Graduate student
Katherine Pitman of the No. 6 Ithaca College women's track & field team secured her third career national title in the pole vault on Friday afternoon at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships inside the Birmingham CrossPlex with a DIII meet and national record vault of 4.28 meters (14 feet 0.5 inches).
Pitman entered the event at 4.00 meters (13' 1.50") with one competitor remaining in the field of 17 student-athletes. She surpassed 4.00 meters with ease on her first attempt of the day and won the national title after Harmony Kolling of Otterbein was unable to clear that height.
The Swampscott, Mass. native continued her national championship run at 4.12 meters (13' 6.25"), as she surpassed the mark on her second attempt. She then elected to take a run at 4.20 meters (13' 9.25") to set her own NCAA Division III meet record, which Pitman set last year at 4.18, and cleared the bar on her second run.
Pitman then requested that the bar be elevated to 4.28 meters in an attempt to break her own national record of 4.27 meters, which she set last week inside Ithaca's Athletics and Events Center. It would not take Pitman long to clear the bar, as she went up-and-over on her first try.
Her historic national title run ended at 4.36 meters (14' 3.5"), which would have set the all-time NCAA Division III record in the pole vault (indoor or outdoor). Pitman currently owns that record with a mark of 4.30 meters, which she established last spring.
Pitman becomes the fifth student-athlete at Ithaca College, and third for the women's track & field program, to win three national championships during their time on South Hill. She also secures the 40th all-time individual national championship at IC.
