Vlad Popusoi, a UMass-Lowell sophomore, soared to a pair of personal-best heights on Sunday, breaking his own school record and registering the top height in the America East Conference this season during USATF New England Indoor Championships at the Albert H. Gordon Track at Harvard University in Cambridge. Courtesy of UMASS-Lowell Athletics

Vlad Popusoi was smashing pole vault records at Greenfield High School three years ago and is still smashing them today.

Popusoi, a UMass-Lowell sophomore, soared to a pair of personal best heights on Sunday, breaking his own school record and registering the top height in the America East Conference this season during USATF New England Indoor Championships at the Albert H. Gordon Track at Harvard University in Cambridge.

Popusoi was already in the record book at the school, which joined the Division I fray three years ago. The Moldova native, who moved to Greenfield as a youth and graduated from GHS, owns both the indoor pole vault record and the outdoor pole vault record at UMass-Lowell. He set the outdoor record last spring at the New England Championships when he cleared 15 feet, 11 inches. He then broke that record just over three weeks ago when he cleared 16-2¼ during a meet.

On Sunday, Popusoi had already won the event when he decided to move the bar up to 16-4, or five meters, since the NCAA uses the metric system to record heights. Popusoi has used the “Drive for 5” mantra this season as he tried to work toward clearing that height, and he did so on his third and final attempt.

“It felt so good,” he said. “It took me three attempts, but I hit it.”

Before the River Hawks’ record keepers could even enter that height into the record books, Popusoi was already breaking. After clearing 16-4, Popusoi decided to move the bar up another tenth of a meter, which meant it was raised to 16 feet, 8¾ inches, nearly five inches higher. Popusoi never missed that height, clearing it on his first attempt, to set another record and also give him the best jump of the season in the America East — which was previously 16-7.

“After I got 5 meters, I just said, ‘Ok, I did this, I got this milestone, now let’s just go have some fun,’” Popusoi said.

Popusoi now takes his talent to the America East Conference Championships this weekend at Boston University, where he will look for his first-ever conference title.

It’s a far cry from his years vaulting at Greenfield, where he clobbered the previous school record and by the time he was done. Popusoi had recorded the second-best height ever among high school pole vaulters in the state and owned the All-State meet record after he cleared 15-6 during his senior season.

He had to redshirt his freshman year at UMass-Lowell due to an issue with high school credits, but worked hard to keep in shape and by the end of last season, had set both the indoor (15-11) and outdoor (16-1) records at the school.

Things intensified when UMass-Lowell hired strength and conditioning coach Richard Meldrum two years ago. Popusoi, who lifted during high school, said he learned an entirely new approach to working out and it has paid major dividends. Popusoi said that rather than work on the so-called “glamour muscles,” like he was doing in high school, he concentrates on many other muscles.

“His workouts have impacted me physically,” Popusoi said. “He has helped make me stronger without putting on weight. You’ve got to do the right things in the weight room and he has me doing those.”

Popusoi lifts three days a week and said that he has put on a lot of muscle in college, but is just two pounds heavier (167 pounds) than he was his senior year of high school.

Besides lifting, he also practices pole vaulting twice a week. He also does gymnastics three times a week and runs every day, with a varying degree of difficulty. The routine is put together by assistant coach Patrick Swett, who works with the jumpers.

“He’s an Olympic trainer himself and he still competes,” Popusoi said. “He is really motivated and has helped me a lot.”

Popusoi has one other person in his corner to motivate him — his father, Vladimir Popusoi Sr. — who has not missed a meet this winter. He drove multiple hours to get to each one — something Vladimir Jr. is grateful for.

“It pumps me up so much when he’s there,” Popusoi said. “To know that he drove two or three hours to be there, it makes me want to give it my all.”

All of the hard work has Popusoi clearing heights far above what already seemed impressive in high school. To put things in perspective, Popusoi started the pole vault at a height of 15-11 on Sunday, or five higher than his top high school height.

“I told myself at the beginning of college that if I keep putting in the work, eventually it’s going to click,” he said. “That happened earlier in the year when I hit 16-3. But I’m not done. With the right mindset, I think I can hit 17 feet this year.”

Popusoi is currently the 66th-ranked pole vaulter in Division I and would have a chance to qualify for Nationals this year, but unfortunately for him, UMass-Lowell is in its final probationary year of four which it needed to get through as it made the move up to Division I.

So Popusoi already has something to strive for next season. And with the heights he has already soared to, Nationals may be very much in his range.