Novi High Junior Becomes High Jump State Champion

This article was posted by Aysha Jamali. It was written and reported by Julianne Pitcher.

Novi High School junior Kerri McMahan became the only state champion for the girls track and field program this year with a high jump record of 5’6”.

“With the bar at 5'6", all four of us missed on our first attempt, but I finally cleared on my second attempt.  The other girls did not,” she said. “I was standing by Coach Marsha Reid as the other three girls jumped their last attempt.”

All of the girls ended up missing the bar again, which meant McMahan had won.

“When the last girl missed, Coach Reid gave me a huge hug, and I smiled to myself knowing I had won a state championship for Novi High School," McMahan said.

While the second place height was 5’5”, Novi’s current school record is 5’6 ¾”, McMahan’s personal best, and the previous school record was 5’6 ½”, which was set in 1996, she said. 

McMahan began track and field in seventh grade when she first tried long jump for a field event.  It wasn’t until she saw a group of kids practicing high jump a few weeks into the season that she decided to try jumping over the bar.  She has enjoyed high jump ever since, she said.

“I love the feeling of landing on the mat, looking up, and seeing the bar still on the standards,” McMahan said.

In addition to her high jump abilities, McMahan also plays varsity basketball.  No matter if she is competing at a track meet or dribbling down the basketball court, she is easy to spot with a headband always around her head. 

“The story behind my headband is that as a kid I never liked wearing my hair up, and when I wore it down, it was always in the way. One day before soccer practice, my dad pulled a headband out of his gym bag and gave it to me. I've worn a headband for sports ever since! Little did he know what he started that day,” she said.

McMahan will attend the University of Akron on a full-ride scholarship in the fall of 2014, where she will be playing basketball.  Being a division one college athlete, she must focus on one sport, so high school will be the end of McMahan’s high jump career.