Kate Hall jumps her way to a national championship 20-11 1/4


Kate Hall jumps her way to a national championship with huge 20-11 1/4 mark

Interview with Kate

There was no question what the goal coming into the New Balance Indoor Nationals for Lake Region senior Kate Hall in the long jump was, she has been aiming to win the national title since the beginning of the season. Hall the single greatest track athlete in Maine history added to her legacy as she put on a performance for the ages on the runway this afternoon.

Hall who entered the meet as the #1 jumper in the country after her 20-6 leap at the New England Championship, opened with a 19-8 1/4 effort that was good enough to put her in second place after the opening jump. On jump #2 of the afternoon, Hall hit the big one with a new meet record, new facility record, and new Maine all-time best 20-11 1/4 effort. The mark moved her into first in the competition and was the fourth best indoor mark in US high school history. With the big jump on the board, Hall was able to relax and the rest of her jump series was legendary. On jump #3, Hall got out to 20-10, the second best jump of her career.

It was onto the finals where Hall went 20-4 1/2, 20-9 3/4, & 20-10 on her three efforts. To put it into perspective Kate had 4 jumps in the competition that would rank among the top 6 best jumps in high school history.

Hall 20-11 1/4 broke the meet record of Brittany Porter (Towers HS, GA) who leapt 20-7.25 at the 2009 Nike Indoor Nationals, it also surpass the Armory facility record of 20-10 of Shana Woods (Long Beach Poly) set back in 2005.


Long Jump

Rank Mark Athlete/Team Grade Meet Date Place
1 21-7.5

Carol Lewis

NJ Willingboro HS

1981

Archived Performance 1st

2 21-4.75

Kathy Mcmillan

NC Hoke County

1976

Archived Performance 1st

3 21-1.25

Keyon Soley

NY Uniondale

1997

Cornell Meet 1st

4 20-11.25

Kate Hall

ME Lake Region High School

2015

New Balance Nationals Indoor 1st

5 20-10

Shana Woods

CA Long Beach Poly (Polytechnic) (SS)

2006

National Scholastic Indoor Championship 1st

6 20-8.75

Keturah Orji

NJ Mount Olive HS

2014

New Balance Games 1st

7 20-8.5

Griffin Matthews

CO Niwot High School

2005

Colorado School of Mines All Comers 1st

8 20-7.75

Tianna Madison

OH Elyria

2003

Oberlin Open 1st

9 20-7.25

Brittany Porter

GA Towers High School

2009

Nike Indoor Nationals 1st

10 20-7

Courtney Corrin

CA Harvard Westlake (SS)

2016

New Balance Nationals Indoor 2nd


Watch Kate's 60m race
Kate opened her day in the morning with the 60m prelims where she ran in section 2. Hall had a strong start and powered away from the field to win easily in a new personal best 7.46, which broke her 7.53 Maine all-time from the 2014 nationals. Her en route split at 55m was 6.94 which betters her 6.95 record set in winning the New England's two weeks ago. She will be back in the blocks at 11:20am tomorrow for the semi-finals. She enters will the 3rd fastest time from the prelims.