North Andover's Erick Duffy could make it happen this weekend in the pole vault.
Boys' Championship Jumping Events (Pole Vault, Too!)
It looks like it's the year of the high jump. This season an incredible 20 athletes have cleared seven feet including Vernon Turner of Yukon High (OK), who set the National Federation of High Schools record with a 7 foot, 6 inch performance at the Yukon Classic on April 14. With only four of the top 10 scheduled to compete this weekend - Turner is not enetered - It would appear that a height close to that seven-foot range or a 6-10, 6-11 height could place this weekend. Massachusetts' best bet for an All American placement is Old Rochester's Danny Renwick, who won the Loucks Games with a PB of 6-10. The Bay State will have two more at NBNO, Burlington's Fernando Jamin (6-8) and St. John Prep's Nik Reardon (6-6).
In the pole vault, just two of the top 15 athletes are scheduled to compete this weekend. The meet will be without national and world junior record-holder Mondo Duplantis, who is nearly two feet higher than the rest of his competition with an astonishing 19-4.25. The top seed is KC Lightfoot of Lee's Summit (MO), who has done 17-8.5. North Andover's Erick Duffy ranks No. 15 in the country with his 16-7 effort from the MIAA All State Meet a few weeks ago. If he can match that effort or teeter near the 17-foot range, he could place among the elite in North Carolina. Duffy was eighth at the indoor nationals.