When you are truly elite, you do not need a warm-up competition to put down a big performance. As Mount Olive (NJ) senior Keturah Orji showed on Wednesday in her first triple jump competition of the indoor season as she broke the New Jersey state record and took over as the US leader in the event by nearly two full feet with a mark of 42'1.50". The performance from the mid-week New Jersey Metropolitan Invitational puts her just outside of US top 10 all-time territory in the event (current US top 10 HS indoor all-time cut-off is 42'2.75").
The University of Georgia recruit Orji (pictured right by Don Rich from the 2013 New Balance Indoor Nationals) is now the US leader in the triple jump as well as the long jump after a winning leap of 20'8.75" in the long jump just several days ago also at the Armory in the New Balance Games. The potential to move up into the US top 10 all-time list and even challenge the US high school national indoor record of 44'6.75" is certainly in the neighborhood and mind of an athlete like Orji who went a US #2 all-time outdoors mark of 44'11" last summer in a bronze medal finish at the World Youth Championships in Ukraine.
Take a look below at the past former high school greats in the girls triple jump that she will need to leapfrog on that US top all-time list (courtesy of lists compiled by Track & Field News).
| TRIPLE JUMP | ||||
| 44-6¾ | Ke’Nyia Richardson (Holy Names, Oakland, California) | 2007 | ||
| 43-11½ | Juliana Yendork (Walnut, California) | 1991 | ||
| 43-5(A) | Brittany Daniels (West, Tracy, California) | 2005 | ||
| 42-8¾(A) | Vashti Thomas (Mt. Pleasant, San José, California) | 2008 | ||
| 42-5¼ | LaShonda Christopher (River Ridge, Olympia, Washington) | 1995 | ||
| *Carla Forbes (Newton North, Newtonville, Massachusetts) | 2012 | |||
| 42-4¾ | *Sheena Johnson (Gar-Field, Woodbridge, Virginia) | 1999 | ||
| *Erica McLain (East, Plano, Texas) | 2003 | |||
| 42-3½(A) | Ciarra Brewer (Logan, Union City, California) | 2011 | ||
| 42-2¾ | Jamesha Youngblood (Hercules, California) | 2007 | ||
Orji is also blogging for MileSplit this indoor season and you can follow along with her progression and thoughts on the current indoor season from her first two blog entries below.
- Keturah Orji - Blog Entry #1
- Keturah Orji - Blog Entry #2
- Girls Triple Jump National Rankings
- Girls Long Jump National Rankings
