Texas Tech track & field high jumpers are in the business of making history at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Trey Culver, a sophomore and Lubbock native, captured the NCAA men’s high jump championship on Friday night at the Birmingham Crossplex. His win made Texas Tech the first school to win the NCAA Indoor Championship in the event in back-to-back years with different athletes. Last year, JaCorian Duffieldwon the title and joined Bradley Adkins as the first teammates since 1974 to go 1-2 in the event.
“It’s always exciting any time we have a national champion,” head coach Wes Kittley said. “It was a little bit of a surprise that Trey beat Bradley, but he’s been jumping well all year. I’m just so proud of our sophomore and how he competed tonight.”
The event opened with a height of 2.13m/6-11.75 and all 16 competitors cleared the bar, with Bradley Adkins getting over on his second attempt and Culver on his third. The herd thinned out at the next height, as Culver made quick work of 2.18m/7-1.75, jumping over on his first attempt. With the event contested in the five-alive format, Adkins faced his third attempt immediately after Culver’s first, but he met the third jump with ease and successfully sailed over the bar to be one of the final nine left in the competition.
On his final attempt at 2.23m/7-3.75, Culver flashed a smile, then soared over the bar, landing on the mat with a new personal-best and a national title.
“I’m just blessed and thankful to God for allowing this to happen, it’s an unbelievable feeling,” Culver said. “The key is just to be a competitor, that’s always my focus. If form isn’t right, then you just have to compete and try to win.”
His clearance ties Duffield and Adkins for the No. 8 jump in school history.
“When it’s a crucial moment when I jump, I always think about my grandparents,” Culver said as he reflected on his championship-winning jump. “They’re not with me anymore but I just tell them to fly with me and I just celebrate because I know God’s going to take me over the bar when I need it the most.”
Chris Caldwell, the two-time Big 12 champion and 2015 NCAA runner-up, ran hard out of lane one in a stacked 60-meter hurdle prelims to get the day started for the Red Raiders. He clocked in with a time of 7.87, placing seventh in the heat and 13th overall, to cap off his indoor season.
A senior from Wildwood, Missouri, Caldwell finishes his collegiate indoor career with the third (7.64), seventh (7.69) and 10th (7.74) fastest times in school history in the 60 hurdles in his two years at Texas Tech.
Kyle Collins followed about 45 minutes later, circling the track in the men’s 400-meter dash prelims to a time of 46.90 seconds. The mark was second in the heat and 13th overall in the field.
This season, Collins has posted two top 10 all-time Texas Tech marks in the 400 meters. At the Big 12 Championships, he finished third overall at 46.24 seconds, which was the fourth-best time in school history.
Collins was the first Red Raider to compete in the open 400 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships since school record holder Gil Roberts in 2011.
Day two of the NCAA Indoor Championships will start for Texas Tech at 5 p.m. with Viershanie Latham in the women’s triple jump from the Birmingham Crossplex in Birmingham, Alabama. The men’s 4×400 relay will also compete at 6:40 p.m.
(Press Release Provided by Texas Tech Athletics Department)
