In his first U.S. Championships, Lumberton’s Greg Foster placed 8th in the long jump Friday evening at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
He’s the first South Jersey jumper to place in the top eight at U.S. Nationals since Carl Lewis in 1996.
Foster, seeded 17th, jumped 25-10 ¼, his 4th-best performance ever and only 3 ½ inches off his PR of 26-1 ¾ set at the 2023 Ivy League Championships at Franklin Field. It was his 2nd-best jump since undergoing foot surgery last year. The wind reading on his jump was a legal 2.0 meters per second.
Foster hit 25-10 ¼ on his 1st attempt and then fouled on his next five but that mark still held up for 8th overall. He finished just 9 ½ inches from 3rd place and a podium finish.
Foster, a rising senior at Princeton, was competing for the first time since earning All-America honors with a 7th-place finish at the NCAA Championships at the same facility. He jumped at least 25 feet in every meet he entered this spring and also PR’d in the 110-meter hurdles at 13.78, No. 2 in school history. He’s now a six-time Ivy League / Heps champion.
Foster is the 3rd South Jersey long jumper to place in the top eight at U.S. Nationals. Carl Lewis won it eight times [1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1991], was 2nd four times and 3rdonce. Matt Rose of Bordentown was 7th in 1988 and 8th in 1990.
Greg Foster’s best jumps [wind legal]
26-1 ¾, Philadelphia, May 7, 2023
26-0 ¼, West Long Branch, June 22, 2025
25-10 ¾i, Annapolis, Jan. 21, 2023
25-10 ¼, Eugene, Ore., Aug. 1, 2025
25-9 ½i, Hanover, N.H., Feb. 26, 2023
25-8 ½, Princeton, April 4, 2025
25-8 ¼i, Annapolis, Md., Jan. 11, 2025
25-7 ¼i, Fayetteville, Feb. 15, 2025
25-7 ¼, Eugene, June 11, 2025
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 