Liberty’s Kennedy Sauder capped off a fantastic freshman season by high jumping at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships Saturday, clearing 7-0.5 to tie for 13th place, earning second-team All-America honors.
Sauder becomes Liberty’s first NCAA Division I men’s high jump All-American. He is also the Flames’ first true freshman to earn All-America honors at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships since Josh McDougal in 2005 (men’s 3K).
Liberty’s lone representative at this meet and the only true freshman in the 16-member men’s high jump field, Sauder cleared the opening height (6-10.75) on his first attempt and the second bar (7-0.5) on his second try. He was unsuccessful on his first two attempts at 7-2.5 before bowing out of the competition due to injury.
A native of Lauderhill, Fla., Sauder won three of his five indoor high jump competitions as a freshman, tying or breaking records each time.
Sauder’s collegiate debut resulted in a Liberty record-tying 7-1.5 clearance at the Virginia Tech Invitational (Jan. 15) for first place. He later claimed the record to himself for the first time with his meet-record 7-2.5 effort at the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational on Feb. 12.
Sauder then won the ASUN men’s high jump title on Feb. 25 with an ASUN all-time, Liberty, meet and facility-record 7-4.25 clearance. The mark would have won every NCAA Division I conference meet contested that weekend.
The only two athletes to go higher than 7-4.25 on Saturday were national champion Vernon Turner of Oklahoma (7-7.25) and runner-up Corvell Todd of Southern Miss (7-6).
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