he said. “This year was a really good year for me. Really, really just found my groove.”
The accomplishment gave Horn status as an All-ACC second team member. There was a bunch of confidence to go with that.
The ACC height marked a personal-best 5.21 meters – or about 17 feet, 1 inch – for Horn. The day didn’t begin so encouraging as he prepared for his only event.
“I woke up and I felt super sick and felt awful,” he said. “I’m worried and now is not the time to be sick. I got one shot at this and I’m not going to waste it.”
He described going through poor warm-ups before there was a sudden change.
“It’s a completely different game when the bar goes up,” he said. “I could hear my teammates cheering in the background. I was thinking, ‘I got to bring these points home.’ ”
Duke graduate student Simen Guttormsen became the ACC pole vault champion, so the Blue Devils collected big points in the event.
Horn, 21, completed his third season in Duke’s program after competing for BCA under now-former coach Forrest Horn, his father (his mother is Vanessa).
Upon arriving at Duke, it took time to make an impact.
“The transition from high school to college can be very difficult,” Horn said. “It took me a while to find my groove and then it was very difficult to stay healthy for an extended time. It took me a while to catch onto it.”
The injury issues were bothersome. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound athlete missed time with a partial labrum tear as a sophomore and re-tore it last fall.
So Horn was dealing with the shoulder ailment at the beginning of the season. He also displayed determination.
“I’m not going to stop until they’re taking me off on a stretcher,” he said. “. . . I get really good care at Duke.”
The 2024-25 school year marked the first time he completed an entire stretch of indoor and outdoor track and field.
“I could see my progress coming on, which is pretty good,” he said. “It seems like forever. I think it has been long overdue.”
Horn, an economics major, received a spot on the All-ACC academic team. He’s spending the summer on an internship in Miami, where he’s working at Morgan Stanley. It’s the first time he has been away from North Carolina for an extended period.
“It was a little bit of a culture shock,” he said. “It’s a lot different than Burlington, I’ll tell you that.”
It’s all part of what has been a special stretch for Horn, who has aspirations for more to come in track and field.
“I’m extremely grateful for this past year,” he said. “Showing up when it counted. We’ll see where I can end up next year.”
