A day that started with bad weather and ended with a bad official’s call will be remembered most for Hawai‘i winning its first medal in 25 years at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Amber Kaufman soared to a bronze medal in the high jump today in Fayetteville, Ark. Kaufman cleared 6 feet, 1.25 inches (1.86 meters) to grab the Rainbow Wahine’s first medal since Gwen Loud won the long jump in 1984.
Kaufman, an all-conference volleyball player, injured her back on her first jump during Wednesday’s preliminary round. She worked with a chiropractor Thursday and began feeling better, but started tentatively, missing her first jump. Then she found her form.
“As the bar went higher,” UH coach Carmyn James said, “she started looking better and better.”
Kaufman cleared five straight jumps, the last at 6-1.25. She missed her first two at 6-2.25 badly, then soared over the bar on her final jump, only to nick it off on the way down.
“She was happy,” James said. “She medaled and she’s pleased with that.”
Arizona’s Elizabeth Patterson cleared that height to take second. Texas volleyball All-American Destinee Hooker won by clearing 6-4.75 or 1.95 meters — .02 meters more than Kaufman’s Hawai‘i record, set at WAC Championships. Hooker now has four NCAA high jump championships.
The two volleyball players and Patterson are all juniors. Kaufman’s top-eight finish gave her All-American status for the third time; she was fifth last year at the Outdoor Championship and sixth this year Indoors.
Emily Sheppard finished her UH career by placing 10th in high jump after clearing 5-10.75. It was her second Top-10 NCAA finish in as many years.
Heptathlete Annett Wichmann earned her fourth All-America honor by finishing seventh, but it was not what the senior from Germany had envisioned. After having the best opening day of her career, by 92 points, two of today’s final three events were disappointing.
Wichmann was eighth after her record first day. She dropped with a long jump of 18-0.25, but rebounded with a huge throw (152-11) to win javelin and vault back to eighth.
In the final event, Wichmann was supposed to run with the lead group in the second 800-meter race, but an official mistakenly told her to run the first race. With her strategy based on beating those closest to her in the points standings, Wichmann was thrown off. She still finished in 2:24.74 — the 10th-best time — and moved up to seventh with a personal-best 5,675 points.
Still, UH’s Jack Bonham Award winner was in tears when her collegiate career was over.
“I’ve never seen her like that, she’s always so upbeat,” James said. “But her hopes were so high and yesterday was so good.”
Oregon’s Brianne Theisen rallied to win heptathlon with 6,086 points, ahead of Minnesota’s Liz Roehrig (5,892) and Michigan’s Bettie Wade (5,876).
The Rainbow Wahine were 34th in the final U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association national ranking, the best finish in history.