Isaiah Kyle, a seven-time All-American, went into the NCAA Division II indoor track-and-field meet as the No. 1 seed in the high jump. But the senior had been here before and knew he couldn’t take anything for granted. As a sophomore, he finished third. Last year, 10th.

This year, Kyle pulled it out, clearing 2.18 meters to bring home Wingate’s first track national championship.

At 2.12 meters, it looked like Kyle was in trouble. He missed on his first two attempts, leaving him with a third try to stay in the competition. He finally cleared the bar, then was successful on his next two jumps, at 2.15 and 2.18 meters. No one else could catch him.

“The way Isaiah won truly showed his veteran experience,” says Ashley Glover, Wingate’s distance coach and the acting head coach at the meet. “To clear the bar on his third attempt at 2.12 meters, then battle through the next two heights with the confidence and focus that he did, is something that not many guys can do. I’m so proud of the way he’s fought through adversity.”

Adversity is something Kyle knows a lot about. As a sophomore, he collapsed on the track at practice and technically died. His heart stopped beating for 12 minutes, as first an athletic trainer and then emergency medical personnel kept his blood pumping artificially. After his heart finally restarted, with the help of a defibrillator, doctors kept him in a coma for three days, as a precaution.

Despite rounds and rounds of tests, doctors never figured out what made Kyle’s heart stop that day. And Kyle never thought about not returning to the track. He kept up his demanding training regime with an eye on the big prize: a national championship. And now he has it.

Kyle nearly had a companion national champion. Fellow Bulldog senior Vanisha Wilshire placed second in the high jump, clearing 1.74 meters but finishing just behind Yashira Rhymer-Stuart from Bellarmine, who cleared 1.77.

It was Wilshire’s third second-place finish in national championship meets. She placed second in the NCAA Division II outdoor meet in 2018 and in the Division II indoor meet in 2017. She also placed third in the indoor meet last year.