She was the runner-up at the 2002 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships behind Mary Sauer and improved her outdoor best to 4.50 m. However, she only managed tenth place at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships that year. She placed sixth at the 2003 USA Indoors but rebounded with a second-place finish at the outdoor nationals. This gained her a place on the team for the 2003 World Championships in Athletics and she came eighth in the qualifying round of the vault. The 2004 season proved to be her breakthrough year as she was runner-up to Stacy Dragila at the USA Indoor Championships and then placed fourth at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships, vaulting a personal best mark of 4.60 m. She achieved the same mark outdoors to take second at the Prefontaine Classic and was runner-up to Dragila at the 2004 Olympic Trials, securing her first Olympic berth. She cleared 4.30 m in the qualifying rounds of the 2004 Athens Olympics, but this was not enough to make the final.