About a month after Cameron Ostrowski made his last jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, he received something that would entirely change his college career.

A phone call. 

On the other end was his coach.

---

Flash back to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2012 when Ostrowski made his debut on the national stage as a redshirt freshman. 

He attempted to make it over the 7-foot mark yet another time. And he didn’t disappoint, getting over the 7-foot-0.5-inch bar — a successful jump early in his career, but not as good in his eyes.

He had suffered a stress fracture in his jumping ankle at the NCAA West Preliminaries, an injury that would define almost the entirety of his college career. He finished 19th out of 24 participants. 

Passing the media staging area, Ostrowski, along with the first-place finisher and other randomly selected athletes, were pulled aside by NCAA officials for a drug test. 

Ostrowski didn’t think much of it. After all, he hadn’t done anything to disprove his belief that he was clean. 

---

As Ostrowski answered the seemingly normal call, his coach broke the news to him. 

He had failed the drug test. 

“What drug test?” Ostrowski thought. And then he remembered.

His mind ran a million miles per hour. What did he do wrong? What could happen? He had an endless amount of questions. He recalled any time that could have gone wrong.

Where did he mess up?

At the beginning of his tenure at Iowa State, he was looking for something that could boost his performance. He wanted to be the best he could be. As a freshman, he starting taking a pre-workout supplement that one of the seniors on the team recommended. It was a mistake he would later pay for.

As Ostrowski started taking the supplement, he liked it. It made him better, so he went to get more at the local nutrition store. 

He bought a product similar to the one he was taking, except for one ingredient — 1,3-dimethylamylamine, or 1,3-DMAA — a banned substance in the NCAA. 

So that was it for him. At first, the penalty was losing two seasons. It was heartbreaking, to say the least. 

With the help of an NCAA official and written testimonies from his teammates and the people closest to him, Ostrowski was able to prove he unknowingly took a banned substance. That reduced his suspension to only a year. 

But the suspension was icing on the flavorless cake for Ostrowski’s first two years at college — he had bad luck, and loads of it.

It started with injuries.

He chipped a bone in his hip during his true freshman indoor season.

He came down with a bout of mono shortly after, and on his way to the doctor to get a clearance from the sickness, Ostrowski fell off his bike and broke his elbow. After the multiple spills, he had enough and decided to redshirt.

While serving the suspension, he began recovering from his ever-so-nagging ankle injury and Ostrowski grew into the best jumper he has been in his career. 

After the suspension was lifted, Ostrowski’s coaches scrambled to make a meet, so he could qualify for the USA Outdoor Championships. His year-long hiatus paid off. 

His ankle was as healthy as it had ever been and he jumped over the 7-4.25 mark to set his unofficial personal best, since the meet was an “unofficial” official event outside of the NCAA season. It was his first competition, practice or not, since January. 

“Maybe that’s the secret — don’t train at all,” Ostrowski said with a smile. “Just be [as] healthy as possible.”

He placed fifth in the high jump at the USA Outdoor Championship two weeks later, one of the pinnacles of his roller coaster ride of a career.

He rehabbed his ankle yet again in hopes of returning for the 2013-14 season, his redshirt junior year. And it looked like he was on the fast track to returning to prime form, excelling in the indoor season. He earned second team all-Big 12 honors and a Big 12 championship in the high jump, one of his three wins. His jump of 7-3.75 ranked second all-time in ISU history. 

As the outdoor season began to roll around, Ostrowski’s ankle began acting up again. It was his third run-in with the ghost of his redshirt freshman year. 

As he was arguably the most healthy he had been since he originally injured his ankle, it was all taken away. 

That statement stayed on replay his entire career.

“It’s just frustrating. You are constantly monitoring it,” Ostrowski said. “It starts to feel better one day, so you go a little bit harder and you go a little bit too hard, and you are back to square one. It’s pretty much like a constant battle.”

He was only able to compete at the Drake Relays and the Big 12 Outdoor Championship, clearing 6-11 for third place. It was one of his worst jumps in his outdoor career.

Despite qualifying for the NCAA West Preliminaries, Ostrowski decided to rest, so he could rehab for one final go. 

Ostrowski was entering his final season as a Cyclone and the year looked bleak. He was unsure if he could beat his ankle injury that never failed to return to him when he needed it the most. 

The 2014-15 indoor season went well like the previous season, but that was just adding to his false hope.

“I didn’t really know what to expect for the indoor season,” Ostrowski said. “It went better than I expected. I had a little bounce back, but at Arizona State, I had to shut it down. I couldn’t compete because of my ankle.”

That was the beginning of his road to the worst outdoor season in his ISU career. He hadn’t cleared 7 feet all season, and at the Drake Relays, he almost failed to clear the 6-8 mark, a bar that he can jump in his sleep when he’s on his game. 

That all changed at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship.

It was the first official event at the Cyclone Sports Complex, which was constructed in 2011, and Ostrowski had a treat in store for the home crowd. 

He jumped over 6-7 first and then 6-9. But at the 6-11 mark, he had a chance to make it to the 7-foot bar. He thought it was going to be like his previous performances in the season — a failure, by his standards. He had to make it over just one more time.

With one push off the ankle that had created all of the mess in his college career, Ostrowski cleared it and advanced to the next one — an incredible feat for a man who barely cleared 6-8 three weeks before Big 12s. 

But he didn’t stop there. 

He jumped over 7-1 and 7-3, and nearly cleared the 7-4.25 mark — a jump he hadn’t completed since his “unofficial” official mark three years ago.

Ostrowski reacted like he had just won a gold medal. He leaped off the mat and threw his arms around his coach and high-fived teammate Jalen Ford. It was as if a heavy weight was finally lifted off the tired shoulders of an injury-riddled jumper. 

Ostrowski still has two more obstacles if he wants to accomplish his dream — a national championship. He will be at the NCAA West Preliminaries on May 28-30, and if he qualifies, the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Without the injury, Ostrowski thinks his ceiling is sky-high, and he has proof to back it up. A photo of him jumping over 7-5.25 shows his calf barely nicking the bar off of its supports. 

“If I’m healthy, I think I could go 7-5 or 7-6,” he said. “I don’t want to even miss a bar this weekend. I don’t want to miss one going to 7-2. That will give me a good shot for [the NCAA Outdoor Championships].”

It’s been a long road for Ostrowski, but one that he wouldn’t take back. And he will try to jump for just a little bit longer — ankle barring, of course.