On April 1, Jyles Etienne cleared 7′ 1.75″ at the BAAA CARIFTA Trials in the Bahamas to earn his place among the best American high school jumpers and in the world under-20 rankings. Here is a recap of the event from John Moriello of the New York State Sportswriters Association.
Stony Brook’s Etienne Already Comfortably Over 7 Feet
Leading off today: Jyles Etienne took his game to new heights last weekend, making for one of the state’s best track and field stories you’ll hear all season. Considering we’re talking about New York, you know it has to be impressive.
Milesplit.com chronicled the full story about the Stony Brook School high jumper, but here’s the Readers Digest version:
In mid-March, Etienne jumped 6′ 8.75″ for an easy win at the Hersey Indoor Nationals on Staten Island. The mark wasn’t anything special but it did get the native of the Bahamas into the trials for the Caribbean’s biggest championships, the Carifta Games.
Returning to his homeland last weekend, Etienne sailed over the bar at 6′ 7.25″ and 6′ 9.25″ on his first attempts — good enough to qualify for the mid-April Carifta Games — and then cleared 6′ 11.5″ on his third attempt.
The bar was moved to 7′ 0.25″, and the senior was successful on his second attempt. Having already bagged a PR and clinched his spot in the big meet, anything else that he accomplished Saturday would be a bonus.
After two misses at 7′ 1.75″, Etienne summoned the strength to clear the bar at 7′ 1.75″ — only to see a red flag raised by the event judge, who ruled that Etienne had exceeded the 60-second time limit allowed to commence the jump once he was called to jump.
Etienne’s coach logged a protest and he was allowed to continue competing pending a decision, but Etienne ended up calling it a day after one miss at 7′ 3.25″. And then came the good news: After conferring, the appeals committee ruled in favor of Etienne, giving him an official 7′ 1.75″ showing to put in the books for seeding purposes in Curacao a week from Saturday.
That puts the defending state outdoor champion third among U.S. high school performers this year and — strange as it may seem for a foreign citizen who was competing out of the country — No. 3 on the all-time New York list.
With Smithtown East star Dan Claxton already a 7-footer during the indoor season, Long Island high jump fans could be in for quite the season.
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