Highland’s Floyd Whitaker, a senior at Oilahoma, shattered a three-year-old PR and posted the 5th-best triple jump mark ever by a New Jersey athlete Sunday at the SEC Championships.
Whitaker popped a wind-legal 53-1 ½ on his 3rd jump at the Southeastern Conference meet at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. The wind was measured at 0.9 meters per second on that jump.
He now ranks 12th among U.S. men, according to the World Athletics database.
Whitaker’s previous PR was a 52-6 ¼ at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Cali, Columbia, in May of 2022. He jumped 51-5 ½ in his first college meet for the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis indoors in January of 2022 and had an outdoor PR of 50-2 ½ while at Minnesota in a meet in Fayetteville, Ark.
Whitaker transferred to Oklahoma in time for the 2024 indoor season, where he had jumped 52-3 ¼ indoors and 51-6 ¼ before his PR on Sunday.
The only superior jump ever by a South Jersey high school graduate happened 37 years ago, when Shawnee graduate Greg Foster jumped 53-6 ½ in a meet in Flagstaff, Ariz., while competing for Pima Community College. Foster’s son Greg is currently a junior at Princeton and a six-time Ivy League champion in the long jump and hurdles.
Whitaker’s jump is No. 5 by a New Jersey athlete, behind Norm Tate of East Orange [54-9 ½ in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1970], Piscataway’s Eric Bethea [54-7 ½ in Austin in 2019], Trenton’s Devon Bond [53-7 ¼ in Lubbock, Texas, in 2012] and Foster.
Whitaker opened with a 50-0 and a foul before the 53-1 ½. He finished with a windy 52-2 ½, a 44-5 ¼ and a foul.
Teammate Brandon Green Jr. won the event at 54-10 ½. He’s the No. 1 jumper in college track with a 55-6 ¼ from a meet last month in Waco, Texas.
Whitaker moves up to No. 8 this year in NCAA Division 1.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 