Hufnagel snaps spectacular run of 13 consecutive U.S. indoor and outdoor championships by Cunningham, who endures first loss in national final since 2016 Olympic Trials; Davis rebounds from three runner-up efforts in NCAA long jump finals to secure victory in toughest Trials battle since 1972

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Photos by Kirby Lee/Image of Sport, Chuck Aragon and John Nepolitan

EUGENE, Ore. – As the most dominant national title streak in U.S. women’s high jumping was snapped Monday night at Hayward Field, one of the most successful men’s long jumpers in collegiate and American history finally celebrated his defining championship moment at the Olympic Team Trials.

Vashti Cunningham, 26, had a run of 13 consecutive U.S. indoor and outdoor high jump crowns since 2017 halted by Kentucky standout Charity Hufnagel, who cleared a lifetime-best 6-4.25 (1.94m) on her first attempt 17 days removed from a 12th-place finish at the same venue for the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships.

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Florida State star Jeremiah Davis, who finished runner-up in three NCAA long jump finals during his career, including a second-place finish in the Division 1 championship June 5 at Hayward Field, outlasted Florida’s Malcolm Clemons, former Arkansas athlete Jarrion Lawson and USC’s Johnny Brackins with a wind-legal effort of 26-11 (8.20m) in the third round to secure the title.

Rachel Glenn of Arkansas produced a clutch third-attempt clearance at 6-4.25 to place second in the high jump based on overall attempts, with Cunningham and Nebraska junior Jenna Rogers finishing in a tie for third place at 6-3.25 (1.91m), a lifetime-best clearance for the five-time first-team All-American.

Former Villanova and Auburn All-American Sanaa Barnes was fifth at 6-2 (1.88m), the same height achieved by Illinois-bound junior JaiCieonna Gero-Holt of Emerald Ridge High in Washington to take sixth overall.

Cunningham, a winner of 14 U.S. titles overall along with a gold medal at the 2016 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Oregon, had not lost in a national final since securing a second-place finish behind Chaunte Lowe at the 2016 Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field.

Cunningham earned her eighth consecutive U.S. indoor title in February in Albuquerque, N.M., and was seeking a seventh outdoor crown in a row Monday, before Hufnagel – the former Charity Griffith who captured the Division 1 outdoor championship last year with a 6-4 (1.93m) clearance competing for Ball State in Austin, Texas – made her opening five heights all on the first attempt to apply significant pressure to the rest of the field.

Glenn extended the competition with her successful third try at 6-4.25, but she and Hufnagel both missed all three opportunities at the Olympic standard of 6-5.50 (1.97m).

Glenn achieved the Olympic standard by matching the collegiate record with a 6-6.75 (2.00m) clearance March 9 at the NCAA Division 1 indoor final in Boston.

Cunningham produced a 6-5.50 indoor clearance Feb. 11 at the 116th Millrose Games at The Armory in New York to secure the Olympic standard and confirmed her opportunity Monday to jump in Paris, which will be her third straight appearance at the Summer Games following a 13th-place effort in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and a sixth-place performance in 2021 in Tokyo.

Rogers earned her second straight podium finish at a U.S. national final, following a runner-up effort behind Cunningham last year at Hayward Field.

Hufnagel became the 21st female athlete globally this year to clear at least 6-4.25. Only 15 women’s competitors have achieved the Olympic high jump standard of 6-5.50 since last July.

Although none of the podium finishers in the men’s long jump championship achieved the Olympic standard, Davis was able to prevail in the tightest battle in a Trials final since 1972, which also featured a two-centimeter spread among the champion and third-place finisher.

With Davis in control from the second round on, Brackins closed the gap with a third-round leap of 26-9.75 (8.17m) and remained in contention until the final attempts.

Clemons elevated from sixth to second in the last round with a 26-10 (8.18m) performance, only to witness Lawson ascend from seventh to third with an identical mark. Clemons, who took third June 5 at the Division 1 final, held the overall tiebreaker based on a better second effort of 26-5 (8.05m) in comparison to Lawson jumping 26-3.75 (8.02m).

Brackins, the U.S. indoor champion who also placed fourth at the Division 1 outdoor final at Hayward Field, found himself one centimeter shy of the podium again as a result.

Clemons and Lawson are both among the top 32 competitors in the global rankings, with the qualifying window for the Paris Olympics closing June 30. Despite producing the shortest winning jump at the Trials since 1972, Davis is expected to elevate into the top 32 overall following his victory.