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How Ball State's Charity Griffith, Jenelle Rogers became a national champion, All-American

MUNCIE. Ind. — The whirlwind weekend still hasn't sunk in for Ball State's newest national stars.

They became First Team All-Americans after Saturday's NCAA Track & Field Championships at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. No pair of Cardinals had ever previously achieved such acclaim in the same year.

Yet for national high jump champion Charity Griffith and fifth-place heptathlon finisher Jenelle Rogers, the achievements resulted from more than just physical execution. In their own ways, they each overcame mental hurdles before conquering physical ones, and only recently did that mind-body partnership click for the historic duo.