Clark Repeats as Silver Medalist in Pole Vault

Saturday, March 12

Birmingham, Ala.

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Duke University

Day Two at NCAA Indoor Championships

Blue Devils Prepped for ACC Indoor Championships

Clark Repeats as Silver Medalist in Pole Vault

3/12/2016 9:11:00 PM | Track & Field

Meet Results

By: Duke Sports Information

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Both Blue Devils who competed on the final day of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships added first team All-America distinctions to their résumés Saturday at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala. For the second straight year, senior Megan Clark claimed the silver medal in the women's pole vault, while classmate Anima Banks took eighth in the women's 800.

As a team, the Duke women finished tied for 21^st with nine points, matching its placing from a year ago. Oregon took both team titles, scoring 62 points on the men's side and 53 on the women's. Rounding out the top five in the men's standings were Arkansas (39), Tennessee (34), LSU (28) and Texas (25), while Arkansas (50) also took second in the women's competition, followed by Georgia (45), Texas (44) and Notre Dame (35).

With Clark and Arkansas' Alexis Weeks sharing the top seed heading into the pole vault competition, it was the two frontrunners contending for the title down the stretch. As Washington's Diamara Planell Cruz finished with a successful height of 14-7.25 (4.45m) to take third, Clark and Weeks went head-to-head the rest of the way. Both cleared 14-9 (4.50m) on their first attempts before Clark passed 14-11 (4.55m) after a miss on her first attempt. With the bar at 15-1 (4.60m), a height Clark made earlier this season to set the conference record, the Fort Benning, Ga., native was unable to clear with her two remaining tries, finishing runner-up at 14-9, the same height she placed second with in 2015. Weeks eventually went on to set the NCAA Indoor Meet record with a vault of 15-2.25 (4.63m).

“Megan was great,” head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “She had an early height where she had to go to her third attempt and her whole season was on the line. She came through with a big clearance, and then she had a couple first-attempt clearances to get her mojo back … She's had a great career and she's certainly not done yet. She still has the outdoor season and the Olympic Trials to look forward to.”

In the women's 800, Banks finished with a time of 2:15.09 after recovering from a fall on the final lap to place eighth and earn first team All-America honors. A tight race throughout, all eight runners were within a half-second of one another heading into the final 200 meters. Banks ran splits of 29.87, 32.43 and 33.03 to put her at 1:35.32 and just .06 seconds off the lead heading into the final lap, but the fall forced her out of contention. The first team All-America honor marks the first of Banks' career, adding to her two second-team accolades as part of the distance medley relay in 2013 and 2014.

“It was an interesting race,” Ogilvie said. “The first lap went out fast, then everybody put the brakes on at one point and that clogged the field up a little bit. It was set up for her because she's been looking so good in short-distance races. She went outside for the win, but everyone else was thinking the same thing with 200 meters to go … I think had she not gone down there, she was clearly on her way to a third, fourth or fifth-place finish.”

With the indoor season concluded, Duke will kick off the outdoor campaign March 25-26 with the Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, N.C.

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