Welcome to the high flying website of Gwen Wentland, World Class High Jumper. Gwen's journey of flight started at Grand Blanc High School in Michigan. At the age of 15 she entered her first high jump competition clearing 4-10. By the time she reached her senior season she had risen to one of the nation’s best prep high jumpers winning the 1990 Michigan Class A State Championship at 5-10 and breaking the Class A State Record. In 1990 Wentland was named Michigan High School Track & Field Athlete of the Year. She eclipsed a state record of 6-0 at the CAN-USA Meet and broke the state record in the heptathlon scoring 4315.
After accepting an athletic scholarship to Kansas State University Gwen's next stop would be Manhattan, KS. The small town proved a goldmine for Wentland as she made an immediate leap to the top. Gwen collected four NCAA All-America certificates, four NCAA Runner-up trophies and a US National Championship under the tutelage of internationally heralded jumps and multi-events coach Cliff Rovelto. During her time at Kansas State Gwen competed in the heptathlon, pentathlon, long jump, triple jump and her flagship event high jump. Gwen won the 1995 National Indoor high jump title, leaping a PR of 6-5. She produced a pentathlon high jump American and World Record of 6-4 1/4 and tied Jackie Joyner-Kersee for heptathlon high jump American Record of 6-4. She was named KSU Athlete of the Year and was a candidate for NCAA Division I Woman of the Year Award.
Following her College career Gwen continued competing while adding coaching and administrative duties to her schedule. Gwen served as an Administrative Assistant and Assistant Coach for Kansas State Track & Field. In 2000 she accepted a position at the University of California-Irvine as their jumps coach. The move opened the doors for change. She married photographer Rod Mikinski in December of 2001. While on the track, she finished as runner-up at 2002 US Outdoor Nationals. After the 2002 US Nationals Gwen took a break from coaching and resumed full time training in Manhattan, Kansas. In 2003 Gwen finished as a runner-up at the US Nationals and qualified for the World Championship Team that traveled to Paris, France. Following her World Championship debut Gwen returned to the United States and found out she would be having a baby. During the next 9 months she continued to stay fit with daily walks, pool workouts and yoga practice, in hopes of maintaining enough fitness to step onto the track in July for the 2004 US Olympic Trials. In May of 2004 she gave birth to Paris Mikinski. Only 7 weeks later she would put on her jumping shoes again and make an appearance at her fourth Olympic Trials. It would be one of the most challenging obstacles she would ever face. Stepping onto the Olympic Trails track, she had only managed one jumps practice prior to the big competition. Clearing the opening height of 5-10 ¾ was a victory in itself for the new mommy and would prove as a springboard for the year to come. Six months later Gwen returned to the US Indoor Championships to capture her second US Indoor title with a leap of 6-2 ¾.
In October of 2006 Gwen was inducted into the prestigious Kansas State Athletic Hall of Fame.
Gwen has been actively involved with the USA Track and Field organization since 1994. She has served as the U.S. Vertical Jumps Event Leader over the last 18 years and is a member of the Women's Development Committee. Most recently Gwen has been named as the women's jumps coach for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team. She served as the Assistant Coach (jumps/multi) for the U.S. Team at the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar where the team captured a record number of 17 medals, with medals in women’s HJ, LJ and men’s HJ. She has served as an athlete's liaison officer for World Championships in Athens, Greece 1997, the athlete's liaison officer for the World Youth Championships in Debrecen Hungary in 2001 and was an Assistant Coach for the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica 2002.
She currently has two instructional DVD's and one book available for purchase on this site.
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