ROBERTS WESLEYAN Athletics
AKRON, Ohio – The indoor track and field season started off with a bang for Roberts Wesleyan pole vaulter Brynn King as the grad student broke the NCAA Division II pole vault record with a clearance of 14-feet 5-1/2-inches.
King broke the 14-year old NCAA record in her first-ever meet with the Redhawks while at the Akron Haynes Lancaster Open on Friday evening hosted by the University of Akron. The record was previously held by Katelin Rains of Minnesota State set on Feb. 21, 2009 with a vault of 14-feet 5-1/4-inches. King is now the top vaulter in NCAA DII and has the second-best mark in any division of the NCAA.
“I felt great going into the meet today,” King said. “I have been seeing a lot of technical improvement in practice and was ready to go out, have that meet atmosphere and excitement and see what kind of bars I could jump. It is really exciting to have the D2 record now, we had set that as a goal for me this year and it is really exciting to be able to cross that off the list.”
King, who is a transfer student from Duke University came to Roberts to train under Olympic gold medalist Jenn Suhr. The coach and athlete duo have their expectations set high for both the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.
“I have been jumping some big bars in practice and didn’t execute as well as I wanted to this meet,” King said. “So we have some high expectations for the rest of the season and am planning on much bigger bars coming real soon.”
Roberts track and field will travel to Grand Valley State on Dec. 8 for the GVSU Holiday Open.