College of Saint Benedict

The College of Saint Benedict track and field team has long been known for its successful pole vault squad. Caroline Boatz White was one of the pioneers of that successful tradition.

Boatz White joined the Saint Benedict track team as a first-year in 1998 – just two years after pole vault was added to the competition list for women’s track and field athletes. The pole vault was added to the list of events at the MIAC Championships for the first time in 1998, just in time for Boatz White to make her impressive debut. In 1998, Boatz White won the first-ever MIAC indoor pole vault title – the first of three conference titles for the St. Joseph native.

Boatz White added four runner-up finishes to her resume and swept the MIAC pole vault titles during her senior season in 2001. Pole vault wasn’t contested at the Division III national championships until Boatz White’s junior year in 2000. Still, she qualified for the national championships four times: indoor and outdoor, both her junior and senior years. 

In that senior season of 2001, Boatz White took third at the indoor national championships and followed that up with an eighth-place finish at outdoor nationals in the spring, ending her career with a pair of All-American honors. Boatz White was named the team’s Field MVP that year. She still holds the fourth-best pole vault mark in CSB outdoor history and is third on the school’s indoor list.

Boatz White, who earned two USTFCCCA All-Academic honors, earned her Master of Arts from St. Thomas in 2004. She is married to Stephen White and, along with teaching seventh-grade biology in Maple Grove, she is also the women’s pole vault coach at the University of Minnesota. She has coached seven Big 10 Champions, six Division I All-Americans and four Olympic trials qualifiers.

Boatz White and her husband live in Maple Grove with their two sons.