NATIONAL CHAMPION! Prince Wins Triple Jump With New Personal Bests
Prince George's Community College student athlete Serena Prince (Newark, NJ) earned the highest individual honor one can receive in an event on Thursday, May 11th at the NJCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships held in Utica, New York. The freshman Prince set a new personal record for herself with a distance of 11.33 meters in the triple jump which placed her as the top finisher in the event and earned her the title of a National Champion.
Prince surpassed her previous best of 10.74 meters which ranked second in the country at the time, only behind Mineral Area College's Emma Gerstner. Gerstner entered the championships with a career high of 11.04 meters which she matched during her second attempt in Utica.
After faulting on her first run, Prince made quick work setting a new bar with a distance of 11.13m on her second try, which, would have been enough to win the event by itself, only to break it once again with her very next at go with the winning performance of 11.33m. With back-to-back personal bests, Prince made history for herself as well as Prince George's by becoming the first female track & field athlete to finish first in an individual event since Monyea Early did for the Owls in 2015-16, which fittingly came in the triple jump.
Prince's success comes in year one of the program returning to action following the pandemic which forced the team to not compete for several years. Behind first year head coach Adrion Webb, Prince and the Owls program as a whole have begun to make a name for themselves in a short period of time and will look to continue to compete at the national level moving forward.
