Liberty University
NCAA Division I Indoor Track Championships
Sauder Ties for 13th in NCAA Men’s High Jump, Becomes 2nd Team All-American
3/12/2022 3:15:04 PM | Track and Field
Liberty’s Kennedy Sauder capped off a fantastic freshman season by high jumping at the 2022 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, Saturday afternoon at the Birmingham CrossPlex. Sauder cleared 7-0.5 to tie for 13th place, earning second team All-America honors.
Sauder becomes Liberty’s first NCAA Division I men’s high jump All-American. He is also the Flames’ first true freshman to earn All-America honors at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships since Josh McDougal in 2005 (men’s 3K).
Liberty’s lone representative at this meet and the only true freshman in the 16-member men’s high jump field, Sauder cleared the opening height (6-10.75) on his first attempt and the second bar (7-0.5) on his second try. He was unsuccessful on his first two attempts at 7-2.5 before bowing out of the competition due to injury.
A native of Lauderhill, Fla., Sauder won three of his five indoor high jump competitions as a freshman, tying or breaking records each time.
Sauder’s collegiate debut resulted in a Liberty record-tying 7-1.5 clearance at the Virginia Tech Invitational (Jan. 15) for first place. He later claimed the record to himself for the first time with his meet-record 7-2.5 effort at the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational on Feb. 12.
Sauder then won the ASUN men’s high jump title on Feb. 25 with an ASUN all-time, Liberty, meet and facility-record 7-4.25 clearance. The mark would have won every NCAA Division I conference meet contested that weekend.
The only two athletes to go higher than 7-4.25 on Saturday were national champion Vernon Turner of Oklahoma (7-7.25) and runner-up Corvell Todd of Southern Miss (7-6).
Up Next
Liberty will begin the 2022 outdoor track & field season on March 19, heading north on Route 29 for the Virginia Open. The one-day meet at Lannigan Field in Charlottesville, Va., is set for a 3 p.m. start.
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