Nebraska Cornhuskers pole vaulter Jess Gardner has done the impossible.
In the span of just one year, Gardner has drawn legitimate interest to one of the lesser-followed sports out there: collegiate pole vaulting.
While the Huskers are obviously no strangers to seeing their athletes blow up for things like football achievements (albeit not recently), someone in track doing it like Gardner is quite notable.
This week Gardner generated a lot of buzz when she posted her most recent video to social media.
@jessgardner25 back with our locker room tiktoks #nebraska #huskers #gbr #trackandfield ♬ original sound – iamkris“Quickly becoming a Nebraska track and field fan,” one person replied.
“You are both so pretty,” another added.
“Someone said new Livvy just dropped,” a third person wrote.
That last comment, in reference to LSU star Olivia Dunne, can’t be ignored.
Obviously she is the reigning queen of collegiate athletics on social media at the moment. Between her provocative hotel room videos and the way her shower selfie pretty much broke the internet, clearly Dunne is still No. 1 in her category.
But Gardner is starting to give her a run for her money. She currently has more than 150,000 followers on TikTok and more than 67,000 followers on Instagram.
The engagement on her posts is off the charts, too.
Nebraska has seen better days as far as its football program goes, so Gardner now has a unique opportunity. Dunne capitalized on how forgettable LSU football was two years ago and transformed herself into the school’s biggest star.
Gardner can do the same for the Huskers.
The photos speak for themselves. https://t.co/mQcbLd6R33
— Game 7 (@game7__) February 6, 2023
By any objective measure, 2022 belonged to Dunne.
Will 2023 belong to Gardner? Time will tell.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
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