TERRE HAUTE — Before Ellie McCardwell ever competed for Pendleton Heights, track coach Ron Hinton saw something in her as a freshman and knew she was going to be special.
“On the balcony of the gym, this is early in the season and meets were a long way off,” Hinton said. “She was a freshman. I didn’t know who she was, and she came out late. I saw her just sprinting on the balcony on the gym, and I immediately went and got my assistant coach — he was in charge of the sprinters — and I said, ‘You’ve got to see this.’
“We stood there and watched her for a long time. We just knew we had something special.”
Hinton’s hunch proved to be quite prophetic.
Already a school legend at PH courtesy of being a two-time state champion, McCardwell has now been properly immortalized on a state level.
In ceremonies held Saturday, McCardwell was inducted into the Indiana Track and Field & Cross Country Hall of Fame.
“It’s an honor. I mean there are great competitors, NCAA champions, and being in that group and list of people is a big honor,” she said.
She is the first Pendleton Heights athlete to be so honored and the third from Pendleton, joining Fred Wilt (1974) and Mike Hanna (1981). Hanna was also a state champion in the pole vault for Pendleton High School in 1962 and was on hand for the ceremony Saturday.
A member of the South Madison Community School Corporation board, he marveled at what a great representative for the town McCardwell has always been.
“It’s so well deserved, long overdue,” Hanna said. “I can’t think of a better person for this.”
McCardwell was enshrined along with Fasil Bizuneh (Ben Davis), Scott Fangman (Southport), Harry Fredia (Chalmers), Ronald Gibson (Gary Tolleston), Larry Henning (Caroll), Candyce McGrone (Warren Central), Austin Mudd (Center Grove), Angie Ryker (New Washington), Brionna Thomas (Fort Wayne Wayne), Futsum Zienasellassie (North Central), Kerry Zimmerman (Corydon Central) and Gary Roosevelt’s 4X440 relay team from 1962.
McCardwell was a three-time track and field All-State competitor from 2008-2010. She set the Indiana state finals pole vault record of 13-foot-6 1/4 in 2009, a record which stood for 14 years until broken in 2023. She also holds the Pendleton Heights school record with a vault of 13-7.
Her jumping coach at the time, Bob Potter, said it may have been McCardwell’s second state title in 2010 that was the more impressive feat than her record-setting 2009 vault. After suffering a shoulder injury during the indoor season, McCardwell was unable to compete for much of the season, casting doubt on her postseason.
But she persevered, winning the state title at 13-3 that year.
“For her to fight back and, going into sectional she had not jumped (much), and we didn’t know how she was going to respond,” Potter said. “That’s the mark of a true athlete and competitor.”
At the national level, McCardwell placed second at the 2009 Nike Outdoor Nationals. She was recognized as a SAMMY Scholar Athlete and was twice named the Gatorade Indiana Track and Field Athlete of the Year. McCardwell captained the Arabians’ track team to the 2009 Hoosier Heritage Conference title and was part of the three-time sectional championship team.
McCardwell’s track career continued at Stanford where she competed at the NCAA level for four years. During her collegiate career, McCardwell earned four consecutive top-five finishes at the Pac-12 Championships, was a Pac-12 All-Academic selection honorable mention and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation All-Academic selection and was recognized as an NCAA All-American. She jumped her career-best vault of 13-7 3/4 (4.16 meters) at California-Berkeley, which ranks as the fifth best all-time at Stanford.
There were times when things weren’t always going McCardwell’s way, and many of those were at Stanford. She spoke poignantly of those moments during her speech, noting during those negative times away from the bright lights and hidden from the cheering crowds, it was her family that was always there for her no matter what.
It was a moment in the speech that had her mother, Kimmi, wiping away tears.
“My parents, especially, they supported myself and my siblings in everything, in sports, in academics,” McCardwell said. “The parent relationship really impacts where we go in life, and I owe a lot to them.”
Her parents, Terry and Kimmi, as well as her brother, Peyton, and sister, Emma, were in attendance, among a large contingent of supporters on hand.
After graduation from Stanford, the 2010 Red Haven Award winner started a degree in international relations in 2014. Ellie retired from competitive athletics and started working in the technology startup scene in Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas.
She completed her MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2023 and currently lives in Austin with her husband, Matt.
“I work in tech as a marketer,” she said. “We’re just living a normal life.”
