Lumberton’s Greg Foster, sitting in second place through four jumps, popped an outdoor PR on his fifth attempt to win the long jump Friday morning at the 126th annual Penn Relays at Franklin Field.
Foster became the first long jumper from New Jersey to win at Penn in 19 years, since Edgewood’s Anthony Miles won the 2003 meet with a 24-6 ½ leap. Foster’s 24-11 is No. 5 in meet history.
Uroy Ryan of Jamaica College in Kingston had jumps of 24-2 ½, 24-2 ¼ and 24-1 ¾ through four jumps, and Foster’s best was a 23-5 ¼ at that point. But he sailed 24-11 on his fifth attempt with a legal wind of 1.4 meters-per-second to take the lead.
Ryan hit 24-1 ½ and 24-9 on his last two jumps and Foster, a senior at Lawrenceville School, fouled on his final attempt, so Uroy finished with five of the six-best jumps of the competition, but Foster took home first place.
Foster’s PR is a 25-4 ½ from Ocean Breeze Nationals in March. His previous outdoor PR was 23-6 from a home meet last week.
Foster’s 24-11 ranks 8th in state history. He broke the Mercer County outdoor record of 24-0 set at the 2018 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington by A’nan Bridgett of West Windsor-Plainsboro South.
All-Time New Jersey Long Jump List
26-6 … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], 1979
25-2 ½ … Anthony Averett [Woodbury], 2013
25-0 ½ … Corey Crawford [Indian Hills], 2010
25-0 … Justes Nance [Blair Academy], 2015
25-0 … William Spearmon [Woodrow Wilson], 1996
24-11 ½ … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains], 1977
24-11 ½ … Anthony Miles [Winslow Twp.], 2002
24-11 … Darius Pemberton [Hackensack], 1993
24-11 … Greg Foster [Lawrenceville School], 2022
24-8 ½ … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 1989
24-8 … Isaac Samuels [Willingboro-Kennedy], 1983
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 