Berks Catholic’s Josiah Jordan is a triple threat on the track, too
Often it seemed as if there was no stopping Josiah Jordan when he had a football tucked under his arm or he was racing downcourt dribbling a basketball.
The same is becoming true on the track.
The Berks Catholic senior, a relative newcomer to the triple jump, uncorked a personal-best 42-4.5 Friday afternoon to win the event at the John H. Shaner Memorial Track Meet at Wyomissing.
“It feels like just a week ago I was jumping 37, 38,” Jordan said after winning his first triple at a major meet. “I just went to work this week, and last week, and came out on top.”
Jordan, who saw the football field and basketball court as a freshman, didn’t try track until his junior season. Longtime friend and teammate Jaxon Geddio, a talented jumper himself, lured him to the sport. With his speed, power and determination, Jordan found success quickly.
“I wouldn’t say it’s natural for me,” he said of the triple jump, which requires technique as well as multiple physical gifts, “because it’s really not natural for anyone. When I got the hang of it, it was just like dribbling a basketball, it was second nature for me.”
Jordan was one of two Berks athletes to record a Berks Best on the opening day of the two-day meet. There were six field event finals, finals in the 3200 and prelims in the sprints and hurdles.
Exeter’s Hayden Adams improved her Berks Best in the pole vault by three inches, winning at 9-3.
Other boys winners included Berks Catholic’s Brady Mider in the discus, at 147-11, some five feet shy of his Berks Best; Muhlenberg’s Jayden Benn in the high jump at 6-1, an inch shy of Geddio’s Berks Best; and Wyomissing’s Paul Monsour with a 9:47.63 in the 3200.
Geddio did not compete Friday.
For the girls, Muhlenberg’s D’Mornay Wollery won the shot put at 36-6.5; Boyertown’s Marissa Hillegas took the triple jump at 35-11; and Wyomissing’s Addie Cohen took the 3200 with a personal best 11:01.11.
Top boys times on the track: 100, Tynan Harter, Gov. Mifflin, 11.38; 110 hurdles, Jaydon Witman, Hamburg, 15.79; and 200, Manuel Boyd, Exeter, 23.13.
Top girls times on the track: 100, Alexis Hardy, Wyomissing, 12.74; 100 hurdles, Katelyn Murphy, Conrad Weiser, 16.23; and 200, Harper Glennon, Boyertown, 25.85.
Jordan, an All-State pick in football, plans to play that sport at Wilkes-University. He was a four-year starter in basketball, fishing as the Saints’ all-time leading scorer.
People expected him to score often in those two sports. Track’s different. Jordan’s events are individual ones, and he’s not expected to carry the team.
He views his newest sport no differently than the others.
“Every sport, I really do it with passion,” he said. “I really just go all-in, it’s part of me and what I like to do. I’m really confident in myself, and that’s what it’s really all about. If you want to do track you’ve got to have the courage to do it, you’ve got to have the mindset to do it.”
Jordan finished third in the high jump Friday at 5-7, an inch shy of his season best. He earned a District 3 medal in that event last year, as well as one in the triple jump. He also competed in the 100 Friday but didn’t crack Saturday’s final.
Jordan is eying Cooper Kutz’s school record in the triple jump; he’s now within a foot of it, with as many as three big meets to go.
“I didn’t do triple jump till mid-year last year,” he said, “now I’m jumping 40’s.”
