There is a considerable argument to be made that the pole vault event features possibly the most depth in the conference. Hayes added her name to the conversation with a top-10 effort at the Grand Valley State-hosted Bill Clinger Classic on Friday.
The conference now includes four provisional qualifiers in the event, including three from Findlay with Morgan England earning back-to-back field athlete of the week awards.
Hayes emerged with the top season height cleared at 4.00m (13’ 1.5”) which ranks second in Division II this year and is good for third all-time in conference history. 4.02m remains the overall conference record held by Walsh’s former standout Kaitlyn Barber.
Hayes’ previous best distance cleared was 3.88m at the Silverston Invitational last year.