Levern Spencer. Photo credit: yomagazine.net.
One of Levern Spencer’s records fell on Saturday at the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Indoor Track & Field Championships.
The 29-year-old Saint Lucian’s meet-record High Jump mark was reset, coincidentally, by her successors in national and school colours.
University of South Carolina senior high jumper Jeannelle Scheper joined Levern in qualifying to represent Saint Lucia at the 2014 IAAF World Championships in Athletics. Jeannelle was the youngest competitor in the field, and she capped off an extraordinary year in which she was the top junior competitor in her event on the planet, as well as establishing a new Caribbean junior record and resetting the school record several times.
This indoor season, the 19-year-old has twice scaled 1.90 m (6’2.75″), a mark that led Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA). She came into the SEC Championships undefeated on the season, with four straight wins. Over at Spencer’s alma mater, University of Georgia, Leontia Kallenou had set a personal-best mark this season of 1.88m, second-best in the NCAA and a Cypriot National Record.
And so to The Rhonda & Frosty Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium in College Station, Texas, on the campus of Texas A&M University. Defending champion Scheper and Kallenou both passed at the opening height of 1.68m, whilst the CARIFTA record holder, Scheper, would clear 1.73m on her frst try. Both went over on their first attempts at 1.78m, and at 1.83 and 1.87m it was the same story, with Florida’s Taylor Burke holding on to third place.
The meet record of 1.88m had been jointly held by Spencer, Brittney Reese and Krystle Schade, and whereas Burke was unable to conquer 1.90m, both the Cypriot and the Saint Lucian were equal to the task. Kallenou, though, went over on the first attempt. Scheper needed all three tries to make the mark, though, and whereas that left her with at least a silver medal, at 1.93m it would now be virtually all or nothing.
The 19-year-olds lined up at 1.93m, with a chance to raise the meet record, reset the NCAA lead, and establish new National Records for their respective nations. But Kallenou was ahead, by virtue of her first-time clearance at 1.90. Both missed on their first two tries. Then Kallenou missed again, and was done. Unfortunately, Scheper missed as well, and the Gamecock star was forced to settle for second place.
In two weeks, though, Scheper will have an opportunity to redeem herself, when the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships are held at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Scheper has been an NCAA medallist, but losing out on her SEC title defence might be just the right spur to push her further and higher to the top of the podium and revenge herself on her rival.