DES MOINES — Gina Rickert provided the highlight of the weekend for Cyclone fans at the Drake Relays, defending her title in the high jump on Saturday.

Rickert’s winning jump of 6-0 was not enough to break her meet record, but still provided a comfortable margin of victory over Melyssa Reinhardt of Indiana State in the university and college division of competition. Reinhardt cleared 5-8 1/2. Last year, Rickert set the Drake Relays collegiate record of 6-2 1/4.

Rickert also competed in the special invitational division. She jumped 6-0 in that competition as well, placing fourth. Gwen Wentland of Nike won by jumping 6-2.

Originally, Rickert was given a choice of which competition she wanted to enter, and she chose the university and college division. Because of her strong performance, she was invited to participate in the special division anyway.

“I chose the collegiate because it’s my last year as a collegiate, and I wanted to have that opportunity,” Rickert said. “I plan on being back [to Drake] next year, and [the special] would be the meet I would be in — the only option I’d have — so I picked the collegiate. [The special] was a bonus.”

The two competitions were about four hours apart. Rickert had never competed twice in the same day before.

“Usually, we go a week between competitions,” jumps coach Ron McEachran said. “She took about eight jumps [in the afternoon], plus 10 to 12 in the morning. She’s going to be sore.”

Rickert was hoping to clear 6-2, but she did not blame her performance on fatigue.

“I felt very healthy. I felt springy,” she said. “I felt mentally and physically ready. The problem I had was my approach was not very consistent. I tend to be consistent with my approach, so it was kind of an odd problem to try to deal with in the middle of competition. I would blame [the misses] on the inconsistency in my approach more than anything else.”

McEachran said Rickert is not giving herself enough credit.

“She made 6 feet twice, and that’s quite an accomplishment,” he said. “She thinks 6 feet isn’t very high, but you’ve got to remember that we’ve never had anyone else in the history of Iowa State jump 6 feet. That tells you how special of a jumper she is.”

Rickert said the height intervals used in the meet might have hurt her.

“It is kind of a big jump for me to go from 6 feet to 6-2, because I’m not real consistent at 6-2 yet,” she said. “It actually was my worst performance this outdoor season. If you look at it from that perspective, it wasn’t a very good performance, but the fact that it jumped from 6-0 to 6-2 made a difference.”

Despite not having a great performance, Rickert said she was inspired by the crowd.

“I really try to channel that energy,” she said. “At the collegiate meet when I was having my jumps at 6-2, they were clapping, and that really pumped me up. I had better attempts at the collegiate meet, and that may be part of the reason.”