Natalie Stump, a senior at Benedictine College, recently competed in the triple jump at the 2009 NAIA indoor track competition.

Stump didn’t fair as well as she would have liked. She finished tenth overall in the preliminary results with jumps of 10.67 meters, 10.66 meters, 10.67 meters and 9.31 meters. Stump knew it would be tough coming off an injury.

“I was coming off an injury and I just didn’t have really good form that day,” Stump said. “I had achilles tendonitis for about two weeks and I’m just now starting to fully recover.”

The NAIA indoor championships were held in Johnson City, Tenn. Stump and head coach Rex Lane had to deal with the long trip to Tennessee.

“The trip was definitely long; I think we were on the road for over 14 hours,” Stump said. “We drove up with Park’s track athletes. It was me, Coach Lane, Park’s coach and two of their athletes.”

Now that the indoor season has wrapped up, the Benedictine track team will now focus on the outdoor season. Stump knows she and her teammates are ready for the outdoor season to begin.

“Not doing very well at indoors definitely gives me more motivation to work even harder and do better in the outdoor season.”

She echoes her teammates, who are now ready for that season to begin. The first competition of the outdoor season will be March 28 and it will be held at Baker University. The NAIA outdoor championships will be held Thurs. May 21 through Sat. May 23 in Edwardsville. Ill.

The indoor season didn’t go as well as the Benedictine track team would have hoped. The team will look to rebound in the outdoor season.

“I didn’t do all that great,” Stump said. ”It was a really fun experience though.”

Stump was the only athlete from BC to compete at the national indoor championships this year.