Avery Uses School Record Performance to Advance to NCAA Championship

Thursday, May 26

Jacksonville, Fla.

ALL DAY

Lehigh University

NCAA Championship First Round

Avery Uses School Record Performance to Advance to NCAA Championship

5/27/2016 9:18:00 PM | Women's Track and Field

Complete Results (TFRRS)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Junior Courtney Avery has clinched a spot in the final round of the NCAA Track and Field Championships. Avery solidified her spot in the finals on Friday evening at the East Region's First Round of the NCAA Championships by breaking her own school record in the high jump. She cleared the bar with a leap of 1.80 meters, surpassing her previous school benchmark by one centimeter. Overall, Avery was one of 48 qualifiers for the First Round prelims, where the top 12 advance to the final round of the NCAA Championships. She was one of 11 competitors in the preliminary round to leap 1.80 meters, but earned a share of the top two spots by virtue of being one of only two jumpers (along with Akron's Claudia Garcia Jou) to successfully clear the bar on all four attempts.

Avery and the other East Region finalists will now join the top 12 high jumpers from the West Region from June 8-11 in Eugene, Oregon to compete for an NCAA national championship. It is her first time qualifying for the finals after falling just short a season ago, when she finished 13th in the East Regional prelims. 15471

Avery not only battled 47 other competitors on Friday, but also Mother Nature. After nailing her first jump, heavy rain moved in and forced a delay.

"I kind of used it to my advantage," Avery said of the delay. "I got used to competing in bad weather a lot this spring. I just tried to stay positive and focus on what I needed to do. I didn't let it bother me the way it may have affected some other girls."

"She jumped great and was clean all the way through," head coach Matt Utesch said. "I can't tell you how happy I am. After the rain delay she started to warm up again and when they resumed, she just kept making bars. It's unbelievably awesome."

This is just the latest in a long line of accomplishments for Avery this season and throughout her career. She captured her second straight outdoor Patriot League Championship (fifth overall) in the high jump on May 7 and also won the High Jump Championship of America at the Penn Relays last month. She took third place at the ECAC Championships and was victorious in four other high jumps at various meets through the spring.

This marks just the second time in program history that a Lehigh female has hit the 1.80 meter threshold in the high jump, with the other being Avery's indoor school record of 1.81m at this year's Patriot League Indoor Championships.

"I was just really excited to be back here," Avery said. "I wanted to redeem myself after the way last year ended."

Lehigh has one more athlete competing at the NCAA First Round. Lucas Warning will try to punch his ticket to Oregon on Saturday night in the men's shot put. Live results will be available. Check back to Lehighsports.com following the event for a full recap.