Heim & Schaffer's Back-to-Back NCAA DIII Pole Vault Titles Voted as Landmark Conference Top Moment for Women's Outdoor Track & Field
TOWSON, Md. --- The 2016-17 season marks the 10-year anniversary for the Landmark Conference. As part of the buildup to each sport’s championship season, fans were asked to select their favorite moment from the first decade from a list created by members of the conference. Each winning moment will be announced prior to the conference championship.
TOWSON, Md. --- The 2016-17 season marks the 10-year anniversary for the Landmark Conference. As part of the buildup to each sport's championship season, fans were asked to select their favorite moment from the first decade from a list created by members of the conference. Each winning moment will be announced prior to the conference championship.
After the final round of voting, Moravian's Anna Heim and Abigail Schaffer winning the NCAA Division III pole vault national championship in back to back years was named the top moment with 92% of the votes. The duo also went back-to-back during the indoor seasons in 2010 and 2011. Elizabethtown College's Amanda Porter and Casey Meier competing at the NCAA Championships in 2015 came in second and Schafer setting the NCAA Pole Vault record in 2012 came in third.
Heim captured her second national championship of the year, winning the pole vault on the first day of the 2010 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field National Championship hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College.
Heim captured the outdoor title at an NCAA meet record height of 4.13 meters (13 feet, 6 ½ inches) on her second attempt at the height. Heim, who won the NCAA DIII Indoor title back in March with an NCAA meet record of 4.16 meters (13 feet, 7 ¾ inches), earned All-America honors for the sixth time in eight trips to the NCAA meets during her career, and she continually improved outdoors in the pole vault, placing third as a sophomore, second in 2009 before winning the event in 2010. Heim owned the all-time NCAA DIII best height of 4.17 meters (13 feet, 8 ¼ inches) set on May 13th at the 2010 ECAC Championships in Springfield, Massachusetts.
One year later, Schaffer captured the pole vault for the second time in 2011 after winning the indoor championship that March with an NCAA indoor record at 4.17 meters (13 feet, 8 ¼ inches).
Schaffer was seeded second in the event and passed on the first five heights before clearing her first attempt at 3.84 meters. Schaffer also needed just one attempt at 3.94 meters and the winning height of 4.14 meters (13 feet, seven inches), breaking Heim's meet record set the year before. Schaffer and Catherine Street from Linfield College both made three attempts at 4.24 meters (13 feet, 11 inches) but neither was able to clear the bar. Schaffer captured the title over Street by needing just one vault at 4.14 meters and only missing once at 4.04 meters while Street missed once at 4.14 and twice at 4.04. Karin Fisher from Massachusetts Institute of Technology was third in the event at 4.04 meters. Earlier in the season, Schaffer had set the NCAA all-time record with a vault of 4.22 meters (13 feet, 10 inches).
