Boys' High Jump
Williamsport's Qayyim Ali made himself the one to beat after clearing 6-9 at the PTFCA Carnival (Photo by Patty Morgan)
Ali, Byham, Petraskie, and a bunch more in the hunt in State College
For most of this indoor season, there were a lot of solid competitors, but no true frontrunners. That changed when Meadville's AJ Byham cleared 6-8 at the TSTCA meet in Edinboro with a breakout performance. Then a few weeks after that, Qayyim Ali of Williamsport one-upped Byham with a 6-9 clearance at the PTFCA Carnival. Suddenly, the event was broken open.
Meadville's AJ Byham has been on the breakthrough performers of the season as PA#2 in the high jump (Photo by Phil Grove)
Of course, there's still time for more breakout efforts, and
there would be no better place to do it than states. There's loaded field behind
these guys and it's led by Shamokin's Chris Petraskie, who cleared a big PR of
6-7 to take second to Ali at the Carnival. Petraskie was the runner-up a year
ago at indoor states, though both him and Ali cleared 6-4 that day.
Three guys come in with a seed height of 6-6: Germantown Academy's Kyle Garland, Dennis Manyeah, and Coatesville's Dondre Pittman. Two are at 6-5: Pennsbury's Eric Wacker and Perkiomen Valley's Darnell Randall.
On Sunday, look for another spirited battle like we've seen all season from the high jumpers in Pennsylvania.
List of entries:
Event 26 Boys High Jump (15)
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Starting Ht. 5' 10" Increase 2"
State Meet: 6-10.50 2/26/2005 Juan Cave/Ryan Fritz, St. Joe Prep/Octorara
Name Year School Seed Mark
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1 Ali, Qayyim 11 Williamsport 6-09.00
2 Byham, Alec J. 12 Meadville Ar 6-08.00
3 Petraskie, Chris 12 Shamokin Area 6-07.00
4 Garland, Kyle 10 Germantown Acad 6-06.00
5 Manyeah, Dennis 11 Penn Wood 6-06.00
6 Pittman, Dondre 12 Coatesville 6-06.00
7 Wacker, Eric 12 Pennsbury 6-05.00
8 Randall, Darnell 12 Perkiomen Valley 6-05.00
9 Moyer, Matt 11 Pennridge 6-04.00
10 Fisher, Jordan 11 Mifflin County 6-04.00
11 Blake, Akeem 11 Penn Charter 6-04.00
12 Bishop, Braheem 11 Chester 6-03.00
13 Stephenson, Derrick 12 Sun Valley 6-03.00
14 Gause, Clay 12 Cedar Cliff 6-02.00
15 Gromlich, Nolan 11 CR North 6-01.00