Lumberton’s Greg Foster has joined the 24-foot club.
Foster, a senior at The Lawrenceville School, leaped exactly 24 feet Saturday at the Lawrenceville Scrimmage Invitational at Lavino Fieldhouse. His series wasn’t listed in the results, but he is shown with a winning jump of 24-0.
His previous PR was 23-0 in a meet at the Armory late last month. He has an outdoor PR of 21-6 from the Mid-Atlantic Prep League Championships last spring at the Peddie School in Hightstown as well as a 22-8 in summer track in a meet in Baltimore.
Foster broke a 36-year-old Mercer County indoor long jump record. Matt Rose – a transfer from Bordentown – jumped 23-10 at the 1985 Christmas City Relays at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse in Bethlehem, Pa. The meet was held Dec. 27, 1984, so part of the 1985 season.
His 24-0 is No. 9 in New Jersey history indoors and makes him the 33rd 24-footer in New Jersey history indoors or out. The overall Mercer County record is 24-3 1/4 by Princeton’s Nils Wildberg at the 2019 New Balance Nationals in Greensboro. That mark, however, was strongly wind-aided (4.8), and Wildberg’s best high school wind-legal jump was a 23-11 at the 2019 state Group 4 meet at Franklin High School. So Foster’s 24-0 is the top legal indoor or outdoor long jump mark in Mercer County history.
Foster is tied for No. 2 in the early going nationally behind Krystian Williams of Collegiate High in Richmond, Va., who jumped 24-1 1/2, last week in a meet in Richmond. Chrisly Kelly-Cannon of Jefferson Academy in Broomfield, Colo., also jumped 24-0 earlier this month in a meet at Golden, Colo.
Foster also won the 55-meter hurdles Saturday in 7.95.
Here’s a look at the all-time New Jersey top-10 indoors:
25-5 1/2 … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], 1978
24-6 1/4 … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 1990
24-3 3/4 … Hanif Kendrick [Franklin twp.], 2007
24-3 1/4 … Kaelen Mitchell [Piscataway], 2021
24-2 1/2 … Isaac Samuels [Kennedy], 1983
24-0 3/4 … Mike Morrison [Willingboro], 2003
24-0 1/2 … William Spearmon [Woodrow Wilson], 1996
24-0 1/4 … Justes Nance [Blair Academy], 2016
24-0 … Greg Foster [Lawrenceville School], 2021
23-11 3/4 … Corey Crawford [Indian Hills], 2010
And here’s a look at every 24-foot jumper in New Jersey history indoors or out:
26-8 1/4 … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], 1979 [outdoors]
25-2 1/2 … Anthony Averett [Woodbury], 2012 [outdoors]
25-0 1/2 … Corey Crawford [Indian Hills], 2010 [outdoors]
25-0 … William Spearmon [Woodrow Wilson], 1996 [outdoors]
24-11 1/2 … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], 1977 [outdoors]
24-11 1/4 … Anthony Miles [Winslow Twp.], 2002 [outdoors]
24-11 … Darius Pemberton [Hackensack], 1993 [outdoors]
24-8 1/4 … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 1990 [outdoors]
24-8 … Isaac Samuels [Kennedy], 1983 [outdoors]
24-5 … Todd Baskerville [Rahway], 1984 [outdoors]
24-5 … Brad Mayo [West Orange], 1984 [outdoors]
24-5 … Mike Morrison [Willingboro], 2003 [outdoors]
24-4 1/2 … Eulace Peacock [Union], 1933 [outdoors]
24-4 … Emeke Eze [Sayreville], 2012 [outdoors]
24-3 3/4 … Hanif Kendrick [Franklin Twp.], 2007 [indoors]
24-3 3/4 … Mikhail Micheaux [Eastern], 2013 [outdoors]
24-3 1/4 … Marcus Hickerson [Delbarton], 1987 [outdoors]
24-3 1/4 … Kaelen Mitchell [Piscataway], 2021 [indoors]
24-3 1/4 … Nils Wildberg [Princeton], 2019 [outdoors]
24-2 1/4 … Ed Ryan [Barringer], 1938 [outdoorts]
24-1 3/4 … Mark Henry [Plainfield], 1980 [outdoors]
24-1 3/4 … Evans Tobler [Trenton], 1984 [outdoors]
24-1 3/4 … Ron Lewis [Asbury Park], 1984 [outdoors]
24-1 1/2 … Richie Cimer [Paramus], 1965 [outdoors]
24-1 1/2 … Derrick Horner [Don Bosco], 1989 [outdoors]
24-1 … Bob Calhoun [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], 1974 [outdoors]
24-1 … Zack Bazile [St. Joe’s], 2014 [outdoors]
24-0 1/2 … Kerry Vivett [Edgewood], 1984 [outdoors]
24-0 1/4 … Justes Nance [Blair Academy], 2016 [indoors]
24-0 … Sherman Gramby [Elizabeth], 1986 [outdoors]
24-0 … Greg Foster [Lawrenceville School], 2021 [indoors]
24-0 … A’nan Bridgett [West Windsor-Plainsboro South], 2018 [outdoors]
24-0 … Donavan Anderson [Bergenfield], 2021 [outdoors]
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 