Riverhead track star Campbell, athletes compete at states

When Kayleanne Campbell was just a freshman, she decided to join the track team at Riverhead to stay in shape to play other sports.

Riverhead track coach Maria Dounelis thought Campbell would be perfect candidate for high jump so, she gave it a try. Fast forward four years later and Campbell holds every school record in the high jump.

“She just had it,” Dounelis said. “You look at certain kids and just know this is their event. She had it from the beginning, and it was just fine-tuning from there.”

Campbell ended up winning multiple Suffolk County championships in the winter and spring for the high jump. She’s jumped as high as 5-foot-6 in her career — a record that will likely stand for years to come.

“I really never thought the high jump would be my best sport,” Campbell said. “Nobody in my family would have ever thought I would get to this point for the high jump. And over the years, I actually grew to love it. Without Coach Dounelis, I don’t think I could have accomplished what I did.” 

The 6-foot-tall senior competed in the New York State track championships at Middletown High School Saturday, June 14 — her last hurrah as a high jumper for Riverhead. Forty-seven high jumpers qualified for the event across the state. As Campbell made her first jump at 5 feet, she looked on as others weren’t able to do the same and dropped out of the running.

High jump is a long, grueling event. It’s not like a 200-meter run that’s over in a blink of an eye. You get three jumps at a height to clear the bar, and if you do, there’s about an hour or so before your next jump as the rest of the field does their attempts. It’s a mental game, staying focused over the course of the event. With the rain falling at Middletown High School the whole way through, that made it even more challenging. 

“High jump is so technical,” Dounelis said. “It really takes someone that is really obsessed with the event. It’s easy to lose focus in between jumps, especially in the states when you have such a large field to try and beat.”

After the 5-foot jump, 13 girls were eliminated for failing three times in a row, thinning out the field for the next jump at 5-foot-2, where another 15 were eliminated. Campbell cleared the bar on the second attempt. 

“For some reason the 5-foot-2 jump always gives me a problem,” Campbell said. “It’s always been like that. I know I can do it, but it’s like a mental thing, I guess.”

On that second jump she cleared the bar by 4 inches at least. She wasn’t anywhere close to knocking the bar off the stand. That effort then carried into a 5-foot-4 clearance in just one attempt, and suddenly, there were only 14 competitors left.

The next jump at 5-foot-6 would equal her career best. Though she gave it her best effort, for three straight times, she nicked the bar with the bottom of her leg on the way down after her upper torso cleared through with ease.

“I feel like those jumps were higher than 5-foot-6,” Campbell said. “If I just cleaned up a little bit, I think I could have made it. Those were some of my best jumps of the season. I just needed to pull my legs in a little bit better.”

Campbell finished third in Class A and eighth in the federation. Had she made her 5-foot-2 jump in her first attempt, she would have finished tied for sixth — equaling her best finish in a state championship.

Her success over the years landed her a scholarship to jump for Division I Quinnipiac University, where she will continue her academic and athletic careers. Campbell plans to pursue a pre-med path there.

“The jumps coach there actually reached out to me,” Campbell said. “It was never really on my radar, because I wanted to go far away from home. But after visiting there, every other visit I just kept comparing it to Quinnipiac, so I knew that was the right spot for me. And I guess Connecticut isn’t that close.”

Though Campbell’s time as a Blue Wave comes to an end, her legacy will live on forever.

“It’s not often you get a girl of Kayleanne’s caliber walking through our school,” Dounelis said. “All the younger girls look up to her and see how far you can go if you truly commit to your craft. She became a student of the game, and she had to. Otherwise, it’s impossible to get these kind of results.”

Other local high jumpers also took part in the state championships as well. Riverhead’s Kobe Boyle and Shoreham-Wading River’s Logan Jung both finished tied for 32nd in the boys high jump championship, clearing the bar at a height of 5-foot-10.