Junior Olympic champion surpasses 21-year-old high jump age-group mark, but can't claim record as leap wasn't at USTAF sanctioned meet.
Video: Montana athlete sets high jump record
See Helena freshman Trey Tintinger leap higher than any 14-year-old in history.It's not official, but no matter. What
Helena (Mont.) freshman
Trey Tintinger did Saturday was out of this world.
The ninth-grader, who last summer won the USTAF Junior Olympics age-group high jump title with a 14-year-old national record of 6 feet, 6¾ inches, shattered that mark with a leap of 6-11 at a CM Russell triangular meet.
According to the
Independent Record, the leap broke the Memorial Stadium and Helena school mark. It would've established the world age-group record, which is 6-10¾ by Jamaica's Christoff Bryan set in 1996.
But according to the USTAF, official national and world age-group records can only be established at USTAF sanctioned events, or one where a USTAF member is in attendance.
Saturday's meet didn't meet those criteria, thus his remarkable feat — witnessed all over the internet — will go down as an "unofficial age-group world record."
The 6-foot-3 Tintinger turns 15 on June 22 and will go after the state record of 7-2 later this month.
His record leap is remarkable considering he broke his right kneecap in the fall during basketball tryouts.
His 6-11 leap ranks 15th in the country this year among any high school athlete, according to
athletic.net, well back of the 7-6 jump by national leader Vernon Turner of Yukon (Okla.).
