Austin Horner, an East Stroudsburg sophomore out of New Egypt High, soared 23-0 3/4 in his season-opening meet this weekend.
Horner placed sixth in the long jump at the 49er Classic at the Irwin Belk Track and Field Center on the campus of UNC-Charlotte.
Horner surpassed 22 feet on all five of his legal jumps. After opening with a foul, he followed with jumps of 22-6 1/4, 23-0 3/4, 22-7, 22-10 and 22-1 1/2.
At New Egypt, Horner was a Burlington County Scholastic League Freedom Division long jump champ in 2014 and 2015 with a scholastic best of 21-9 1/2, when he was sixth at the state Group 1 meet in 2016 at Egg Harbor.
This was only Horner’s second career meet over 23 feet. He jumped 23-2 last spring to place third at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships at his home track in East Stroudsburg.
Horner is the East Stroudsburg school record holder in the heptathlon with 4,926 points from his second-place finish at the PSAC indoor championships last month in Edinboro, Pa.
Technically, New Egypt isn’t in South Jersey so officially it’s outside the domain of this blog. However, New Egypt does compete in the Burlington County Scholastic League, and the high school sits about 500 feet east of the Crosswicks Creek, which forms the border between North Hanover Township in Burlington County and Plumsted Township in Ocean County.
So we’ll count it.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 