Track and Field | 5/28/2026 8:31:00 AM
By
Paul Suellentrop
While the results emphatically say otherwise, Wichita State's
Jelese Alexander characterizes her high jump practices as terrible earlier this spring.
For roughly a month, Alexander battled getting off the ground and clearing bars she easily cleared in competition. Director of track and field
Steve Rainbolt compared her struggles to the "twisties" that a gymnast experiences when fighting a feeling that their body isn't in the right spot as they prepare to leap.
"I would say practice is terrible for me," Alexander said. "Sometimes I wouldn't make jumps, and it would get to me mentally."
That stretch of missed bars and halted approaches didn't last long enough to derail the outdoor season for Alexander, a senior from Trinidad and Tobago. In her lone season at WSU, she is the school record-holder in the long jump and shares the high jump mark.
Alexander, a transfer from Southern Mississippi, competes in the NCAA West Preliminaries in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in the long jump at 6:30 tonight (Thursday) and the high jump at 2 p.m., Saturday. The top 12 in each event advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 10-14 in Eugene, Oregon.
She won the high jump title at the American Championships with a height of 6-foot-1 ¼ inches, which is tied for seventh in the NCAA West field and 10
th nationally. She is seeded No. 23 in the long jump with a distance of 20-10 ¾ this weekend. At the American meet, she finished third at 20-3.
She is tied with Connie Long (1989) atop WSU's high jump list. Her long jump places her first at WSU, surpassing La'Taish Brown's 2010 distance of 20-10 ½.
Rainbolt set a goal with Alexander. Don't mess her up in her final year of competition with a lot of technical talk and change. At Southern Mississippi, she placed third in the Sun Belt Conference high jump (5-9 ¾) last spring. In the NCAA East Prelims, she placed 16
th with a career-best 5-10 ½.
"She just came to Wichita State at the right time when her athletic maturity was coming into its own," Rainbolt said. "I think she could be a 6-foot-3 high jumper. She can really apply force and bounce."
When Alexander struggled mentally earlier this spring, Rainbolt declined to make dramatic changes in her form or routine.
"My objective was to minimize it emotionally," he said. "I kind of shrugged my shoulders and told her, 'You're going to be fine,' because I had so consistently seen her jump in competition."
To Alexander, competition is the key. She needs that feeling of pressure from other top athletes to push her over the bar. Rainbolt, even when she wavered, kept his instructions simple – powerful start, lean into the curve and pop off the ground.
"It's very much mental," she said. "In practice, I don't stay composed. I get flustered all the time."
In competition, Alexander's competitive spirit and talent takes over. She ran 7.40 seconds in the 60-meter dash, second in WSU history, to show her speed is an asset. In the conference outdoors meet, she ran on the 400-meter relay. She played center-back on her country's 15-and-under soccer team.
"Popping off the ground is no problem," Rainbolt said. "She's an explosive, dynamic girl."
Alexander occasionally long jumped before WSU. That changed in April at a meet in Fayetteville when she jumped five times and each one surpassed her previous best. That day convinced her she could excel at that event. Rainbolt and jumps coach
Heidi Benton worked on her landing and showed her how to use her speed most effectively on the runway.
"It was very unreal, and we're going back there for (NCAA prelims)," she said. "I didn't even know how to land in the pit. Now I'm going to regionals in two events."
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
