Sophomore David Godbolt from Rancocas Valley matched the best high jump clearance by a Monmouth athlete in 10 years Saturday in Ewing.
Godbolt cleared a lifetime-best 6-10 ¾ at the Rick McCorkle Invitational at The College of New Jersey, placing 2nd on fewer misses to teammate Gavin Nelson.
Godbolt’s previous PR was 6-9 indoors at the Armory in January. His previous outdoor PR was 6-8 ¾ from Fairfax, Va., last May.
Nelson, a freshman from Northwestern Lehigh High School in Heidelberg Township, Lehigh County.
The only Monmouth jumper to go higher than Godbolt and Nelson is Joseph Marini of Boonton, who cleared 6-11 ½ at High Point, N.C., in 2016.
Godbolt passed through 6-2 ¼ and then cleared 6-4 ¼ on his 2nd attempt and 6-6 ¼ and 6-8 ¼ on his 1stattempt. He missed his first two tries at 6-10 ¾ before clearing on his 3rd. He and Nelson both took three jumps at 7-0 ½. Nelson and Godbolt had identical series, other than Godbolt had that miss at 6-4 ¼, which gave Nelson the win.
There have been 14 7-footers from South Jersey and seven from Burlington County: Darren Burton from Delran [7-5 ¾ in Ylivieska, Finland, in 1989], the late great Mike Pascuzzo from Lenape [7-5 ¼ in New York in 1992], Moorestown’s Jim Pringle [7-4 ½ in Tallahassee in 1982], Willingboro’s Mike Morrison [7-4 ¼ in Landover, Md., in 2003], Seneca’s Drew Kanz [7-1 ¾ in Birmingham in 2014] and Todd Lowber of Delran [7-0 ½ in 2006 in Lisle, Ala.].
Godbolt and Nelson now share the No. 1 ranking in the Coastal Athletic Conference.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 