Despite the bad winter conditions in Blacksburg Virgina on Friday, University of Florida's senior athlete, Shara Proctor turned in the second-best mark in the world this year in the indoor long jump to highlight the opening day of the Virginia Tech Elite Meet at Rector Field House.

Shara Proctor in winning jump. Photo courtesy of www.gatorzone.com

Shara, the reigning SEC Female Field Athlete of the Week, won the women’s long jump with a nation-leading mark of 6.67m/21-10.75, which bettered her previous-best mark of 6.60m/21-8 and broke her own school record for the second consecutive week. It was the 12th-best women’s long jump in collegiate history.

Shara, whose mark is currently second in the world to the mark of 6.69m turned in by the Ukraine’s Viktoriya Rybalko set a Rector Field House facility record and charted an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark for the second week in a row.

Shara also turned in her second school record and NCAA automatic-qualifying mark at the same meet, claiming the women’s triple jump with a personal-best leap of 13.88m/45-6.50. Shara's jump goes down as the eighth-best women’s triple jump in collegiate history and is the best in the nation so far this season.

Saturday’s triple jump victory capped off a highly-successful weekend for Shara, who finished the Virginia Tech Elite Meet with automatic qualifying marks, school records and event victories in both the women’s long jump and women’s triple jump.

Congrats to Shara and may she continue to do her nation proud and be prosperous in her athletic endeavous.

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