It’s been a crazy couple months of astounding improvement for Eastern senior Tavion Corbett-Collier, who placed second in both horizontal jumps at the state Group 4 meet at Franklin Township.
Corbett-Collier jumped 22-7 1/4 to take second in the long jump, coming within 2.75 inches of his PR of 22-10, set at Delsea last month. He jumped a PR 46-5 1/2 for second in the triple jump.
Piscataway senior Kaelen Mitchell won the long jump at 23-11 1/2 and Mount Olive junior A.J. McKay won the triple jump with a 47-0.
Corbett-Collier goes into Saturday’s Meet of Champions at South Plainfield as the No. 5 seed in the triple jump and No. 7 seed in the long jump.
Corbett-Collier also ran 11.21 in the 100 on Friday and could race the dash at the M-of-C if he chooses.
He’ll be joined in the triple jump Saturday by junior teammate Aaron Brooks, who placed fifth at states at 44-0 and also qualified in the 110 highs with a 14.99 for third at states.
Eastern’s last medalist at the Meet of Champions was Peter Flacco, who took fifth in the javelin in 2015.
Corbett-Collier came into the season with a lifetime triple jump PR of 41-0, set in the spring of 2019 when he won the Olympic Conference title at Washington Township.
He then proceeded to set five PRs – 41-5 1/4 in a dual meet against Washington Township, 42-11 in a Delsea field event meet, 43-2 1/2 at the Olympic Conference meet, 46-2 at sectionals and 46-5 1/2 at states.
So he’s added 3 feet, 3 inches to his PR just since June 3!
Corbett-Collier now ranks No. 28 in South Jersey history in the triple jump and No. 2 in school history, behind Mikhail Micheaux’s 47-7 1/2 at the 2014 Hall of Fame Relays in Maple Shade.
Before this month, Corbett-Collier long jump PR was a 20-11 at the Bubble in Toms River during the 2020 indoor season, and his outdoor PR was a 20-3 from the 2019 South Jersey Invitational.
His first 21-foot jump was on April 17 in a meet in Edison, and his first 22-foot jump was May 19 in that dual meet against Washington Township. So he’s hit 21, 22 and 23 feet for the first time in the span of 55 days!
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 