June 16, 2008

IRVING, Texas - UTEP's Mickael Hanany closed out his college career in style on Friday night, capturing his first national title in the high jump at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

He is Conference USA's first male individual national champion and UTEP's first since Mircea Bogdan won the 3,000 meter steeplechase outdoors in 2005. Overall Hanany is UTEP's 44th men's national champion outdoors and 82nd overall.

"Finally," Hanany said. "It feels good. Going in, I told myself I needed to give everything I had on every single jump. I had to clear the bar on my first attempt."

Hanany had a career best of 2.32m (7-7 1/4) to hold off Nebraska's Dusty Jonas and Kentucky's Grant Lindsey in the final three. Hanany's jump ranks tied for second on the French national list and tied for ninth on the all-time collegiate list. It broke the Drake Stadium record of 2.31m and tied the school record of 2.32m, set by Milt Ottey in 1982.

"Mickael is a tremendous athlete, he works hard and he's a great guy. He deserves the national title," UTEP coach Bob Kitchens said. "He didn't win it on a fluke. He set a stadium record and tied the school record. He established himself as one of the greatest athletes in UTEP track and field history."

Hanany went over the bar at 2.29m (7-6) on his first attempt. Jonas and Lindsey both failed to clear 2.29m on three tries, leaving Hanany as the only man standing. He cleared 2.32m on his second try before suffering a hamstring injury on his second attempt at 2.35m (7-8 1/2), which would have broken the French national record.

Jonas, the national leader in the event entering the meet, showed he was vulnerable when he missed on his first two attempts at 2.23m (7-3 3/4).

"I knew I was ready first of all," Hanany said. "I got a lot of rest. My coach gave me a lot of rest. We've been working hard. The past two weeks, we've made some changes and I knew I was going to jump high, but then I was waiting for Dusty Jonas to jump high also. I got kind of lucky and this time, I jumped big."

"Mickael felt good coming in and he felt good throughout warm-ups," UTEP jumps and multi-events coach Calvin Robinson said. "When Jonas had trouble at 2.23m (7-3 3/4), that opened the door. Jonas didn't look bad, but he didn't look as good as he has looked recently."

Hanany finished fourth in the high jump outdoors in 2004, second in 2005 and sixth in 2006. He redshirted outdoors in 2007 and came back strong this year. "This was the point of redshirting him and bringing him back and not having him compete in any other events [at NCAA's]," Robinson said. "He is my first national champion, and I'm glad it's him. They don't come often, but if anyone deserved it it's him."

"It was tough to redshirt him last year because he meant so much to our team, but at the same time we knew he was both physically and mentally tired," Kitchens said. "We thought it was the best thing for him and for us to redshirt him, and it turned out to be a good decision."

Hanany also punched his ticket to the Olympics on Friday. He needed to clear 7-6 1/2 sometime in June or July.