Coahulla Creek High School’s Gage Voyles finished third in the state in high jump at Class 3A’s 2024 GHSA track and field state championship meet last month with a jump clearing 6 feet, 4 inches.
A higher jump earned the rising senior an even higher placement at a national track and field competition over the weekend.
A jump of 6 feet, 6.75 inches netted Voyles second place in championship boys high jump at the Adidas Track Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The event, sponsored by the sportswear company, brought together the nation’s best in track and field events in several different age groups. Athletes could qualify for the event based on qualifications, but athletes that competed in a high school state championship meet, like Voyles, got an automatic qualification.
The event was open to athletes from all 50 states.
Voyles’ jump fell a little shy of Avery Fraley, a senior from East Burke High School in Connelly Springs, North Carolina. Fraley won the national championship in the event with a jump clearing 6 feet, 8 inches.
Voyles beat out third-place finisher Israel Lewis of Nansemond River in Suffolk, Virginia, and Chancelor Watson of Raleigh, North Carolina, was fourth.
Kenyatta Bennett of Atlanta’s Drew Charter, the Class 2A state champion at the GHSA state championship meet, finished fifth.