Today was one of the best long jump battles in high school history, and it ended up with two girls in the top thirteen performers of all time. Davis kicked off the action by breaking the decade-old meet record of 20 feet, 5 inches by exactly a quarter inch. After the old record lasted ten years, the next two lasted a cumulative half hour or so.
With Carl Lewis watching carefully, Samiyah Samuels--who made the push to Idaho all the way from Houston--jumped 20-5.75 for the meet and national lead. Davis's next jump put the record out of reach. The junior from California uncorked an all-time bomb, jumping 20-10. That ties her for the fifth best performer of all time and is second best jump of the last 19 years.
After that wild first round, the finals were a bit of an anticlimax. Davis skipped her first two jumps, though she stayed by the runway and was jogging around pumping up seemingly every boy and girl long jumper, disbursing a seemingly unlimited account of high fives. Samuels and Davis didn't get over 20 feet on any of their four combined jumps in the finals; Davis's 20-10 from the first round was good enough for the win.
Samuels was just an inch and a quarter shy of the top ten all-time; she's #13 in high school history and just a half inch short of Marshevet Hooker's Texas state record. Davis tied Shana Woods's California record.