MILTON — In addition to graduating with honors from Milton High School later this month, Ethyn Periman will leave MHS with several medals earned in track and field.
And he set a new school record.
In his three years with the MHS boy’s track team, coached by Joe Austin, Periman has earned medals in district, regional and state competitions. He also competed in the recent Mobile Challenge of Champions, an invite-only competition.
“I have coached track and field for 18 years and I have had some great jumpers,” Austin said. “As far as technique, (Periman) has been the best.”
Periman’s work ethic and talent led him to set a school record in the triple jump held since 1990. It happened during this year’s regional track competition. Periman set the record at 47 feet, two and a half inches. Austin estimated the previous record for the triple jump was around 45 feet.
“My sophomore year, I would walk through our lunch room and I would walk past our hall of fame. I would look at the guy — his name is Kevin Robinson, who held the record — and it made me mad just seeing his name up there,” Periman said.
“I feel like it perpetuates my memory here, I can walk through the halls here and see my name on the board.”
Austin said a lot goes into perfecting the triple jump, a track and field event consisting of performing a hop, step and jump from a running start.
“There is a lot of little things that you can build in (which) can maintain your speed plus get distance on each phase,” he said. “If you go up too high, you lose speed. If you jump out too far in reach, you don’t have enough for your second phase.”
As a key to Periman’s success, Austin said the senior always puts his body in the right technique to gain ground. Another key to Periman’s success was his experience in gymnastics and martial arts.
He’s now on college scouts’ radar for a potential scholarship. However, Periman has also earned scholarship funding for his academics. In addition to being part of the high school’s physics and astronomy clubs, along with the National Honors Society, Periman has a weighted GPA of 4.6.
While Periman considers his options following graduation, he wants to keep running and potentially pay it forward, should he remain in the area.
“I definitely want to keep up with running,” he said. “If I stay here, I definitely want to come back and help coach and maybe volunteer. That would be really fun.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Milton student sets school record in triple jump