Photo by Brian Williams
8. Which girls jumps record is most likely to get taken down?
All four of the jumps records are within striking distance of being broken. And I can't decide which one is more likely to get taken down. They all look about even in terms of how close the girls are to breaking them.
In the pole vault Amelia Johnson from Hart County got over 13 feet for the first time at the state meet. She had been dominant all season long and didn't lose a single meet until the post season. And then at the end of the summer Madison Townsend from Westminster also cleared 13. Both girls are now only 10 inches off of the record. The pole vault is that tricky event that you kind of max out your height on a pole and then have to go get a new one. So while 10 inches doesn't seem like much, it can be alot to overcome. But they've had all offseason to get on the new poles and have started off the indoor season vaulting about a foot higher than they did last year, so hopefully they can improve that much outdoor as well. Add in the fact that Adair Carlin from Galloway is also in the mix having won the indoor pole vault state meet, beating both Johnson and Townsend in the process, and we've got a good chance of seeing something special this year. It's truly incredible that all of the top ten performances in state history in this event are from the last 7 years.
In the high jump the most likely candidate to get over the record of 6-0.25 is Danah Nembhard from Dacula. She's gotten the closest and she's already got some new PRs in multiple events this indoor season. She was also the most consistent last year. But don't count out Aiya Webb from Buford or Lilah Versluis from Cambridge. Versluis has also jumped 5-7 indoor already this season, the same height as Nembhard hit. So they could be equals at this point in time. Webb is only a couple of inches behind them, but she saved her best for last in 2023 as she got her PR of 5-9.25 at New Balance nationals. It wouldn't surprise me to see any of these girls over 6-0, but the question is how many times can they get over 6? And will they get a chance to attempt 6-0.5 to break the record? We will see.
In the long jump last year we saw three girls go over 19 feet several times throughout the year. Grace Smith from Westminster ended up with the farthest jump after hitting 20-0 on the nose early on in the year. That's still over a foot behind the state record so asking for them to break it might be a stretch. But competition breeds success. So with all three of them knowing they need to be on their A game if they want to be the top jumper in the state, I could see them all landing in the top 5 in state history. The other two girls are Jaci Wright from Buford and Ava Kitchings from Greater Atlanta. Smith is already committed to USC while Wright is committed to UGA, two powerhouses in track and field. So you know they'll bring it this spring. But Kitchings is actually only a sophomore. So she probably has the most upside in this event, and while she might not get the state record this year, she's got 3 more seasons to go after it. This one seems more likely to fall in 2025 or 2026, but you never know.
And finally the triple jump has two girls who have jumped well over 40 feet and will be eying that 43-5.5 set back in 2015. Nembhard will not only be trying to break the high jump state record, she's also got a shot at the triple jump record too. But the bigger threat here is Alisa Gordon from Alexander. Gordon got the closest last year and is currently the 4th best in Georgia history with her jump of 41-9.5 from the state meet last year. Can she find another 2 feet in her three jumps? If she can it'll be the stuff that legends are made of.