Gardena High’s Stanley Takes a Big Step, Wins High-Jump Title

A small adjustment paid off in a big way for Gardena High long jumper Steven Stanley at the State track championship meet Saturday at Cerritos College.

Stanley was the surprise winner with a jump of 25 1/4 feet. That is more than a foot and a half better than his personal best (23-6) prior to the two-day state meet.

Stanley’s secret? He credited his Bob Beamon-like effort to a suggestion made during Friday’s prelims by Coach Kevin Hughley.

“(Friday) when I was jumping, I wasn’t hitting the board right.” Stanley said. “I was hitting it with my right foot, and I’m a left-footed jumper.”

Hughley told Stanley he should switch feet on his first step during his approach down the runway. This allowed Stanley to correctly take off on his left foot and resulted in a qualifying jump of 24-2 1/2 Friday, the second-best jump of the day.

“I just went with it,” Stanley said. “I just switched my feet and it worked. It felt kind of odd again, but it worked.”

Stanley took control of the event on his first jump Saturday, leaping 24-10, nearly eight inches better than he had jumped in the prelims and good enough, as it turned out, to have won the state title. Tyrone Edwards of Nogales placed second at 24-9 1/4.

But Stanley wasn’t through. On his second jump, he posted his winning mark of 25-1 1/4.