Beaver Local high jumper Landon Wheatley and coach Erika Kinsey go over strategy during the Columbiana County track meet on May 7 in Salem. (Photo by Ron Firth)

CALCUTTA — Beaver Local junior Landon Wheatley went leap-for-leap with a defending state high jump champion on Saturday at regionals.

He might be ready to challenge for a high place on the podium if all works out on Saturday at the state track and field meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

Wheatley’s clearance of 6 feet, 4 inches at the New Concord regional meet is tied for fourth best seed in the state in Div. III, but he’s cleared 6-6 this season several times. During indoor season he hit 6-8 1/4.

He admits he hasn’t hit his goal he set at the beginning of the season.

“Honestly my goal was to get to 6-10,” Wheatley said.

He’ll have two more meets to get it.

At 9:30 a.m. Saturday he’ll compete for the Div. III state crown and then will head to the New Balance Outdoor Nationals set for June 18-21 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

A big stage is exactly what he likes.

“I jump best when there’s a lot of adrenaline,” Wheatley said. “So, in practice I don’t jump as well as meets. I just like the pressure. I feel like if there’s pressure then there’s a big opportunity to perform well.”

Wheatley said his practice routine involves concentration on mechanics and technique. He’s not out to clear 6-10 there.

“Normally in practice I don’t put the bar up too high,” Wheatley said.

Dan and Erika Kinsey, former elite track and field athletes, have been guiding Wheatley along the process of becoming an athlete that compete at the highest levels.

“It’s awesome to be able to just get to be around somebody that has been in the places I want to be, let along be able to train with them,” Wheatley said. “They are both so knowledgeable and showed me this whole other way of training that really helped me get into the nitty gritty of all of my techniques.”

Erika Kinsey was a former Olympian in the high jump for Sweden.

“She brings so much energy and positivity to training and it makes you want to get better,” Wheatley said. “Even if my jump feels perfect for me, she’ll show me something that in a positive way I can tweak and make it just that much better.”

Wheatley started participating at the club level in the winter with the EOSAA Track and Field Club. He made his first appearance at the New Balance Indoor Nationals in March.

“I did all right,” Wheatley said. “It was a lot of pressure there. You get there and you see some big names in high school track. I ended up getting a 6-4 3/4. It wasn’t my best jumping day, but it was great to get that experience under my belt to hopefully do better outdoors.”

He said during indoor meets he got to know last year’s Div. II state champion (there’s five divisions this year instead of three) Aidan Mahon of Philo. The two dueled for first at the New Concord regional meet.

“The state champ was going to go for 6-6 so (Wheatley) wanted to go to 6-5 so he could put a little more pressure on the state champ,” Beaver Local track coach Derrick Stickles said. “Unfortunately it didn’t work out for him that way but he’s very smart and he knows what he is doing.”

Both jumpers only got to 6-4, but Mahon had less misses.

High jump is only one discipline Wheatley is attached to. He’ll compete in the 300-meter hurdles in Columbus as well.

“Instead of being a part of the relays, he decided he wanted to take more of an individual route this season and wanted to run the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles,” Stickles said.

“I didn’t want to be a one-trick pony with the high jump,” Wheatley said. “This year I was going to try to be on the 4×400, but then I let my hurdle coach talk me into the 300s. I really had no expectations (for the 300) but I quickly realized that my 400 training would translate more to that than the 110s. I had a pretty solid go at the 110s, but the 300s have just continued to get faster and faster.”

Wheatley will compete in the 300 hurdle prelims on Friday morning. His best time is 39.76 seconds which he recorded at the regional. His goal is the school record of 39.60 set by Brad White.

“I’d love to get under that,” Wheatley said. “I know I’m going to be in a very fast race and I’m going to have to put up an impressive time. I’m looking first to make the finals and know that number will follow.”

Wheatley is seeded 12th in the 300 hurdles.

As for college, Wheatley is already thinking about it but hasn’t made any decisions yet.

“Honestly just want to go wherever God takes me, whatever fits me the best financially, with coaching and just the atmosphere,” Wheatley said.