From walk-on to First Team All-American - Jessica Harter finishes sixth in the country in the pole vault!! #BoilerUp https://t.co/MbbdPOlAm9
- PurdueTrack&Field (@PurdueTrackXC) June 10, 2016
Thursday Results
EUGENE, Ore. - Jessica Harter put the women's team on the board and wrapped up her Purdue career Thursday by earning the school's first outdoor first team All-America honors in the pole vault. Over the last four meets of her career, the senior broke the school record twice, earned a bronze medal at Big Tens and finished sixth in the country at the NCAA Championships hosted by the University of Oregon.
"In the back of my head I knew I came here to score points," Harter said. "The goal I really had was to clear a couple more bars, but at the end of the day you had to be competitive and that's exactly what I did. I'm really glad it worked out. I have no regrets on my vault career even though I feel like I left a few bars out there."
Harter opened the competition by clearing 4.05 meters (13-3.50) on her first attempt, a bar she had cleared only once outdoors prior to her historical senior season. Twenty-two jumpers remained, including just 11 who were still clean for the competition. The bar moved to 4.20m (13-9.25), which was the Purdue school record before Harter broke it for the first time at the Rankin/Poehlein Invitational on May 7.
No problem for Harter, who jumped at least that high each of her final four meets, including Thursday even with the rain.
Though she got a little deep in the box and her launch angle was a touch flat, Harter had plenty of height and cleared on her first attempt. Now, she was one of just five without a miss through the first two bars. The bar was raised to 4.30m (14-1.25), marking the third time in four meets she would be jumping at a new school record. Harter's third attempt at the height was her best, but she came up just short of clearing. She earned a sixth place finish on misses in her first NCAA Championships appearance, indoors or out, and gave the women's team three points.
"I was really surprised that so many girls had missed at 4.20 meters (13-9.25)," Harter said. "It started to make me nervous. I knew it wasn't a high bar and that I could make it, but it was really amazing to watch all those people miss. As far as I knew, I was feeling really good, but it was crazy watching them drop out. I thought that maybe if I made the bar clean I could be a first team All-American, but I wasn't sure. Fortunately it worked out. "
The women's 4x400-meter relay team of Symone Black, Carmiesha Cox, Aarin Jones and Brionna Thomas finished ninth in the country with a time of 3:32.80. The team, which started in lane eight, had a tough draw, going up against the three fastest overall qualifiers to the finals in Texas, Arkansas and Miami (Fla.). Jones ran the best split of her career in the third leg of the race. She clocked a time of 52.78 seconds before handing off to Thomas. The sophomore brought the baton across the finish line with an official split time of 52.45 seconds. Purdue's time of 3:32.80 is the team's second-fastest of the season, behind only its performance at the Big Ten Championships, and 0.27 of a second faster than last year's semifinal time that advanced to the finals.
Elsewhere on the track, the women's 4x100m relay team of Autumn Heath, Cox, Savannah Roberson and Savannah Carson finished 11th in the country. The team, which is in line to earn second team All-America honors, finished fourth in the third heat with a time of 43.99 seconds. In the history of the meet, this is the first time a finish under 44 seconds has not advanced to finals. Carson also ran the 100m dash and finished 19th in the country with a time of 11.59 seconds.
Cox ran in the 200m dash semifinals and finished 17th in the country. She ran a time of 23.58 seconds. Black competed in the 400m hurdles before she ran the lead leg of the 4x400m relay. She finished 21st in the country with a time of 59.23 seconds.
The women are currently tied for 26th with three points.
The men continue action Friday with the 4x400m relay finals. The team of Nicholas Parks, Kyle Webb, Kendal Frederick and Shawndail McLaren qualified Wednesday and will compete at 10:51 p.m. ET. The men are currently fourth with 11 points.
The full remaining schedule for Purdue is below.
Friday
10:51 - Parks, Ikpefan/Webb, Frederick, McLaren - 4x400m relay finals
Saturday
6 p.m. - Janae' Moffitt - High Jump - ninth jumper
6:05 - Chelsie Meeks, Micaela Hazlewood - Discus Throw - Flight 1, sixth thrower; Flight 2, first thrower
All times Eastern
*must advance through semifinals