GIRARD, Kan. – Columbus High School junior Kolt Ungeheuer was on the mound for the Titans baseball team on Thursday night, helping the team beat Girard 8-5 in game two of a double-header.
Less than 24 hours later, Ungeheuer smashed the school’s high jump record in his first ever high school track meet – winning the event at the Girard Invitational.
“I’ve been playing a lot of baseball lately. I just decided to come out and try it for the first time since junior high,” Ungeheuer says, “It went well today.”
The junior cleared 6 feet, 10 inches on Friday afternoon. That mark is 6 inches clear of the previous Columbus High School record of 6 feet, 4 inches.
“I didn’t really expect to go that high,” Ungeheuer says, “I’ve only practiced about three or four times. I’ve never actually tried to go that high, so I didn’t really know what to expect.”
“He asked if he could come out this year. It just happened that they didn’t have a baseball game so he was able to come out and compete,” says Columbus track and field coach Heath Perry, “I never expected he would go 6 feet, 10 inches…but he’s an athlete.”
After such success in his first ever high school meet, Ungeheuer says he plans to work on the high jump a little more the rest of the spring.
“I think I will,” he says of practicing the event more, “I’ll always put baseball first, but I have to try to find time to do more of it. I think I can continue to get better if I keep going at it, and practice more than three or four times like I’ve been doing now. Hopefully I’ll just keep getting better at it.”
“I’d like to see him out here. We have our league meet in a couple weeks and regionals about three weeks from now,” Perry says, “With the jump he’s got…he’s up there in the state. We’ll see how we can work it out to get him to meets and practice. We’ll get with coach Tedlock and hopefully get it worked out.”
COPYRIGHT 2022 BY KOAM NEWS NOW. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.