After fouling his first two jumps, Oregon redshirt sophomore Travonn White won the long jump on Friday during the second day of the Oregon Relays with a distance of 24 feet, 8 inches—a foot farther than the rest of the field,
When he fouled on his second jump, White looked at the official in disbelief. He had barely been off the board. On the verge of elimination in the qualifying round, White kept calm. For his third and final jump, his distance was 24-3, propelling him to the finals with the farthest distance that round.
In the final round, White made all three of his jumps. The closest distance to him was 23-2 by Portland State sophomore Spenser Schmidt, who had previously earned second in the Big Sky this indoor season. He achieved second in this long jump as well.
“I wasn’t too concerned about winning; I was more concerned about progressing,” said White.
White did improve by about a foot and a half from last week’s Pepsi Team Invitational, where he finished sixth of nine participants with a jump of 23-3.4. After last weekend, Coach Robert Johnson had the team do easier practices this week, in order to keep their bodies fresh.
“Today, I felt more technically sound and more powerful,” said White.
To make that improvement, Johnson told White to work on his technique and “staying tall.”
“People don’t know about the long jump. People just think you run up and jump in the sand as far as you can. But it’s more technical than a lot of people think. So once I get technically sound, it all comes together, ” said White.
Also in the field was Northern Colorado senior Rolyce Boston, who earned third with a jump of 22-6.5. Northwest Christian junior Javonte Byrd jumped a distance of 20-1. Byrd holds NCU’s long jump record with a distance of 22-1.5. Byrd earned ninth place out of twelve participants.
