With their top eighth finishes, both earned All-America honors. For Wichmann it was her second straight indoor All-America distinction after placing fourth in 2008. Kaufman competed in her first-ever NCAA Indoor Championship.
Kaufman cleared her first three heights of 5-7 (1.70m), 5-8.75 (1.75m) and 5-10.75 (1.80m) on her first of three attempts. However, she failed to cross the bar at 6-0 (1.83m), which earned her a tie with Nebraska's Epley Bullock for sixth place. Texas' Destinee Hooker won the competition with an NCAA record 6-6 (1.98m).
Wichmann got off to a shaky start in the five-discipline pentathlon. She false-started in the 60-meter hurdles which led to a conservative push-off and a 9.05 second finish, leaving her in last place among the 18 competitors. However, she rebounded with a school-record jump of 5-8.75 (1.75m) in the high jump – third overall – which vaulted her to 10th place.
In the third discipline – the shot put – Wichmann proved why it is her best event with a throw of 45-3.5 (13.80m), which was the top throw in the competition and moved her to third place overall. Despite school-record and near-personal best leap of 18-3.75 (5.58m) in the long jump, Wichmann fell back to seventh place heading into the final event, the 800-meter run. Her time of 2:21.86 was the ninth-best mark and earned her seventh place with a final score of 4,118 points.
BYU's Amy Menlove won the pentathlon after scoring 4,365 points, just ahead of Penn State's Gayle Hunter, who tallied 4,342 points.
Both Kaufman and Wichmann scored team points in their events totaling 4.5 for UH, which placed the Rainbow Wahine 44th overall. The meet concludes the indoor season. Hawai'i will open the outdoor season next week by hosting the Rainbow Relays, March 21 at the Clarence T.C. Ching Field.
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