Breaking records again and again, Evie Ellenberger, ’28, put her increasingly stunning long jump to the ultimate test at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama on Friday, March 13. Ellenberger never thought she would be competing on the national stage.
“That 19, almost 20 feet, compared to my high school days and even my freshman year — I didn’t think that it was even possible to be ‘PR-ing’ that much,” Ellenberger told The Campus in regard to breaking her own record. “It was a really surreal moment.”
Ellenberger first broke Allegheny’s 32-year-old long jump record at the Case Western Invitational in December, before smashing the record again at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Indoor Championships this February, jumping a conference-winning mark of 5.75 meters — almost 18 feet, nine inches — and medaling in all three of the events she entered.
Going into the Division III All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championship held earlier this month at The Armory — a huge Nike facility in New York City — Ellenberger was jumping, as she put it, “OK.”
“I was in second, then the final hit,” Ellenberger said. “I started moving down first from second, to third, then to fourth. The girl just before me jumped a 5.75 (meters), and I thought, ‘I didn’t want to lose. I want to win. I want to do good.’”
Her final jump was a 5.90 meter jump — or an 19 foot, 4.3 inch jump — which landed her in first place and secured the sixth-in-the-nation ranking for women’s NCAA Division III long jump.
Then, on Friday, March 13, at the national championships Ellenberger claimed fifth place out of 20 athletes at the competition, jumping 5.68 meters — or 18 feet, 7.75 inches.
Ellenberger is the first athlete in the history of the Allegheny track and field program to earn All-American honors in the long jump, according to an Allegheny athletics press release. She is also the first women’s track and field student-athlete to receive any All-American award during the indoor season since 2019.
Ellenberger gives a lot of credit to the coaching staff at Allegheny, such as Assistant Cross Country and Track and Field Coach Marques Johnson, who brought his previous expertise as a sprinting and hurdles coach to help her improve her jump.
“He has really helped change my technique,” Ellenberger said. “I really didn’t know how to sprint to begin with, I had to start from the beginning. From basically having no sprinting foundation to having a better foundation has definitely given me two to three extra feet.”
In the last year, Ellenberger’s athletic life has dramatically changed, including with the loss of former Head Cross Country and Track and Field Coach Ben Mourer, ‘07, which impacted her and the rest of the teams.
“Last year when I switched from indoor to outdoor, Coach Mourer said, ‘Oh you were so close to breaking the indoor record,’” Ellenberger said, “and coming into this year I said, ‘I am going to break the indoor record.’”
Additionally, midway through the current season, Ellenberger’s previous jumps coach left the program.
“It was definitely really hard on the whole team, and then losing our original jumps coach was something that the jumpers had to get used to,” Ellenberger said.
Nevertheless, Ellenberger feels that the track team has overcome the challenges they have been handed.
“I feel proud to call myself a part of the track team,” she said. “I am really glad to represent Allegheny.
Ellenberger is not only a track and field star, she is also a two-time PAC champion as a member of the women’s tennis team. On top of her incredibly impressive athletics resume, like every student in college, she also has academic responsibilities to attend to.
“I always wanted to be a two-sport athlete,” Ellenberger said. “I knew Allegheny would be the school for me because they were flexible with letting me do two sports. On top of athletics, I declared as a health care management major and I am actually doing the masters program here.”
Ellenberger feels that she wouldn’t have had the same opportunities anywhere else.
“Allegheny has such strong professors, and to be able to communicate with professors directly has been really important,” she said. “I have missed almost a week and a half of school — being able to talk to them (professors) saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to be gone for this many days, could you send me these assignments?’”
For Ellenberger, having so much to do is part of life.
“It does get difficult, but I enjoy being busy, that is just my personality — I love not having downtime to myself,” she said with a laugh.
While Ellenberger’s indoor season is over, she is definitely not done breaking records as she aims to hit a fabled six meter mark.
