Sitting in 3rd place and down to his final attempt, Lumberton’s Greg Foster came up huge with not only a win at the Ocean Breeze Nationals but a state record as well.
Foster, a senior at Lawrenceville Prep, leaped 49-9 ½ on his final attempt to break the state record of 49-7 set by South Brunswick’s Jonathan Pitt at the Armory at the 2013 Varsity Classic.
Foster’s previous PR was a 48-9 ½ last month, also at Ocean Breeze. That was No. 6 in state history.
And through five attempts Friday his best jump was 47-7 ¼, which had him in 3rd place behind Brandon Green of Ruston, La., who went 49-0 ¾ on his 4th attempt, and Jayden Louis-Charles Plano West in Texas, who jumped 48-6 ¼ on his 3rd try.
But on his final attempt, Foster jumped two feet farther than he had on any of his first five jumps and exactly one foot beyond his PR from last month at the same facility.
That made Foster the first New Jersey boy ion 38 years to win an national triple jump title. In 1984, Marko Juntunen of Mount Olive won the inaugural National Scholastic Classic at Jadwin Gym with a 45-5 1/4 jump.
Earlier Friday, the Princeton-bound Foster ran ran 8.06 in the 60-meter high hurdles to qualify for the final, which is scheduled for 5:29 p.m. Saturday.
Foster is scheduled to be back in action Saturday morning with the 60 hurdles trials at the Armory Nationals and he’s scheduled to triple jump at Armory Nationals at 11 a.m.
Traffic permitting, he’ll be back at Ocean Breeze for the long jump at 2 p.m. before running the hurdles final.
On Sunday, he’ll be exclusively at the Armory for the long jump at 10 a.m. and – if he qualifies – the hurdles final at 11:27 a.m.
Foster is U.S. No. 1 in the long jump at 24-8.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 