We are now into the abridged version of the Snapshots as we get to more recent records. We look here at a record from back in 2017. Enjoy!
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Rush-Henrietta junior Lanae-Tava Thomas had finally gotten the NY state record in the long jump three weeks before she traveled out to the University of Kansas for the 2017 USATF Junior Olympics. On July 6th at Brockport for the USATF Region 2 meet, Thomas nailed a 21-0 jump that was officially recognized as a state record since a wind gauge was set up to record a legal wind speed while she jumped. That jump came in the wake of a 21-0 jump that May at Monroe County that was not certified as a record because no wind gauge was set up, and Thomas had hit 21-3 back in 2016 at Penfield but again without a wind reading. She had also set a States meet record of 20-7.5 in 2017, though she had jumped 20-8 at 2016 States with too much of a tail wind. But the wind was behaving at US Juniors on July 26, 2017, and Thomas soared just short of 22 feet with a state record 21-11. She won the event by almost two and a half feet. The mark puts her in 5th all-time in the national records. Thomas also won the 100m in her class at US Juniors, and she swept the 100m and 200m sprint titles back at the States meet. In college at USC, it is the sprints that has been her focus, and in 2019 she was the USATF Juniors under 20 champ in the 200m.
Thomas was not the only jumper who had missed breaking the recognized state record of 20-10.75 before she jumped 21-0 and then 21-11 in 2017. Whitney Fountain of Christopher Columbus jumped 20-11.25 in 2008 without a wind gauge present. The 20-10.75 standard was set first by Lynette Wigginton of Mattituck at the 1997 US Juniors meet, and it was tied a year later by Uniondale's Keyon Soley at US Juniors, and then again by Suffern's Jennifer Clayton in 2009 at the World Juniors meet.
