FACTOIDS
Full Name: Jill Wittenwyler
Nickname: Jill
Birthday: March 7, 1971
Height: 5’9”
Hometown: Monroe, Wisc.
Sports: Pole Vault
PROFILE
Wittenwyler played basketball in college, along with trackspecialized in the high jump for South Dakota State, notching a best of 5-9.25 and All-America honors thricebest nationals finish was 5th in the NCAA II Indoor meet in 1994also did the heptathlon, with a best of 4811 pointsgraduated with a dual major in biology and zoologyis a Masters candidate in athletic administration, with all the work done save for her thesisin 1995, she was a graduate assistant at South Dakota State, when the coach, Tom Henderson told her that she might be more valuable as a coach if she learned how to coach women in the vault"That first day I joined the male vaulters, got some advice from them, and even planted a pole and went over 8-feet. The coach said I should consider competing in the event myself"with only the top 12 marks being invited to the vault at the 1996 Olympic Trials, Wittenwyler ended up 13th on the list competed in 1996-98 under her married name of Nutbrock; now divorcedshe trained in San Luis Obispo for a year, before friend Mel Mueller convinced her to come to Phoenix and train together, along with Arizona stars Nick Hysong and Dominic Johnsoncurrently works at The Gap, while going to school to become a licensed massage therapist also moves cars for a car dealershipis considering returning to an earlier line of work, jockeying race horses: "I grew up with it. It's early morning work, and the pay's good, so I'm considering it again"says her biggest technical challenge now is "getting upside down. I have no gymnastics background, so we've been working a lot on this. I know I'll go over 14-feet this year, because I've had a few good shots over it in practice. Ultimately, I'd like to make the Olympic team in 2000."
