Williamstown senior Mark Williams, a 1st-year long jumper, soared 21-9 at the Rebel Shot/Jump Series #3 at the Bubble Tuesday evening.
That’s a school record, the No. 9 jump in New Jersey this year and No. 8 in Gloucester County indoor history.
Series information is not listed, unfortunately, but Williams won on a 2nd-best-jump tiebreaker with Mainland senior William Murray, who also jumped 21-9. That’s just off his PR of 21-10 ¼, set at the Bubble in February of last year. Murray jumped 21-10 at Ocean Breeze last month.
Williams broke the indoor school record of 21-0 set at the 2014 New Balance Games at the Armory by Raekwon Little-Martin.
Another Mainland jumper, Christopher Guillen, PR’d with a 20-6 ¼ to place 3rd and make it a 1-2-3 South Jersey sweep.
Also over 20 feet was Williamstown senior Anthony Lanteigne, a 6-4 high jumper who according to MileSplit had never previously long jumped in his life.
As for Williams, his previous PR was a 21-1 ¾ at the Collegeville (Pa.) Invitational at Ursinus’s Floy Lewis Baker Fieldhouse earlier this month. Williams competed in outdoor track the last two years but didn’t do any horizontal jumping, according to MileSplit’s database.
This appears to be only the third long jump competition of his life. He went 20-9 at a meet at the Armory last weekend.
Here’s a look at all the 21-foot indoor jumps in Gloucester County history:
23-7 ¾ … Anthony Averett [Woodbury], 2012
23-4 ½ … Maurice Hunter [Woodbury], 1983
22-9 ¼ … Shai Mumford [West Deptford], 2013
22-7 ¼ … Keon Grady [Delsea], 2017
22-5 ¾ … Khaliel Burnett [Delsea], 2018
22-2 … Adwon Parker [West Deptford], 2006
22-0 … Damir Lomax [Delsea], 2020
21-9 … Mark Williams [Williamstown], 2023
21-8 … Ferrell Cooper [West Deptford], 2011
21-6 ½ … Craig Howard [Washington Twp.], 1998
21-6 ½ … Mel Colvin [Delsea], 1999
21-3 ¼ … Christian Langston [Delsea], 2023
21-2 … Brandon Greene [Washington Twp.], 2019
21-1 ½ … Enis Hutchinson [Glassboro], 2014
21-0 … Raekwon Little-Martin [Williamstown], 2014
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 