Chapin alum Eireann Donohoe comes through big for Western Colorado

There will be pressure on Western Colorado jumper Eireann Donohoe, a Chapin alum, this weekend at the NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships.

That goes with the national championship stage.

More: NCAA Division II championship results

As for how the freshman deals with big moments, that question was well-answered on May 8 in Grand Junction, Colorado at the Maverick Top Gun Last Chance Meet.

In what could have been the final moment of a successful inaugural season at Western Colorado, Donohoe gave herself new life with a huge personal best in the triple jump, going 40-feet 9.75-inches to spring her in the middle of the national championship field.

That represented an 18-inch improvement over her previous outdoor best and ranks her 16th nationally.

More: Coronado alum Grant Levesque vaults into postseason for Rice

With a season on the line, Donohoe came through and punched a ticket to Allendale, Michigan, where she will compete Friday.

"It was everything for me," she said. "It felt really good. My jump prior to that was a 12.26 (meters, 40-2 3/4) which was a really big (personal record) for me and I wanted to improve my standing even more.

"I knew the bigger the jump the better chance I had of making nationals. Knowing I had solidified a jump like that was amazing, a great feeling to see it all come together."

That wasn't entirely unexpected of the multi-event star. The week before her qualifying jump Donahoe competed in the 100-meter hurdles, the triple jump, the long jump and high jump at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference meet, scoring in the triple and high jumps.

She was a pentathlete indoors and while she didn't compete in the heptathlon this spring, that is in her future as she builds her strength.

More: Blazing a trail: Algerian native Loubna Benhadja finding success for UTEP

At the last chance meet, Donohoe got the rare chance to be a one-event specialist and it worked out.

"Throughout the season she was doing a variety of events, the triple jump is her best one so there was a lot of focus on that," her coach Matt Svoboda said. "She was doing the pentathlon indoors but we decided she needed to build more strength for the 800.

"For the last chance meet she was able to just focus on the triple jump and that went really well. She came through."

Making the national championship meet as a freshman is a big moment, one that sets Donohoe up well for the future. Getting a taste of the entire national experience has been special.

"The travel was tiring, but now that we're here it feels more and more real as we go through the process," Donohoe said on her arrival day Tuesday. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

As for her goals, she's looking small picture.

"I just want to get on the board," she said. "My 12.44 (personal best) jump was behind the board and I know if I get on the board, everything is going to set up nicely after that. That's my biggest thing. If I place, I place, if I get top eight an All-American, that's amazing. If I pr even better.

"I'm going to try to focus on that one thing and let everything else fall into place."

That philosophy has served her well in a productive season. She placed in all three jumps at RMAC indoors while establishing herself as a reliable performer in many events.

"I am happy with it," Donohoe said. "At first I was a little disappointed with some things because I set such high goals and expectations for myself but at the end of it all, I look back at it and I made a lot of progress in everything I've done this season.

"Honestly, the one thing I could ask for is coming in and doing well, then improving on top of that."

She gets one more chance to make another improvement, Friday at the biggest meet of the year.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Chapin alum Eireann Donohoe comes through for Western Colorado