After winning a national title in the outdoor championships last spring, junior Stephanie Barnes was able to take home the first place finish in the indoor pole vault competition on Saturday in the NCAA Div. III National Indoor Track and Field Championships. The tournament was held this past Friday and Saturday at St. Olaf
College (Minn.).

It was Barnes’ second year in a row that she appeared in the competition. Last year she took third place with a 3.65 meter display in the indoor championships. She was able to follow that up with a first place finish at the outdoor championships last spring, which she won in a jump-off with two other competitors.

Barnes came into Saturday’s competition with the highest leap on the season in Div. III at 3.89 meters. Her leap Saturday was at 3.85 meters which put her at the top of the competition out of 15. The next closest jump was 3.75 meters, which was accomplished by four others.

Barnes became the fifth person to claim an indoor national championship in Eau Claire history. She is only the second Blugold ever to take first both in an indoor championship and outdoor championship.

Barnes could not be reached for comment.

Senior Erin Kokta competed in two events with the first being the long jump competition. Kokta took fifth on Friday with a leap of 5.57 meters.

On Saturday she competed in the triple jump and finished eighth with an 11.26 meters mark.

Freshman Liz Kooistra came into the 400-meter dash competition with the seventh highest time total in Div. III at 57.28.

However, on Friday she competed in the prelims of the event and missed the finals by one spot as she finished with a time of 58.13, which put her in ninth place.

Junior Liz Faller also missed the finals of her event. Faller competed in the 55-meter hurdles and her preliminary time was 8.41, which was good enough for 11th place.