SCCAL boys track and field championships: Aptos' Wright calls it a career with record high jump

DAVE KIEFER - Special to the Sentinel

FELTON -- There will be no more high jumping in Joey Wright's future. There is no need, because the Aptos High senior went out on top.

Think hard and try to come up with a more glorious ending than Wright's final leap Saturday, which earned him a school record of 6-5½, a fourth league high jump title and highlighted the Mariners' 10th consecutive Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League boys championship.

"Part of high jumping is no matter how well you do, you always end on three misses," said Patti Coulter, in her final season as a Mariners' assistant.

But Wright didn't. Before he set out for the meet at San Lorenzo Valley High, he made up his mind that he would not continue if he advanced to the Central Coast Section semifinals.

Having endured a relatively disappointing season, Wright was content to end his jumping career at the league meet, for better or for worse.

But spurred by the jumping of Scotts Valley's Mike Pond, who cleared a personal record 6-2, Wright was pushed to his best day. Wright jumped four inches above his season best to win at 6-4, and requested the bar be raised a half-inch over Jeremiah Spears' eight-year-old Aptos standard.

On his third try, Wright cleared it. He jumped off out of the pit, tore off his jersey and was mobbed by friends and teammates.

"I just wanted to win, I wasn't expecting this," he said. "The feeling is almost unexplainable. It was definitely the happiest

I've ever been."

He could have raised the bar again, but Wright knew nothing could top it. Why bother to try.

"I keep going over it in my mind," he said. "I'm in disbelief. I keep expecting to wake up."

Aptos expected to be pushed for the team title, but the Mariners got a middle-distance double from junior standout Rylan Hunt [4:19.75 in the 1,600, 1:58.29 in the 800] and 58 points from the three distance events. Sophomore Mitch Moriarty contributed with a final-stretch kick to win the 3,200.

In addition, Tyler Casterson repeated his hurdle double from last year to help Aptos to 160 points, to 98 for runner-up Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz junior Zeke Sanders earned the Bob Ensweiler Award as the meet's top scorer. Sanders dominated the sprints, repeating in the 100 [11.20], winning the 200 [22.39], anchoring the Cardinals' first-place 400 relay [43.97] and running a leg on a third-place 1,600 relay.