Megan Kirschling Smashes Woodbury Relays High Jump Record

Megan Kirschling wasn’t supposed to be at the Woodbury Relays Saturday.

Months ago, the plan was for her to be down at Elon University this weekend, , for a visit this weekend, but fate may have intervened.

When she injured her foot , that shifted everything around—Kirschling opted out of the New Balance Indoor Nationals, which allowed her to visit Elon that weekend instead, freeing her up to take a run at her record in Woodbury.

And so, a year after making the Woodbury Relays her first statement meet and setting a 5-7 high jump record, the senior rewrote the record books in a big way, smashing her own meet and school records with a winning high jump of 5-10.

What’s more, she did it without missing a single height through 5-10, an almost unheard-of accomplishment.

“It didn’t even feel like a day where I was going to be setting records,” Kirschling said afterward. “I don’t even know how to explain it—it just felt really good today.”

Kirschlng ended up breaking the record twice over, and didn’t even realize it initially. She wasn’t paying close attention to heights, and cleared 5-8—which would’ve also been a new meet record—without knowing how high the bar was. 5-10 came easily after that.

“It’s exciting—it’s really exciting,” she said.

While 5-10 was one of Kirschling’s goals, both she and girls’ track head coach Mark Drummond figured it would come at some point later in the season, toward the sectional and state meet. That she was able to hit the height this early in the season blew them both away.

“Maybe I shortchanged it,” Drummond said. “It was kind of looking like it was just a matter of time…but 5-10’s a whole different ballgame.”

No one’s likely to touch Kirschling’s record for a while, either—her jump was the best in New Jersey so far this year and tied for third-best in the nation, behind a pair of girls who have jumped six-feet.

Now the senior has to get herself set for the Penn Relays Thursday, where she’ll be one of 21 girls competing in the high jump. Kirschling will have to face not only the top competition from around the United States, but several top Jamaican jumpers, including Edwin Allen’s Kimberly Williamson, last year’s winner, who has a top jump this year of 1.83 meters—just over six feet.

Kirschling’s been to Franklin Field before—as a spectator her sophomore year, soaking in the atmosphere and the deafening chants of “whoop, whoop, whoop,” and again as a junior in the 4x100 relay, but this will be her first shot at her signature event.

“I’ve always just wanted the experience of jumping at Penn,” Kirschling said.

Her performance Saturday could be a springboard to doing well in the brick confines of Franklin Field, Drummond said, and a similar performance could put her right in the mix there.

“She could jump with anyone at that point,” he said.

Kirschling also added a fifth place in the triple jump later in the day at Woodbury, leaping 35-3.5, her best of the year so far.