Photo by Alex Aldaco
Brandon Bray, a junior pole vaulter at China Spring High School in Texas, established a new US high school national class record among juniors with his clearance of 17'8.50" at the UIL State Championships on Saturday at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. Bray had already elevated himself to a US #1 ranking for the 2014 outdoor season after clearing a new personal best of 17'6" at the Mexia Scotty Neal Relays on April 3rd, but had only cleared a best of 16'6" since that performance.
He proved that performance was no one-time fluke this past weekend at Myers Stadium in keeping himself ahead of high school national indoor record holder Devin King (who cleared a season best height of 17'8" this past weekend in his homestate of Louisiana), by improving upon his top national ranking and more importantly breaking the previous US high school junior class national record of 17'7.50" previously held by Tommy Skipper of Sandy High School in Oregon back in 2002.
Watch the video of Bray's junior class national record and US #1 clearance of 17'8.50" in the pole vault from the Texas State Meet below courtesy of Brandon Richards on Youtube.