GAINESVILLE, Fla. – For the first time in school history, the Corban University Men's and Women's Track & Field programs have a female All-American from the NAIA National Indoor Track & Field Championships, as redshirt junior Kayla Morgan climbed the women's high jump leaderboard throughout the afternoon and secured a fourth-place podium finish to become the first women's All-American for an indoor track and field event.
"First of all, we were grateful to God that Kayla was able to jump at all given the injury she sustained a week from today," Corban head coach Todd Bos stated earlier this afternoon. "To top that, Kayla jumped very well and ended up being Corban's first female indoor All-American, finishing 4th with a lifetime best indoor jump of 5' 7 1/4". All praise to God! Coach Kelly has done a great job coaching Kayla. On to outdoor season!"
After an injury sustained exactly a week ago in her final warmup before making the trip to the national meet, Coach Bos and jumps coach Kelly Holding had serious doubts that Morgan would even be able to compete this afternoon. However, after making the cross-country trip and utilizing her practice days to her advantage, Morgan suited up and began at an opening height of 1.60m, which she cleared with ease on her first attempt.
She also cleared 1.65m on her opening attempt before a brief stumble on her first jump of 1.68m gave her the first miss on the day. Morgan quickly recovered and cleared the height on her next attempt, with the bar now being raised to 1.71m, which would represent a new career-best indoor jump for the Sisters, Oregon native.
Coach Bos was confident Morgan was going to clear a mark above 1.70m last weekend before she sustained her injury, and she did just that this afternoon in Gainesville when she cleared 1.71m on her very first attempt and solidified her spot in the top eight jumpers and in turn, an All-American finish at the worst. At 1.74, Morgan and four other student-athletes bowed out in their three attempts, but due to only missing one of her previous five attempts at various heights, Morgan was awarded the top tiebreaker position and a fourth-place spot aboard the national podium.
Morgan wasn't the only Warrior in action today for Corban track & field, as sophomore Braydon Lee ran in his preliminary heat for the men's 1,000m race, which he entered ranked as an underdog with the 30th best qualifying time among the 31-athlete event. Despite climbing to 15th overall after passing numerous participants who were all seeded higher than Lee entering today's prelims, the pace of Lee's heat was far faster than the previous two, with each of the two "next up" qualifying times to earn a spot in Saturday's final race coming from his heat, where he fifth overall and just four seconds off the required qualifying time.
"Braydon had a rough day today, but that happens from time to time in distance running and in competition," Warriors' distance coach Stuart Eagon shared today regarding Corban's second and final student-athlete participating in the NAIA indoor championships. "We're proud of him all the same and know we will all learn as coaches as to what we can do to put him in a spot to be competitive at nationals once again in the 1,500m for outdoor season."
The Warrior contingency in northern Florida will make the journey back to the West Coast while the outdoor season officially begins tomorrow morning at the Willamette Opener, hosted by NCAA DIII Willamette University at McCulloch Stadium.
Follow Corban Athletics:
Facebook l Twitter l Instagram l YouTube l Email
