AURORA —When he was in the eighth grade, Austin Campbell could regularly dunk a basketball. Then he started dunking regularly on would-be defenders, including when he was a freshman playing on the Regis Jesuit sophomore team.
“I just had hops,” he said. “It was God-given, and it kept working out from there.”
Now a senior for the Class 5A Raiders, he remembers his older brother, Alan, “pushing me to try the high jump.” It was three years ago at one of the first meets of the season and Austin, already entered in the sprints, decided to listen.
Good thing, or Colorado might have missed out on one of its premier high jumpers. Campbell cleared 6-foot-11 in 2015 and has a little more than four weeks left to go over 7 feet, the Holy Grail of prep high jumping, then make a run at the state all-time best of 7-4, cleared in 1991 by Buena Vista’s Matt Hemingway, the Olympic silver medalist in Athens in 2004.
Campbell showed enough promise to be signed in November to jump at Penn State.
“I had never done track until high school,” Campbell said. “I was doing football and basketball, but high jump is the life now. I really enjoy it.”
Heather Budd, jumps coach for the Raiders, said Campbell, now 6-2, 180 pounds, is beginning to understand the intricacies of the event. For now, Campbell is more about power than technique, but she predicts Campbell will soon be able to incorporate both.
“Most definitely, he came in pretty athletic,” she said. “He has just found his niche in track and field, and he can primarily focus on that. He is putting all of his focus into it. He’s also a smart kid who picks up technique pretty well. The natural talent helps, but the small tweaks here and there, he gets. He makes those small adjustments, which translate to a very good high jump.”
Campbell’s club coach, Quinn Pack, is confident in Campbell’s future.
“Once he gets to college and gets more of the strength training and conditioning, and it’s planned out the entire year and he gets more of the technical help he needs, he has a chance,” Pack said. “You need to be able to contort your body and do all of the technical things that go into a single jump. And it takes a long time to put all of the things together into that one performance to make it work. It’s kind of like a golf swing. When you do it and don’t feel it, it’s a natural thing.”
What’s also natural is Colorado’s fickle spring weather, which has produced two significant snowstorms and played havoc with scheduling. Campbell has been able to participate in only a couple of meets, jumping 6-7 and 6-6 in recent weeks.
Like the rest of the state, he’s awaiting warmer weather forecast for this weekend’s Liberty Bell Invitational in Littleton, always one of the season’s high-end stops.
“I can actually get out there and jump,” he said.
A Class 5A runner-up as a sophomore and fifth a year ago, Campbell said he shouldn’t be as tired as he was in the past state meet. His workload, which included relays and the long jump, is less.
“I do think we can get him (peaking) late this season,” said Ryan Taylor, Regis Jesuit’s track coach. “The weather isn’t helping. … The state meet doesn’t seem to be a place for (personal records). But we do want him finishing this season at his very best.”
At Mullen’s Runners Roost meet a couple of weekends ago, Budd said Campbell, who warmed up late for his event, didn’t realize that Hemingway was a meet official and even attempted to film Campbell’s efforts. Afterward, Hemingway also made it a point to tell Campbell it was a pleasure to watch him jump.
“He’s clearly very athletic, he’s strong, he’s lean, he’s one to watch,” Hemingway said. “Once you get out there past 6-8, 6-10, that’s when it really gets fun. I’d love to see him jump really high.”
The man all in-state jumpers continue to chase was right in front of Campbell.
“Oh, yeah, that would be incredible to get,” Campbell said of the state record. “I definitely would like to try it.”
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or @neildevlin
High jumping with the best
Austin Campbell’s effort of 6-foot-11 in the high jump a year ago has put the Regis Jesuit senior well within range of select company with a little more than a month remaining in the season:
National high school record — Andra Manson, Brenham, Texas, 7-7, 2002
Colorado high school all-time best — Matt Hemingway, Buena Vista, 7-4, 1991
Previous Colorado high school record — Jeff Martinez, Brighton, 7-2, 1987
