Ball State high jumper returns to Indiana as a national champion

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Ball State University high jumper Charity Griffith is back home again in Indiana.

She returned to the Hoosier state on Sunday afternoon after winning the NCAA high jump national championship at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin, Texas, this weekend.

“My phone has been blowing up,” Griffith said on Sunday after landing at Indianapolis International Airport. “I just got an invite from my hometown to be a part of the July Fourth parade.”

Griffith’s national championship is the fifth individual national title by a Ball State student-athlete and the first since 1999 when LaTasha Jenkins finished first in the 200-meter dash.

“Super excited, stoked to just be around a bunch of great athletes,” said Griffith.

Griffith, a Rushville native, cleared 1.93 meters during the competition on Saturday. No one else in the competition cleared 1.90 meters. Griffith’s previous personal best and school record was 1.85 meters.

“I think, all year long, Charity has demonstrated the poise to be able to win a championship,” Ball State track and field head coach Adrian Wheatley said.

It’s Griffith’s third top-five NCAA finish in the past year.