by Aleeha Shah | news editor
Junior Jack Scarborough broke his personal record in the track high-jump competition, jumping an impressive height of 6 foot-10 inches. Because Scarborough also holds the school record for the highest jump, he broke his personal record and the school record. Going into the meet, Scarborough intended to beat his record and he was thrilled when he did.
“I wanted to beat my own PR (personal record), but I hadn’t done very good prior to that meet,” Scarborough said. “I was pretty excited about it [when I did].”
Scarborough’s track career started in middle school and he decided to continue it in high school because he was good at it. In order to beat his personal record, he had to work on distance and approach, along with stretching and running.
“He was very good at it from the beginning. We [have] worked on disciplining our approach. We have to take a J shaped approach, and so one of the things we’ve been doing is measuring [the] steps and measuring the angle of entry into the J shape approach,” high jump coach Randy Schuster said. “We’ve broken it down to the number steps and when his angle is the optimum for him to jump.”
Scarborough has also had to work on his distance from the bar to prevent himself from hitting it.
“We spent a lot more time working on body positioning over the bar because early this season he was jumping a little too early, and he was hitting the bar with his body [when] going up,” Schuster said. “We moved him about four and a half feet away from the bar so that when he jumps up he’s quite a bit further away from the bar. This has helped him give his body more time to develop a good back flip to clear the bar.”
For breaking the record, Scarborough gets his name on on the gymnasium wall. His impressive jump has also earned him an invite to a very distinguished event.
“It allowed him to get put into a very prestigious event this weekend which is called the Texas Relays. Only the best in the state get invited, so with his jump of six foot- ten, he was invited to the Texas Relays, so he’ll jump against all the best jumpers in the state Friday [March 31] at 3 o’clock,” Schuster said.
Scarborough’s high jump height also allows him to enter competitions at a later height and not be grouped in with the early jumpers.
“With his ability to clear 6’10″, we don’t jump in with the early heights. He has established himself to get to pick and choose when he wants to start the event,” Schuster said. “We are entering now at 6 feet high. Last year when we went to state we had to enter at 6’4, so we’re trying to get ready for that situation if that does happen again this year.”
Scarborough wants to continue to push himself further and carry on his high jump career to college. He also wants to be able to reach a greater height by the end of this year.
“I want to high jump in college and I [also] want to jump 7 feet by the end of this year,” Scarborough said.
