HONOLULU – Two days after defending her MPSF high jump title, Lilian Turban earned a bid to the NCAA Indoor Championships set for March 8-9 in Boston.
 
Turban is the first Hawai'i athlete since 2010 to secure a spot at the NCAA Indoor Championships and just the third different Rainbow Wahine athlete all-time to earn a trip to the indoor national championship.
 
The Tallinn, Estonia native heads into the NCAA Indoor Championships ranked No. 11 nationally in the high jump at 1.86m (6-1.25). She is the highest-ranked MPSF athlete on the national lists this year in any event and is one of only two athletes from the conference to qualify for nationals.
 
Turban took home the MPSF title in the high jump Sunday with a personal best jump of 1.86m to improve on her No. 2 all-time mark at UH. Turban blew away the field at the conference meet as the only athlete to clear 1.73m, 1.78m, 1.83m and 1.86m. The junior missed the first two meets of the indoor season due to injury, but returned for the Husky Classic on Feb. 9 and immediately set a PR with a jump of 1.84m.
 
Amber Kaufman and Annett Wichmann are the only other two UH athletes to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Kaufman competed in the high jump in 2009 and 2010 and was the NCAA runner-up in 2010 after finishing sixth the previous year. Wichmann qualified each year from 2007-09 in the pentathlon, with a high finish of fourth in 2008 to earn All-America status.