Cade Lehman, a senior from Custer, is now the all-time state record holder in boys triple jump. His mark on Tuesday at the Douglas Early Bird Track and Field meet was 48-7 1/4. This beat the previous mark of 47-11.5 set in 1991 by Bud Hamilton of Hot Springs.
As Lehman mentioned, he had a good feeling early on in the event.
“I started with long jump, the very first event of the day. I got a PR in long jump by a little over a foot, so I knew my legs were feeling pretty good coming into triple jump,” he explained. “There was a pretty good tail wind, so it was going to help me stay fast throughout my jump. I had a pretty good idea that I was going to jump pretty far on triple jump, but I didn’t think I was going to jump that far.”
After the jump, Lehman got up and examined his distance.
“When I jumped and got out of the pit to look at how far I landed, it was 12 to14 feet in the pit, so I knew “ok, that’s a lot further than I’ve jumped earlier.” They announced it was a state record on the microphone. I didn’t really have too much going through my brain at that point in time, but I was pretty happy,” Lehman told. “Right away, I knew I did something special, but it didn’t really hit me until the night of. That’s when it really started to hit me that I broke an all-time state record.”
In late March in Newcastle, Wyoming, Lehman broke the Custer school record in triple jump with a distance of 46-08.25. Last year at the state meet, he won the Class A triple jump title and finished runner-up in Long Jump.
Lehman also takes pride being from west river. To break Hamilton’s state record from Hot Springs, another west river athlete, he spoke about how special that is.
“It kind of seems like the state is always more focused on east river and how they performed, so having a couple really long jumps in the past with Bud [Hamilton], and me this year from west river, I think it’s cool to represent the west side of the state,” exclaimed Lehman.
As a senior, Lehman is going through his options for college. While he hasn’t yet decided on his future plans, he knows he wants to continue with track and field at the collegiate level.
