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HISTORY MADE: BRYNN KING WINS NCAA DIVISION II POLE VAULT TITLE
Brynn King has raised the bar again.
King broke her own NCAA Division II record for the eighth time this season, clearing 4.65 meters (15-feet, 3-inches) on Friday to win the NCAA DII women's pole vault championship at the Robert W. Plaster Center on the campus of Pittsburg State University.
"I'm excited," King said. "I wanted to do that for myself and for the school, so I was really excited with the result today."
King, a native of The Woodlands, Texas, is Roberts Wesleyan's first national champion since the Redhawks moved to Division II for the 2014-15 academic year. Chelsea Hayward finished second in the 200 meters at the NCAA DII Championships for both indoor and outdoor track and field in 2018.
King, a fifth-year student, entered the competition at 4.32 meters (14-feet, 2-inches) and made her first attempt to immediately move in front of runner-up Hannah Miller of Colorado School of Mines.
"I jump that bar almost every day," King said. "That's what I start with in practice, so I just tried to put myself back in the VAC (Voller Athletic Center) and be like, 'All right, you know how to make this bar, it's a fast runway, just do exactly what you do in practice and you will be good.' That was kind of my strategy for the first bar."
Miller had taken the lead by clearing 4.22m (13-10), but King clinched the crown when Miller missed three times at 4.32.
"She had a really, really good meet," Roberts pole vault coordinator and 2012 Olympic medalist Jenn Suhr said of King. "It is a different type of pressure when you are expected to win. She came out and made her first attempt and just showed that she is ready for that level."
Although she was already a champion, King was far from finished.
"I was able to relax, but I also had big goals for this meet because I knew it was a fast runway, I jumped well in warm-ups and while it took having to win off, I had a lot more bars in me and I knew it, so I wanted to perform to that and not just walk away with a 4.32 or a 4.45."
King raised the bar to 4.45 meters (14-7 ¼) before switching to a new pole to go after a personal record at 4.65 meters, which she made on her first attempt.
Suhr, who said earlier this week that King was "just getting started," was happy to see her carry over many of the things she has been doing in practice in a championship setting. "It was really just calming down and focusing on technique, because she had already done what she needed to do," Suhr said.
King then moved the bar to 4.73 meters (15-6 ½), the Olympic qualifying standard, before missing three times. She finished the season with the best jump in all levels of the NCAA this season, surpassing the 4.64 meters of NCAA Division I champion Hana Moll of the University of Washington.
"That's what we have been working for all year," King said. "I also think that it's exciting for DII as a whole because people don't necessarily look there all of the time, they just simply look at the DI rankings, so I feel like it represents the divisions as a whole and it's like , 'Yeah, we can jump with everyone else."
King, who transferred to Roberts from Duke University last spring, broke a 14-year-old NCAA Division II record by clearing 4.41 meters (14-5 ½) at the University of Akron on Dec. 1 during her first meet for Roberts.
She entered Friday's competition as the current record holder at 4.61 meters (15-1 ½).
King was named the 2024 East Coast Conference Women's Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year on March 1 and earned ECC Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Week five times during the season. King also won the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Division II Women's Athlete of the Week five times during the regular season. She finished seventh at USA Track & Field Indoor Nationals last month as the only collegian in the field.
King, who holds a degree in Evolutionary Anthropology from Duke, is pursuing a second Bachelor's degree from Roberts. She never cleared 14 feet before arriving and says several things, including coaching, training, a change in diet and proper rest and recovery, have been crucial in improving by more than 15 inches in less than a year.
After Friday's historic effort she celebrated by going out to dinner with her parents and eating potato skins and chicken wings.
"And, maybe some dessert, too," she said. "If I'm feeling crazy."