Cullowhee, N.C. -- A freshman Catamount is in the spotlight as Heidi Hudson prepares to compete in the high jump tomorrow afternoon for the final day of the NCAA East First Round in Lexington, Kentucky. Hosted by the University of Kentucky this year, the NCAA East First Round features the top athletes from the region competing for the chance at a national championship.
For Hudson in particular, the young Catamount is looking to break into the top twelve in the event to earn a spot at the national championships in Eugene, Oregon in June. She is the top-seeded freshman in the East, coming into the event ranked No. 23 with a top clear of 1.78m, which she achieved during the Duke Invitational in April. The vast majority of the 48 regional competitors are within .02m of Hudson's top clear, with 35 posting top marks within the 1.80m - 1.76m range. The top clear in the region belongs to Georgia's Elena Kulichenko with a clear of 1.95m, the second-best height in the nation.
Coincidentally, the facility record at the UK Outdoor Track and Field Facility also belongs to a Georgia Bulldog as Reeta Laaksonen set the top mark with a 1.95m mark herself in 1996. The preliminary round record in the high jump stands at 1.84m and was set by 11 athletes during the 2022 regional meet held in Bloomington, Indiana.
Last year, the qualifying height for the NCAA National Championships was 1.77m, with only five of the nine athletes to clear the height earning a spot at the championship meet in Austin, Texas. Villanova's Roschell Clayton was the top mover on the day, leaping 19 spots up the leaderboards from her initial seeding of 22. In fact, five of the twelve athletes to earn the right to compete for a national championship last year began the day seeded outside the top twelve, with Clayton and LSU's Morgan Smalls starting the day in the 20s and finishing inside the top seven.
Catamount to Watch
The reigning Southern Conference Outdoor High Jump champion, Heidi Hudson comes into the regional meet after already leaping her way into the Catamount record books in her first season in Cullowhee. The freshman from Hattiesburg, Miss. currently stands tied with Xavier Bass for second in the school's top-five performers list with a 1.78m clear.
Including the gold-medal finish at the conference championship meet, Hudson has claimed two first-place finishes in the high jump on the season. Her first came at the Tennessee Invite in early April with a clear of 1.73m, which she followed up with her regional qualifying height of 1.78m at the Duke Invitational the following week. The standout Catamount was named the SoCon Field Athlete of the Week for her performance at Duke.
"We're very excited for this opportunity for Heidi. To qualify as a freshman tells a lot about her athletic ability and the type of athlete we have here at WCU," said head coach Jesse Norman about his ninth regional participant since 2019. "I'm excited to see how she learns and grows from this experience to become even better in the coming years."
Saturday's Championship Qualifying Event
NCAA 2024 East First Round | UK Outdoor Track and Field Complex | Lexington, Kentucky
Saturday: High Jump
2:00 p.m. (eastern time)
Results can be found at: NCAA East First Round
