TRACK: McPherson finishes second in USATF high jump finals
Published 5:23 pm Monday, June 25, 2018
Inika McPherson dug deep after two misses to finally clear 1.89 meters.
She cleared the next height, 1.92, after a miss to earn a top-two finish. All the while Vashti Cunningham went 1.86-1.92 without a miss.
Cunningham, though, went over the 1.95 bar, or 6 feet, 4.75 inches on her third attempt and secured the gold medal Saturday in the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships high jump finals after the 5-foot-4 McPherson failed to mark at that height.
Liz Patterson of Rowlett, just northeast of Dallas, took the bronze. The 2015 national silver medalist failed to mark at 1.92 after making three straight heights without a miss.
McPherson, 31, set a season high in Des Moines, Iowa, topping her 6-3.25 jump at the same stadium almost two months ago in the same location by 0.25 inch. It was her best finish in the U.S. championships since winning the 2014 title at 6-6.75, or 2 meters even, still her personal record.
Cunningham jumped a full inch better than her previous high from the May 31 Golden Gala meet in Rome. The 6-foot-1, 20-year-old from Las Vegas missed all three attempts at 6-6.
— I.C. Murrell
About I.C. Murrell
I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
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