Competing against college freshmen and incoming freshmen, Sophia Curtis – who just finished her junior year at Ocean City – placed 6th in the triple jump Friday at the USATF Under-20 Championships at historic Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene.
Curtis jumped an outdoor lifetime-best 40-11 ½ on her fifth attempt and actually finished less than a foot outside the top two, who qualified to represent the U.S. in the World Athletics Under-20 Pan Am Championships Aug. 4-6 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
Agur Dwal of the University of Oklahoma won with a 42-2 ¾ and Suzan Ogunleye of Tennessee was 2nd at 41-10.
Curtis’s 40-11 ½ was wind-legal, with a 1.7 meters-per-second tailwind. Anything at 2.0 or lower is considered legal and acceptable for record and list purposes.
Every woman that finished ahead of Curtis either just finished her freshman year of college or is a Class of 2023 graduate. Curtis will be a senior at Ocean City this fall.
Curtis opened with jumps of 39-4 ½ and 39-10 ¾ before hitting a wind-aided 40-7 ½ to close out the trials.
The top eight advanced to the finals, where they got three more jumps, and Curtis was in 8th place before the 40-7 ½ moved her up to 6th.
She opened the finals with a 39-8 ½ before popping the historic 40-11 ½, the No. 4 jump in state history. That moved her into 5th place, but she was bumped back down to 5th – by a quarter of an inch – when Skylann Townsend of North Texas jumped 41-5 on her 5th attempt.
She finished with a 40-1 ¼ jump, giving her six jumps at 39-4 ½ or better. She averaged 40-1 ¼ on her six attempts. Her average jump would have placed 9th overall Friday.
Curtis broke her own South Jersey outdoor record of 40-10 ¼, which she set at the Penn Relays.
Curtis, who spent her first two high schools years at Padua Academy in Wilmington, Del., finished undefeated in the triple jump against New Jersey athletes this past season. Her only loss before Friday was at Penn, where she was 2nd to Jade-ann Dawkins of St. Jago School in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica.
Curtis hit her overall PR of 41-3 ¼ to place 3rd at Boston Indoor Nationals in March. That’s the best jump indoors or outdoors in South Jersey history and No. 2 in state history indoors.
At 9:09 p.m. Saturday, Curtis will race in the first of two heats in the 400 hurdles trials. The top three in each race and the next two-fastest advance to the final at 9:38 p.m. Sunday.
Curtis was also undefeated against New Jersey competition this year in the 400-meter hurdles with a PR of 1:00.42, 10th-fastest in South Jersey history.
Curtis has two more years of eligibility for U.S. Under-20’s, open to athletes who don’t turn 20 before the end of this year.
Next year is a World Under-20 championships year, although Lima, Peru, recently dropped out of hosting the meet and there’s no replacement site selected yet.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 