VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA – Abeni Kratzmeyer is a First Team All-American yet again, this time in the indoor pole vault as launched herself into seventh place at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday afternoon.
Kratzmeyer covered a height of 3.95 meters, a mark that breaks her own school record in the event by .03 meters. That vault came in her second one of the day, as the heights moved by .15 meters with each successful round.
She got her day started at the 3.80 mark, and took just one vault to clear that mark, immediately moving her to the next round. That next round's height was set to 3.95 meters, and again Kratzmeyer took just one vault to clear that, ensuring at minimum a top 10 finish.
At the 4.05 mark, she took all three attempts, but was unable to clear the bar, and due to clearing her previous height in just one attempt, was able to settle into a seventh place finish.
Kratzmeyer becomes a First Team All-American for the second time in her career, as she previously was an All-American after the 2022 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships last spring.
QUOTABLE:
David Kaiser on Kratzmeyer as an athlete: "Abby is so easy to coach. I get pretty nervous before our team competes, but Abby has a calm and confidence that helps to make sure I am giving her consistent information rather than emotional information. The work is really done once you get qualified to the meet. When you get there, you just compete. In both the outdoor meet last year and now this meet, she jumped clean and that puts pressure on the rest of the field. As we continue to work on some things like being aggressive and higher bars, etc., Abby has the ability to challenge for a national title and I feel confident she will challenge herself to get as close to that potential as she can."
Abeni Kratzmeyer on her performance: "I think it just shows how hard I've worked up to this point! And as proud as I am of my accomplishments so far, I'm so excited to see what else I can achieve during outdoor and next year. I definitely see myself jumping more bars over 4 meters this season!"
