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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Alexa Harmon-Thomas has one more year to try to capture a Kansas Relays record for herself, but after Saturday’s long jump she’ll already have a spot in the record book. The Lawrence Free State (KS) junior tied the meet record in the girls long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 4 ¼ inches. Her new PR was equal to the mark set by Lea Kirkland of John Marshall (OK) in 1988. “After we finished our last jumps they had to go and measure with the steel tape, and that’s when I knew for sure,” Harmon-Thomas said. “My mom wrote down all the records for the meet and told me to set my goals and go after them if I could.” Harmon-Thomas was unsure of her ability to compete at the KU Relays after a stomach virus forced her to scratch out of Friday’s 300-meter hurdles. She returned later Friday and won the high jump at 5-8. With her illness behind her, Harmon-Thomas had to cross over onto the track for the finals of the 100-meter hurdles immediately after her record-tying jump. She was a half-step slow out of the blocks, but she powered through the last half of the race to pull away from the field and win in 14.30, which is the second-best time in Kansas this year. “My start was really, really bad, but the rest of the race went pretty well,” Harmon-Thomas said. “I was definitely on a high. I had to switch mindsets really quickly and forget about my long jump and focus on the hurdles. I don’t know if I switched my focus fast enough, but as soon as I got over the first hurdle I was able to focus pretty well on it.”
No longer feeling the effects of Friday’s illness, Harmon-Thomas returned to the long jump in an attempt to grab the record for herself. She admitted to being a little taxed after the hurdles and could not better her mark. Harmon-Thomas said she was a little surprised that she cleared that distance with the lack of proper practice the past couple weeks because of the weather. She made adjustments following the indoor season and is seeing the dividends even with a truncated training schedule. “I changed my approach a couple weeks ago and that’s when I started jumping really well,” Harmon-Thomas said. “This indoor season I had problems with scratching; I was jumping really well but I kept fouling. I got a lot stronger from the first time I got my mark, and so my run on that mark wasn’t consistent. So we got a whole new mark and it’s been really consistent for me.”
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