Bellevue's Sumser soars to high jump state title

DAYTON — Wyatt Sumser wasn't going to lose. That didn't always seem his destiny, back when he was just a small kid with plenty of doubters. But it's true now, as a Bellevue senior, as the best Division II high jumper in Ohio. Faced with elimination, or competition, or both? Sumser, without fail, has risen to the occasion. And on Friday afternoon at Welcome Stadium, he rose above the bar again and again, all the way to state championship glory. "It's unreal," Sumser said. "The feeling, my heart is just pounding. It's crazy. I never thought that I would be in this position." Sumser's coronation came at the end of a season in which he held the state's best height almost the entire way. In the D-II finals, he cleared 6 feet, 9 inches, the new top height in the state this year and a new Bellevue High School record. "He refuses to lose," Bellevue high jump coach Christian Booze said. This wasn't a predictable outcome. Sumser even now is 5-foot-10, maybe, and 145 pounds. "I used to be looked down on as a kid," Sumser said. "Nobody expected me to be jumping 6-foot-9. I love proving those people wrong." Consider that a year ago, Sumser's personal best was 5-10. In one sense, that was impressive. He was jumping his height. But a mark like that doesn't even get you out of regionals, let alone anywhere near the state podium. Sumser wasn't satisfied. He took multiple weight plates out on a sled on the Bellevue football field and pulled, all summer long. He dead lifted. He didn't let up, because even without a lot of evidence yet, his was always a personality of believing in himself. "For him to be 5-10 and jumping 6-9 is just a testament to how incredibly talented he is and how hard he worked," Booze said. "It almost never happens." Intrigue came almost immediately this season, when he broke the nearly 50 year old school record in the first week of April. Then he went 6-6, and his 6-7 at regional made him the top seed coming to state. There'd be no easy winning in Dayton, not with a competitive group lasting a lot longer than many of their seed heights. "I was a little nervous in the beginning," Sumser said. "I knew it was gonna come down to a dogfight, but that's what I'm good at is clutching up in those late jumps." Sumser nearly went out at 6-5. He missed his first two tries before making it over and allowing the Redmen faithful in attendance to breathe a sigh of relief. "That was an angry jump," Sumser said. "I slowed down to get that power jump. I knew I had to get it." The longest-lasting challenger was Clear Fork freshman Davis Hoeflich, who jumped 6-8 as an eighth-grader but hadn't gotten near that this season. On this day, he rediscovered his form and made it up through 6-8 with Sumser. Sumser's clearance of 6-8, on his second try, was a new school record, but it wasn't enough for the crown. He made it over 6-9 on attempt two, as well. He stood up defiantly, as if wondering why these high bars dared to keep challenging him. "I prayed before every jump," Sumser said. "I knew God had me in good hands, and I just had to go out there and do my best." Hoeflich finally met his match at that height, and on his third miss, Sumser and Booze embraced. All the work had paid off in the most magnificent of ways. "It's in my blood, to be honest," Sumser said. "I've always been this way." Sumser became Bellevue's first state champion since the end of Matt Rowland's pole vault three-peat in 2013. It's the first time a Bellevue athlete even qualified for the high jump at state at all since 1958. He's also the Redmen's first state qualifier in the long jump since 1959 — and he came in sixth on Friday morning in that event at 20-10.75. "My first jump was 17 feet, and the board didn't feel right to me, but then I got out and jumped 20," Sumser said. "... I tried long jump halfway through the season and didn't think I'd be halfway good at it." Sumser hopes to jump in college, and after Friday, he'll have plenty of suitors. But fittingly, he's already written the perfect ending. After making it over 6-9, a championship secure, Sumser and Booze decided not to push the envelope even higher. Instead, in a manner almost no high school athlete can, he chose to end on a make. "My coach told me he wanted the state jump to be the last jump," Sumser said. So about 15 minutes after the biggest and best jump of his life, Sumser elevated, step by step, to the top of the state podium. He was given a gold medal and looked forward, proud of everything that had led to that moment. That scene would be secured in time, like a high jumper suspended over the bar for the briefest of moments before crashing earthward once again. Sumser had defied gravity, and he had the immortal accomplishment to prove it. "It was a perfect meet for him, really," Booze said. "... A banner day for him."