GENEVA, Ohio —

"Her performance was nothing short of dominant."

That's how head track & field coach Ethan Brown described junior high jumper Allie Wildsmith's (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) showing en route to winning the national title on Friday at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Wildsmith, who already earned a high jump crown at indoor nationals in March, took the outdoor crown yesterday as the event's #1 overall seed. The top rank and prior win, along with her average jump height of 1.76 meters (5'9.25") being higher than the #2 seed's top clearance, would make her the clear favorite in anyone's eyes, but she saw differently: "It didn't feel like I was the favorite, and I didn't feel any pressure to outdo myself," said the junior. "I knew that as long as I had a regular day, I'd take home the title."

After passing on the opening 1.60m (5'3"), Wildsmith cleared 1.65m (5'5") with ease on her first jump of the day before opting to pass again at 1.68m (5'6"). By the time she jumped again at 1.71m (5'7.25"), the field of competition had shrunk from 22 jumpers to just six. The junior again needed only one jump to clear the bar, and only one of those six competitors joined her at the next height.

At 1.74m (5'8.5"), the lone jumper next to Wildsmith was senior Hannah Zastrow of Wisconsin-Stout. Wildsmith moved on to the next height in one attempt and earned her second career championship when Zastrow was unable to clear in three tries. There was a lot for Zastrow to be proud of as a national runner-up in her final season, while her clearance of 1.71m was a personal best.

Wildsmith had no shortage of kind words for Zastrow and the rest of the field: "It was a group of sweet and talented people who were all fun to be around. It was nice seeing the faces I knew, and the ones I didn't know being so friendly made the competition more fun and enjoyable."

As the last woman standing, the junior set her sights high and asked for the bar to be set at 1.80m (5'10.75"). "She hit some big jumps over the early bars, which demonstrated she was ready to win again and make some personal record attempts," said Brown. Wildsmith had already cleared the height once, in her first appearance of the year at the CGA Winter Invite during indoor season, but hadn't been able to reach it since then.

After being as close as one could be on her first two attempts, she finally found herself back on the higher side 1.80m. The mark was a new outdoor personal best and a school record, but Wildsmith wanted more. After consulting with Brown and jumps coach John Jaskot (Class of 2011) she decided to go for the white whale of Division III women's high jumping — 1.84m (6'0.5").

A clearance of that height would break the NCAA D-III outdoor championship record of 1.81m (5'11.75"), which was set in 1999; and the all-time D-III record of 1.83m (6'), which was set in 2013. The junior had everyone on the north half of the SPIRE Institute's indoor track facility holding their breathe with each attempt, but she was ultimately unable to clear.

The junior will head back to New London after closing the book on a campaign that the average D-III high jumper dreams of, winning both the indoor and outdoor national championships in the midst of an undefeated season. "Allie's performances this season were collectively a massive improvement, and I'm really excited to see what she does next year as a senior," says Brown.