Who’s Coming – Jumps

Highlighting the top New Balance Nationals Indoor commitments leading up to the championships on March 13 - 15

By Steve Underwood of NSAF | Watch #NBNationals LIVE March 13 - 15

Sean Dixon-Bodie – Riding the CT Triple Jump Wave

Sean Dixon-Bodie was an excellent high school triple jumper before 2020 began, but this winter he’s taken his craft to a whole new level – despite the event not being part of the Connecticut indoor slate. The Bloomfield HS senior, training with jumps guru Mo Calenda, had hit peak form at each of 2019’s New Balance Nationals meets: Then-PRs of 50-2.5 for fourth in March, followed by 50-5.25 for fifth in June. Then as his final prep indoor campaign got underway, the highly recruited jumper bounded nearly 50 feet (49-11.5) at the Dec. 26 North Shore Invite.

Just over a week later, Dixon-Bodie returned to The Armory for the Hispanic Games and exploded to a US#1 51-6.50 victory, coming close to the all-time top 10. Two weeks later, against a crack national-class field at the VA Showcase, he bounded 50-9.25 for another win. Finally at the NYRR Millrose Games on Feb. 8, Dixon-Bodie did surge into the exclusive list of prep greats – 52-1.75 for the No. 3 spot. That was the furthest hop, skip and jump by a high schooler since 2011 and is nearly three inches better than the NBNI meet record, 51-11 by Mark Jackson back in 2010. Besides having one of the nation’s best coaches, Dixon-Bodie has 48-foot-plus junior teammate Korey Steele to push him in practice every day, plus the Connecticut legacy left by double NBN and Penn Relays champ Justin Forde – who has moved on from Brien McMahon HS to the U. of Miami.

Morgan Smalls – An Historic Triple Threat

No one who was there will forget it. Friday night at NBNI 2019, a girls high jump elevated by the arrival of Morgan Smalls to the highest level of prep greatness, everyone watching with growing amazement as she cleared bar after bar. The excitement really started to build when she and two others scaled 5-10.75, then the Panther Creek NC junior took it up to 6-0.75 – a new meet record and locking up the victory on her first try. But Smalls was far from done. She made jaws drop with a clearance at 6-2 on her second attempt, then eyeballs pop when she went over 6-3.25 on her third. Smalls had landed at No. 2 all-time – trailing only megastar Vashti Cunningham. 

Last spring was a whirlwind of opportunity and success for Smalls, as she was chosen for and competed for Team NSAF in Cuba, set another meet record at NBNO, missed making the U.S. Pan Am U-20 team but did get to compete with the Senior team in Peru. And while this winter has seen “only” a 6-0 HJ best for Smalls, she has improved her already impressive resume in the horizontal jumps For as fans well know, and well-chronicled here this week by Dave Devine for DyeStat.com, the HJ is just part of Smalls’ game and while she’s been an outstanding long and triple jumper for some time, she’s taken those events to historic levels in combination this winter. At the VA Showcase, she improved her already great 41-9.75 best (second NBNI ’19) to US#1 42-10 - No. 8 all-time and an NC state record. In the LJ, she’s spanned 20-2.5, second on the U.S. list only to Claire Bryant (see below). No athlete has ever won all three of those jumps at an NBN meet, but she could be the first.

Leah Pasqualetti – Rocketing Above 14 and Beyond

The road from being a rising national class pole vaulter to US#1 in the country has been navigated with astonishing speed this winter by Orchard Park, NY senior Leah Pasqualetti. It’s not that she’s new to the sport or the elite level. As DyeStat’s Mary Albl writes, she started in the sport at age 13 and by the end of her soph indoor season in 2018, she had reached 12-9 for 2nd in the NY state meet. Pasqualetti stalled a bit during that outdoor season, but then reached 13-3 last winter for her first indoor state title and followed it up with a 5th-place finish at NBNI.

Outdoor season again didn’t quite match up for Pasqualetti last spring, but this winter has been a magic ride – first reaching high gear with a PR-tying 13-3 in a Jan. 18 Section 5/6 meet. A week later, she broke all the way through to 14 feet at the Trent Jackson/Cedric Walker Invite and on the first day of February the following Saturday, she flew over 14-3 to move to break the NY state record and move to No. 2 all-time U.S. Standing just 5 foot, 2 inches, Pasqualetti has 7.25 55m dash speed in her arsenal and her coach, Mike Auble calls her, “the most intrinsically driven athlete I’ve ever coached.” Having followed up with Millrose (13-7.5) and Eastern States (13-8) victories, Pasqualetti is primed to be the NBNI favorite.

Jaden Price-Whitehead – On a Mission for Redemption

You can’t miss Jaden Price-Whitehead in a horizontal jump competition. He’s the short, slender guy with the sunglasses, headband and seemingly unlimited energy bouncing around the runway and track. He’s also often the one who seems most on a mission, maybe with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. That could be because as a sophomore last winter, Price-Whitehead had begun to approach the 23-foot barrier with a 22-9.50 at the Hispanic Games in January and seemed poised for a huge, possibly state title campaign for Upper Dublin HS. But he finished just 10th at state, then 34th at NBNI and it wasn’t until the Hershey Youth meet the following week that he hit his first 23.

The outdoor season again had its ups and downs as he improved to 23-11 mid-season, but then failed to qualify for his state meet. But at NBNO, Price-Whitehead came up huge with a 24-0.75 PR and victory in the Emerging Elite division. He would have been just three inches off the podium in the Championship division. This winter, the junior has found consistency and has been at or near the national lead since his 24-2.75 in early January. At the Feb. 22 TFCAofGP Meet of Champs, Price-Whitehead crushed the 25 foot barrier to extend his US#1 and then last weekend captured the PTFCA state title with another 24-footer. An NBNI title appears to be the next item for his resume.

Claire Bryant – NBN Next Goal for International Champ

The past 12 months have been quite the whirlwind of breakthroughs, opportunities, international travel and medals for Claire Bryant … going from a Houston Memorial junior breaking into national class level to a double international medalist – with a victory in the Pan American U-20 Championships and bronze at the Barrientos Memorial in Cuba. Bryant had won a Texas state title with a windy 20-4.75 as a soph in 2018 and taken third at NBNO. But it was her dramatic 21-2.25w PR victory in last spring’s Texas Relays – winning a great duel with Jasmine Moore – that really put her on the national map. 

Like Moore, Bryant would receive an invite to compete for Team NSAF in Cuba (after a tough state meet loss to Moore); there she was third. An NBNO title remained elusive – she was runner-up – but then the junior captured her first national title with a gold at the USA U-20s. That landed her on the Pan Am team where she continued her consistency over 20 feet and scored an outstanding gold medal victory. Now a Florida signee and looking to move into the 21s consistently, Bryant has used a short indoor campaign to score 20-foot-plus wins at the Texas A&M Invite and VA Showcase. Her first NBNI meet and another title opportunity lay straight ahead.

Spencer Evans – An NBN PR Machine

Spencer Evans won’t be the top seed at New Balance Nationals Indoor and you could argue he’s not the favorite. But you might be foolish to bet against him for the boys’ championship pole vault title. Evans, a senior at Lake Norman HS in NC, is money when it comes to NBN meets. At the 2018 NBNI, he came in with a 16-0.75 PR from February, then raised his PR to 16-5.25 to take fourth place. Then outdoors that spring, he was struggling to get back over 16 but hit a season’s best 16-1.25 at NBNO to get back on the podium in 6th. Last winter, it was kind of the same story: Evans had been hitting mostly 14s and 15s, then reached 16-1.75 in New York for fifth place.

Last spring was Evans’ best season to that point, with five meets between 15-3 and 16-2, then a PR-matching 16-5.25 in Greensboro for the runner-up finish. But now the senior has saved the best for last: He’s been over 16 feet his past half-dozen meets, highlighted by a golden 17-0.75 at the Millrose Games for the victory and even a photo op with Olympic medalist Sandi Morris. Evans clearly loves vaulting in The Armory and – no doubt – he’ll have his hands full with 17-5 top entry Gabe Gillifan and 17-4 vaulter Scott Toney. But don’t be surprised if he sets another NBN PR and exceeds expectations.

Alissa Braxton – Triple Jumper Whose Time is Now

Alissa Braxton has been triple jumping since at least her 2017 outdoor season, when she expanded her jumps/sprints repertoire to include the challenging discipline. That spring, her freshman year at Commack HS in NY, she got out to 36-5.75. She would improve to 36-10 the next winter, then 37-7.25 the following spring. But then within a span of a couple weeks at the start of her 2018-19 junior season indoors, leading up to Christmas, she progressed to 38-4 and then a monumental 40-0 at one of her Section 11 Crossover meets. Suddenly, Braxton had gone from being a decent triple jumper to an elite.

By late January of 2019, Braxton was a consistent 40-footer, winning almost everything. She had another magnificent breakthrough with 41-9.75 at the Ocean Breeze Invite and followed with a state title and NBNI fourth-place finish. She added another New York crown outdoors, improved to 42-0.25 and leapt to a bronze medal finish at NBNO. This winter, Braxton has been jumping 40-41 in most meets – still looking for her first indoor 42 – and winning most of her meets. Only the above-mentioned Smalls stands ahead of her on the U.S. list – and the North Carolina standout is also looking for her 2nd 42-footer. A great battle looks and a great chance for Braxton, now a Florida signee, to bring home the gold.

Trey Tintinger – Looking for That Next Breakthrough

You may have first heard of Trey Tintinger back in Spring, 2017, when as a Helena HS Montana frosh he stunned the T&F world with a 7-1.75 high jump that set age-14 U.S. and world bests as well as a freshman class national record. When youngsters achieve such amazing things in the sport, it sets the mind spinning regarding what their potential might be down the road as a prep or collegian or even Olympian. But improvement isn’t always linear – injuries, illness and all manner of life issues can get in the way – and that’s why as a senior, Tintinger continues to pursue that elusive next step: 7-2 and beyond.

In the meantime, he’s still had considerable success, winning four straight USATF JO national HJ titles, two Montana state crowns and last spring’s Arcadia Invitational high jump at 6-11. This fall, he enrolled at SPIRE Academy in Ohio, where he’s also pursuing his basketball dreams. A few weeks back, Titinger battled Logan Tittle of Utah at the Simplot Games, with both clearing 6-10.75 and Tittle winning on fewer misses. But the Montana native has never competed at #NBNationals Indoor and Outdoor, and that will change next week. Tittle and current national leader Kamyren Garrett (7-0.5) will be the top competition and the chance for Tintinger to become the first NBNI champ from Montana is at hand!