Christensen Among Nation’s Top Five Once More

Around the Ivy League track and field circuit, Becky Christensen has been a household name for a while now. For the second straight year, it appears that the entire country has taken notice of the Harvard co-captain as well.

This weekend, Christensen returned to her home state of Texas to compete in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships for the second year in a row. In a high jump event that featured some of the best athletes in the country, the standout Crimson athlete finished fifth overall and garnered back-to-back All-American Indoor honors after clearing a 1.83-meter bar on Friday night.

“I’m kind of disappointed with how I did, just because I know that I can jump higher,” Christensen said. “Overall, I’m happy with how I still ended up placing well, but I wish I could have done better.”

“She was ranked third in the country going in, so you never like to say that you expect a top-five performance, but as a coaching staff we’ve been a bit spoiled with Becky,” coach Jason Saretsky said.

The lone Harvard representative also cleared the bar at 1.83 meters her junior year. And while that was good enough for a fourth place finish, a 1.83 clearing this year would only garner fifth place in a more competitive field. Texas junior Destinee Hooker won the event with a record-setting clearance of 1.98 meters.

Always aiming for further heights, Christensen improved substantially over the course of this year’s indoor season. With the help of her coaches, Christensen worked on improving her approach to the bar.

“I’ve always had slow approach,” Christensen said. “My coach and I have been working on running faster the whole time. If I can get a good plant, then I really get into the air well.”

“She’s a very technical sound jumper,” Saretsky said. “We wanted to give her more speed on her approach…Overall, she’s taken a big step forward.”

While Christensen easily handled her fellow Ivy League competitors this season, the athlete known for her work ethic and motivation continued to work on jumping even higher above the rest of the field.

Christensen’s new personal-best of 1.91 meters set last month beat her previous mark by seven inches. This not only moved her into second all-time in the Harvard record books, but also guaranteed her a berth in the NCAAs, a coveted spot that hasn’t always been easy for Christensen to get.

“My freshman and sophomore year, I was one or two centimeters away both years, so last year, to even finally make it into the meet was such a great thing,” Christensen said. “To actually come out of it ranked fourth after being ranked last going in was great.”

But Christensen was not at her best this weekend.

“Some days it’s really on and I jump really well, and some days it’s just not on, and I jump still better than I used to, but not great,” Christensen said. “[Friday] was just one of those days where I just wasn’t on, I wasn’t feeling it right.”

Nevertheless, an off-day for Christensen meant another top-five finish and another invaluable experience bonding with some of the best athletes around the country.

“Yesterday was amazing,” Christensen said. “Destinee Hooker and [second place finisher] Elizabeth Patterson had great jumps. They both kept clearing bars on the first try, and Destinee got a new NCAA record. It was a really exciting meet to watch.”

—Staff writer Kevin T. Chen can be reached at ktchen@fas.harvard.edu.