Track & Field | 6/26/2025 1:03:00 PM
GREENSBORO – They call themselves The NCAT Jump Squad.
However, for North Carolina A&T junior high jumper Spirit Morgan, it's more than just a fancy name. It's her support group. It's her family. It's her motivation.
On Thursday, the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) released its women's and men's outdoor postseason superlatives, with Morgan winning CAA Field Athlete of the Year after finishing tied for ninth nationally at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., two weeks ago.
Morgan high jumped 6 feet, ½ inch, to earn second-team All-American honors from the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), and she was very thankful for her squad.
The Jump Squad first came into view for many during the 2025 A&T Aggie Invitational hosted by the Aggies at Marcus T. Johnson Track, April 18-19. Morgan stepped into the national spotlight during the meet when she jumped a personal-record 6 feet, ¾ inches. At the time, the jump elevated her to No. 2 in the NCAA East Region and into the top 15 nationally.
After the PR jump, teammates rushed to hug her and celebrate the milestone before she could entirely remove herself from the mat. It was "the squad."
"That was the whole Jump Squad," Morgan said. "They knew how bad I wanted to clear six feet. They knew I was capable of carrying six feet. I knew I was capable of carrying six feet, and so did my coach. The fact that I actually cleared it that day just felt so surreal. They were so supportive, and it shocked everybody.
We knew it was going to happen, but at the moment, it caught everyone off guard, and it just turned into excitement. The Jump Squad is the family."
There were a few coaches in that celebration, including director of track and field Allen Johnson and Morgan's event coach, Aniis Hopkins. Morgan gives a lot of credit to the coaching staff and the trainers as well because she came into the indoor season with a nagging back injury that lingered throughout the season.
Despite the adversity, Morgan qualified for the 2025 NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla., where she jumped 5 feet, 11 ½ inches for the sixth-best jump coming out of the East Region. With the back still giving her problems, Morgan jumped six feet, ½ inch, to secure her second-team All-American credentials.
"My coach (Hopkins) helped me get through literally everything," Morgan said. "The trainers, the team, the coaches, the head coach – everyone was just so supportive. It got me through the whole thing, so I did not do it by myself. It showed at nationals, too. My back injury got worse going into nationals. We decided to jump anyway, and we did an awesome job."
After competing at nationals, Morgan learned your mind is way stronger than your body.
"That's exactly what I learned," she said. "You can do anything you put your mind to, no matter how your body feels. It's all a mind thing."
Morgan competed at the NCAA East Prelims in 2023 and 2024, representing the University of Cincinnati. She made her A&T debut on January 26, 2025, after transferring from the University of Cincinnati. The reason why she transferred has a lot to do with what happened at the Aggie Invitational.
"There is such a team dynamic here," said Morgan. "They were so supportive on my visit. As a team, we all have similar goals, and we all have goals we want to accomplish. When you are around people with similar goals, it's just very easy to connect and support one another."
The NCAT Jump Squad had quite the season. Sophomore triple jumper Xavier Partee is the CAA Men's Field Athlete of the Year. Junior Olivia Dowd became the first Aggie female to qualify for NCAA nationals in the triple jump. Freshman triple jumper Ty'Heak Buie was headed to the NCAA East Prelims before an injury derailed those plans.
Therefore, be on the lookout for more celebrations.
