Red-shirt sophomore Jade Riebold had to beg her coach to let her compete at Thursday’s NCAA Last Chance Meet in Naperville. Begging turned out to be the right move, because Riebold secured her spot in the NCAA Indoor Championship with a vault of 13-feet, 11-inches.

“I had to beg the head coach to get me in on that Thursday meet at North Central because I wanted two more shots to get this height and I ended up doing it the first meet,” she said.

Even with the NCAA Indoor Championship in sight, Riebold still wanted to compete at that Saturday’s meet at Notre Dame. Riebold didn’t do as well as she would have hoped, mainly because of a combination of a little bit of exhaustion and a little bit of anxiety.

“I was sitting in 12th place on Thursday and I didn’t get any sleep Thursday night because I was worried about whether I would be in or not,” she said. “I think that’s another reason why I didn’t do as good Saturday.”

Competing twice in the same weekend was also a first for Riebold, who is now the first ever woman to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championship in an Eastern uniform.

“I’ve never competed two times in one week,” she said. “I was more tired the second day.”

Riebold, who had already broken her own school record after her first meet as a Panther, broke it again the week after, and then again at the Notre Dame Meyo Invite. This past weekend, Riebold did it again, raising the bar even higher.

Riebold will now head to Boise State to compete in the NCAA Indoor Championship this weekend.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7942 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.