Ocean City junior Sophia Curtis broke two more Cape May County records Sunday at the Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze.
And they were both her own.
Curtis placed 2nd in the triple jump with a 38-8 and ran 8.33 in the trials before placing 6th in the 55-meter hurdles final.
Curtis, in her first year at Ocean City after beginning her high school career at Padua Academy in Wilmington, Del., held the previous county marks of 38-6 from a meet in February at Ocean Breeze and 8.42 from the state Group 2 meet last month at the Bubble.
Although she was already No. 2 in South Jersey history in the triple jump, she improved on her No. 2 ranking behind only Atlantic City’s Claudine Smith, who jumped 40-1 ½ at 2019 Armory Nationals.
According to the MileSplit U.S. rankings, Curtis is the No. 8 junior in the country with her 38-8.
Curtis went 37-5 on her first two jumps and then fouled before popping the 38-8 on her final attempt.
Curtis does have a slightly longer outdoor triple jump on her resume from last spring, when she hit 38-8 ¾ at the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association Meet of Champions at Salesianum.
Curtis is also the Cape May County record holder in the 400 with a 57.99 from the state Group 2 meet.
At Boston Nationals this weekend, Curtis will triple jump and anchor an Ocean City shuttle hurdles team that also includes senior Elaina Styer, sophomore Annamaria Marczyk and freshman Callie Duff.
Curtis is the first Ocean City girl to place at Meet of Champions since 2014, when Rachel Stremme placed 4th in the 800 in 2:09.84 and Devon Grisbaum ran 6th in the 3,200 in 10:39.15.
She’s the first Ocean City girl to finish in the top eight in two events in the same Meet of Champions since Abbey Hartman took 2nd in the 3,200 in 11:09.81 and 8th in the 1,600 in 5:21.88 in 1997.
And her 2nd place in the triple jump is the 2nd-best finish ever by a Red Raider, behind only Grisbaum’s 10:45.20 win in the 3,200 in 2015.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 