The forbidden All-American rises on her tiptoes, pulls her right foot back, then drives it forward, starting her approach to the high jump pit.

One step, two, three, four. She builds speed, curls her path toward the launch point, leaps off her left foot, thrusts her right knee, arches her back and ...

The bar falls.

100 HURDLES

Spenner's best: 14.23 seconds (Summit League Championship, May 9)

2013 NCAA champion Lindsay Vollmer: 13.58 seconds

What could have been: Spenner's personal best of 14.23 seconds would have placed 19th at the NCAA championships.

It’s the morning of the biggest college track meet of the year and Sami Spenner is in a slump.

She could be in Eugene, Ore., wearing her UNO uniform and competing in front of 10,000 fans at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships.

Instead, she’s at Omaha Burke Stadium, competing against herself. Her crowd consists of three burly football players working out on the turf and four senior citizens walking laps on the track, none of whom has a clue that the girl in the Columbus Scotus soccer T-shirt is ranked third nationally in the heptathlon, ahead of the Big 12’s, Pac-12’s and Big Ten’s best.

Spenner retreats to her mark and restarts her routine.

Her coach stands to the side, studying every step, pointing out minor flaws. UNO assistant Chris Richardson first spotted her four years ago in this stadium. He made a phone call after the state track meet and learned that Spenner was headed off to play college volleyball.

Since then, Richardson has watched the redshirt junior break school records, shatter her most ambitious goals, even beat ex-Olympians. There’s just one opponent she can’t conquer: the NCAA.