Bye-bye, Bruce. Big WR for M45 Dennis Lewis
Paul Babits wasn’t the only vertically gifted geezer over the weekend. At the same meet at Eastern Michigan, M45 Dennis Lewis made one of his rare appearances and high jumped an incredible 2.04 (6-8 1/4) at age 46 — crushing the recent world indoor record by Bruce McBarnette.
Dennis, of course, is famous for a 2.11 (6-11) jump indoors in 2002 at the age of 42 — a record he was never credited with but is statistically acceptable to the likes of high jump maven Weia Reinboud in Holland.
Dennis, who turns 47 in three weeks, is incorrigable in that he rarely submits his marks for record consideration. He just like to pop big ones (almost always in Michigan) and go home. He doesn’t compete in masters nationals, and therefore flies below the radar of USATF when it comes to awards consideration.
He’s just a no-big-deal kind of guy.
Becca Gillespy reported the record to me, but the site she cited referred to his mark as 6-2 1/2 — well below Bruce’s recent efforts. But the results site specifically stated 2.04, and placed him as follows:
Men High Jump
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Automatic: A 2.23m
Provisional: P 2.17m
School: ! 2.29m 1999 James Nieto
Stadium: $ 2.29m 1999 James Nieto
Name Year School Finals Points
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1 Adam Kring Eastern Michigan 2.09m 6-10.25
2 Andrew Hayton Cornerstone 2.04m 6-08.25
2 Dennis Lewis Unattached 2.04m 6-08.25
4 Clint Keranan Eastern Michigan 2.00m 6-06.75
4 Joe Dugall Maccomb Communit 2.00m 6-06.75
6 Brad Waidmann Eastern Michigan 1.95m 6-04.75
7 Dan Evans Northwood 1.90m 6-02.75
— Matt Haskins Cornerstone NH
— Ben Tierney Northwood NH
I’ll write meet officials to see if they did the proper record-measuring thing.
3 Responses
I think using percentage of difference would be more accurate. Dennis Lewis’ PR is (I believe) 2.34m (7-8). That would be 87.2% of his PR. Yours would be 91.8%. Using the Age Graded tables yours would be a jump of 2.155m or 7’3/4″ (17.8% improvement). Lewis’ would be an incredible 2.552 or 8’4 1/2″ (but only a 9.1% improvement). You have him beat either way!
Correction on Lewis’ age graded mark. It would convert to 2.456 or nearly 8’3/4″ (5% improvement.) Thomas Zacharias’ 2.00m(M50) jump from ’97 still leads with an age graded 2.511 or 8’2 3/4″.
That is a tremendous jump. I’m wondering how 6’8 1/4 measures up to his PR. Not being much of a high jumper myself, I went 5’6″ last year at 52 which was six inches below my all time PR. I’m always impressed when anyone can still jump within six inches of their PR at age 50 or over.
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