Freshman standout Avery Lewis enjoyed a big day in a variety events against some top flight competition on Sunday.
At the Pure Athletics Sprint Elite Meet in Clermont, Florida, Lewis put down three PA No. 1 performances on a busy day down south. Lewis is a ninth-grader at Friends' Central, but was competing for the North Carolina-based Run U Xpress.
Lewis leapt 20-8.5 (+3.0 m/s) to take fourth in the long jump. Though wind-aided, that is the best jump by a Pennsylvanian so far this outdoor season by well over two feet. It's a US No. 5 all-conditions mark, too.
It's also among the best leaps in state history, just a half inch off the all-time state bests by Angie Brown (1993) and Cassy Richards (2000). Both Brown and Richards put down win-aided leaps of 20-9. Lewis' mark from Sunday matches Breana Gambrell's 2017 best of 20-8.5 (NWI). Richards holds the best wind legal mark in state history at 20-6.75.
During the indoor season, Lewis leapt to the freshman class national record in the long jump with a mark of 21-2.5, the best mark -- indoors or outdoors -- ever recorded by a PA high schooler.
Lewis also put down impressive times in the 100 and 200 meters. Lewis went 11.52 (+2.5 m/s) in the 100 meter prelims. She followed that up with a wind legal 11.70 (+1.8 m/s) in the final to place 11th in a field that included Olympic gold medalist Elaine Thompson.
Lewis' 11.52, while wind-aided, is the fourth best all-conditions time in PA history in the 100 meters.
Lewis closed out her day with a fourth place finish in the 200 meters, running a time of 23.39 (+1.1 m/s). Currently, that is a US No. 7 time. That is the second fastest wind legal time in PA state history, trailing only Thelma Davies' state record performance of 23.10 (Davies ran a wind-aided 22.95, too).
All three performances are PA No. 1s and with this just being Lewis' second time competing this outdoor season, the freshman phenom seems like she's just getting warmed up.
