Kristen Meister is set to compete in her final collegiate competition today in Des Moines, Iowa.
The senior high jumper entered the NCAA Championships after tying for first at the NCAA West Preliminary meet. Meister broke the school record in the women’s high jump earlier this season with a personal record of 6-1.25 at the Payton Jordan Invitational on March 30 — in the process, she broke Beth Vidakovits’ 22-year-old program mark of 6-0.75.
“(Meister) is on fire with her jumping right now,” coach Tony Sandoval said. “She is primed for the championship portion of our season. Not only did she have a record clearance (that night), but she had some close misses at 6-2.”
Meister has been to the NCAA Outdoor Championships before, but not since her freshman season when she competed for Davidson. She finished in a tie for 11th and transferred to Cal the following year. As a sophomore in her first season with the Bears, Meister qualified for the NCAA indoor meet and also finished 11th there.
After redshirting her junior outdoor season, she gets her chance to finish off her college career with a title.
The qualifying mark for Meister’s preliminary meet was only 5-8.75, so most jumpers stopped after clearing that height. The resulting phenomenon is that all 23 competitors in the field qualified with a very small range of marks.
One name to watch for is LSU’s Brittani Carter, who will be competing in the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the third year running. Her personal best is 6-0.5.
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