USATF National Indoor Championships

Saturday and Sunday, February 26th and 27th in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 7 of our athletes placed at the 2011 USA Indoor National Track and Field Championships. 

Overall, the weekend was quite successful!

Crystal Manning earned fourth place in the women's triple jump with a distance of 13.30m, or 43'7.25".  Only 36 centimeters separated Crystal from the winner.  This indoor national championship performance lifted her 10 spots from her 2010 USA Outdoor National Championships placing.

A pair of silver medals went to Jamie Nieto and Becky Christensen in the men's and women's high jumps, respectively.  Jamie jumped 2.25m, or 7'4.25", while Becky cleared 1.83m, or 6'0".  Becky's height and placing increased from last year's outdoor meet, as did Jamie's!

JaRod Tobler leapt 7.64m, or 25'0.75", to get second place in the men's long jump.  He moved up 6 places from the outdoor championship meet in 2010.

In the women's pole vault, Becky Holliday earned second place and Melinda Owen got third, both with clearances of 4.55m, or 14'11".  Becky's silver is her second consecutive, as she cleared a personal best 4.60m (15'1") at the 2010 outdoor meet to become the runner-up.  Melinda moves up 2 spots from outdoors last year and matches her best indoor finish (also third in 2009) with this personal record height.

The final Chula Vista Track and Field performance of the meet came from Yvette Lewis, whose 8.03-second 60 meter hurdle race was good for third place.  Yvette's strong return to competition this season is welcome, as much of last year was spent nursing a stubborn ankle injury.

Photos courtesy of exposay.com, PhotoRun, Michael Scott, thecrimson.com, and zimbio.com.  Video links thanks to runnerspace.com, and information on results links provided by USATF.org.