By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Aathreya Thuppul was a little worried about advancing from the Group IV state meet.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro North senior was not one of the top eight to make the finals of the boys long jump, so he didn’t have another chance to improve on his 21-feet-6 jump.
He didn’t need to. Though he finished ninth in Group IV, Thuppul’s personal record was good enough to earn one of the six wild-card entries to the Meet of Champions that was scheduled for Wednesday in South Plainfield. The top six finishers in each event advanced automatically to the MOC, plus the next best six finishers from across all groups statewide.
“It’s a good feeling,” Thuppul, who figured out on the bus ride back to school that he had made the MOC. “We were in Group IV which is pretty hard to get out.”
Thuppul is no stranger to tough competition. He sees it every day as part of the Knights team that has a competitive culture to it.
“The intrasquad competition is probably the biggest part of our success,” Thuppul said. “Nobody likes losing, even in practice.”
And the jumpers are some of the most competitive athletes on the team. Led by John Owens, the sophomore who placed fifth at groups with a jump of 22-5¼, the Knights have a plethora of talented long jumpers, four in all that have jumped better than 20 feet.
“John’s an incredible athlete,” Thuppul said. “Competing with him helps.”
This year’s practice helped Thuppul go farther than he had. He was scheduled to compete in his first MOC one year after he fell short of that goal.
“I only made it to groups last year and I did not do well,” he recalled. “It’s a bit of redemption. I was upset last year. It’s my last year, and I didn’t want my season to end.”
In addition to the jumpers, the Knights also advanced a runner from the group meet. Kian Jackson was fourth in the boys 800 and fourth in the boys 1,600. The senior has come on strong over the final weeks. Being a senior helped drive Thuppul at groups, as he took advantage of his final attempt to put forth a MOC qualifier.
“It was going to be my last jump of my high school career if I had not jumped that far,” Thuppul said. “It was a bit of fear that motivated me.”
That fear helped him produce a new personal record. It had been a long time in the making.
“From last year, I didn’t PR all year until groups,” he said. “I PR’d by a foot. I’ve been pretty consistently around 20 feet, but never better.”
Thuppul had hit 20-feet in four previous championship meets dating back to the indoor season, but he needed the breakthrough jump to advance. He has come far since he tried the long jump the first time.“I cut from the middle school long jump team,” Thuppul said. “I was not very good back then. I really only started long jumping last year. I triple jumped all of high school.
“One day, Coach (Todd) Robinson said, ‘I think you should give it a shot.’ I think they needed longer jumpers at that point.”
Thuppul was jumping in the 17-feet range early in his return to long jumping, but this year he had stayed around 20-feet.
“I’ve had my ups and downs,” Thuppul said. “I think I’ve made a fair amount of progress. My coach is amazing and that’s helped.”
Thuppul is hoping he can add to his big jump. Before he turns his attention to competing in several of the jumps and possibly hurdling for Carnegie Mellon University, he is looking to qualify for nationals in long jump. The MOC on Wednesday was to give him that competitive platform that worked for him so well at groups.
“I know I can definitely improve my jumps for Meet of Champs, which is what I’m going to do,” Thuppul said. “I want to place. I think I can hit another amazing PR.”
