Washington State freshman Ebba Jungmark (pronounced eh-bah yoon-mark) won the women’s high jump March 14 at the NCAA Div. I Indoor Track & Field Championships being held at the Randal Tyson Track Center at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville.
Jungmark, from Onsala, Sweden, cleared the bar at 6-feet, 2 1/4 inches (1.89m), which improved her NCAA qualifying and personal-best mark of 6-2 (1.88m), set last month in Pullman. This is the second-best women’s high jump in WSU history.
“My jumping felt so good and I felt so light,” Jungmark said. “I felt like this was my competition. I wanted to jump so much. I had fun. It felt good today.”
Cougar head coach Rick Sloan added, “Ebba did a terrific job of competing. She was less nervous in this national championship than she was at our home meet. She was calm and relaxed and had fun. She did a marvelous job.”
In the women’s high jump series, Jungmark cleared the first three bar heights on the first attempt and faced the bar set at 6-2 1/4 (1.89m) tied with two other jumpers. All three missed on their first attempt at this height but Jungmark cleared on the second attempt. She went on to attempt to high jump with the bar set at 6-3 1/2 (1.92m) and was very close to clearing on her first attempt, but did not clear at this height.
She is the second NCAA women’s track indoor champion for Washington State, following in fellow high jumper Mary Moore’s footsteps. Moore, who owns the school high jump record of 6-3, won NCAA titles in 1984 and 1985.
Jungmark arrived in Pullman and began classes at WSU in January of this year. She was a member of the Swedish national team and competed at the 2007 World Championships at Osaka, Japan, finished 11th in high jump after clearing 6-2. Her lifetime-best outdoor mark is 6-3 1/2 (1.93m) achieved June 10, 2007, at Kil, Sweden.
Jungmark’s victory gives the WSU women a total of 10 team points.
Another WSU freshman, Jeshua Anderson, ran a time of 47.69 seconds in the men’s 400m dash preliminary heats which was 14th overall and did not qualify for the Saturday final. Anderson, from Woodland Hills, Calif., had run a WSU freshman school record time in the 400m of 46.67 earlier this season and had also set the school frosh record for the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.01 seconds. Anderson owns the national boys prep 300m hurdles record with a time of 35.28 seconds set in 2007. He was a wide receiver on the Cougars football team last fall playing in 12 games with 12 receptions and two touchdowns.
“Jeshua said his left foot was bothering him today,” Sloan said.
WSU sophomore Trent Arrivey (Woodinville, Wash.) will compete in the men’s high jump Saturday afternoon.
