Zack Bazile sets two personal bests en route to men’s long jump victory

By August Howell

Prior to the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Oregon long jumper Damarcus Simpson said he needed to remain focused on what had made him successful all season.

“I just want to keep it the same,” Simpson said. “I think that’s the problem with a lot of people, they try to do too much. I think you just have to remain poised at this competition.”

Whether it be the stiff competition or just an off day, Simpson did not advance out of the preliminaries, and he completed only one legal jump. Simpson’s first NCAA outdoor competition pitted him against two of the best jumpers in the NCAA of the past two seasons, Florida’s KeAndre Bates and Grant Holloway, both of whom are NCAA titleholders — and who also struggled.

Going into the final attempt of the first round, Simpson was slotted in ninth place, the final qualifying position for the final. But on his last jump, Holloway jumped 25 feet, 8 1/4 inches, knocking the two-time Pac-12 champion into 10th place.

The men’s long jump had been predicted to be a showdown between an in-form Simpson and the Holloway and Bates of historically great Florida. Though the two Gators made the final, neither of them could keep up with Zack Bazile.

Coming into the meet, Bazile, a senior from Ohio State, was not even in the top-1o distances in the nation. On his first attempt, the senior from Ohio State set his first personal best of the day, 26-9 feet, which was farther than any other attempt that day.

After his second jump, he couldn’t help but smile to himself and do a subtle celebration as he walked back to the bench at the start of the long jump runway. The 2018 Big Ten champion had just set a personal best for the second consecutive jump, drawing gasps from the crowd as he leapt to 27-5 1/2. In doing so, he eclipsed Simpson’s NCAA-leading mark of  27-4.

For Simpson, the defending conference champion in the event, it was his first time competing in the long jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Last season, Simpson was unable to land a legal jump at the West Regional and did not qualify. The following offseason, Simpson had knee surgery and missed the 2018 indoor season.

Jordan Latimer of Akron finished runner-up to Bazile. For him, the result was a big-time finish, and it came down to the wire. The junior was in third place for most of the final round, but he earned a personal-best of 26-3 3/4 on his last jump to move one spot up. He was relieved to finally perform on the big stage.

“For the past three years. … I’ve kinda like choked,” Latimer said. “I’ve had the big jumps. They just haven’t been at the meets they need to be at.”

Holloway, last season’s runner-up and the only man to break 13.20 seconds in the 110 hurdles and 8.10 meters in the long jump, finished the day in ninth. The sophomore said something just didn’t feel right about his execution, even in the 110-meter hurdles heat in which he finished second.

“We’re all human and we all make mistakes,” Holloway said. “I just wasn’t feeling it today.”

August Howell

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