In her first meet competing for Ocean City High School, Sophia Curtis popped the No. 2 indoor triple jump in South Jersey history Saturday and broke the Cape May County record.
Curtis, who spent her freshman and sophomore years at Padua Academy in Wilmington, Del., jumped 38-4 ½ to win the triple jump at the Bishop Loughlin Games at Ocean Breeze on Staten Island.
She matched her indoor lifetime-best that she set this past February at the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association Indoor Championships at Hytche Athletic Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princesss Anne, Md.
Her overall PR is 38-8 ¾ from the DIAA Meet of Champions this past May at Salesianum’s Abessinio Stadium in Wilmington.
The South Jersey indoor record in the triple jump is 40-1 ½ by Atlantic City’s Claudine Smith at the 2019 New Balance Nationals at the Armory. Curtis moved half an inch ahead of She’quell Higgs of Winslow Township for the No. 2 spot. Higgs jumped 38-4 at the 2013 Poreda Invitational at Lavino Fieldhouse in Lawrenceville.
Curtis’s jump is No. 15 overall in South Jersey history indoors and out.
The previous Cape May County indoor record was 35-6, set this past March at Nike Indoor Nationals at Ocean Breeze by Elaina Styler, who is now a senior at Ocean City.
The overall Cape May County record was 36-10 ½, set by Yvonne Wolef of Middle Township when she placed 5th at the 2010 state Group 3 meet at South Plainfield.
After opening with her 38-4 ½, Curtis hit 37-1 on her second attempt before finishing the first round with a foul. In the finals, she jumped 37-5 ¾ and after another foul finished with a 37-8.
Her four legal jumps averaged 37-7 ¾, which is nearly a foot farther than the previous Cape May County overall record. One meet into her career at Ocean City, she owns the four-best triple jumps in Cape May County history.
Lizzie Schreiber of Walt Whitman High in Huntington Station, Suffolk County, N.Y., placed second at 37-3 ¾, so Curtis had the three-best jumps of the competition.
Curtis also placed 5th in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.82 after a 9.01 in the trials. She just missed her hurdles PR of 8.78, which she set when she won the Delaware state title in February.
Curtis was a triple winner this past spring at the the Delaware state championships, winning the 100 hurdles in 15.02, the 300 hurdles in 44.57 and the triple jump at 38-4.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 