The long jump is an event that doesn’t get much of any television coverage. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the World Championships, Diamond League, or even the NCAA championship meet. No matter who wins that event, you likely won’t hear that much about it. But college coaches don’t think like that. They know that the points you score in that event count just as much as they do in all the other ones. But right now the best long jumper in all of Division 1 is Tye Hunt from Youngstown State University. 

In his first meet of the indoor season, he went 26 feet 6 and ¼ inches which is going to stand as one of the best jumps for the entire NCAA season, regardless of what happens in the coming months. Tye Hunt was not even supposed to be a track athlete in college originally. The truth is that Tye Hunt was a football player who never realized his full potential in the jumps, because his attention was never fully on it to begin with. But now that he is all in on the sport he was always meant to do, he has a chance to shock the world, and every college coach who passed up on him, by out jumping the entire nation.

How good was Tye Hunt in high school?

At the high school level Tye Hunt was a wide receiver on his football team who broke single season records for receptions and total yards. Those performances were good enough to earn him a spot on the Youngstown State football team in Division 1 FCS. He was also a track and field athlete who made the state championships in the long jump and the 200 meter dash. He was actually a high 2 star level recruit on SCArecruiting.com. That means he was good enough for the D1 level, but perhaps not at schools like Ohio State in the Big Ten.

Tye Hunt’s rise to become one of the nation’s best long jumpers

In 2019 Tye Hunt began his football career at Youngstown State. He redshirted that season, and that was the last we ever saw of him on their football team. But as a freshman he jumped a huge PR in his first collegiate indoor meet. He later scored points at the Horizon league championships indoors that season. But in 2021 he continued on as a finalist both indoors and outdoors in the long jump, but didn’t jump anything that most track fans would notice.

It wasn’t until the 2022 indoor season when he truly took off as a jumper. He went 24 feet 7 inches and finished 2nd in the Horizon league indoors, and then won the conference outdoors breaking the 25 foot barrier. That was when he also qualified for the NCAA outdoor regional meet. You could argue that he underachieved in 2023 failing to repeat as long jump champion indoors and outdoors. However in the first indoor meet of the 2023-24 season he jumped a huge PR of 26 feet 6 and a ¼ inches. That jump didn’t just make him the collegiate leader early in the season, but also a legitimate threat to win a medal at the NCAA championship meet this year. 

It is unclear what the future of Tye Hunt’s career will look like, but he has already proven all the doubters wrong. Tye Hunt was a football player for most of his life, and likely never gave track and field his full attention as a result. When he got to college he ended up choosing to shift his focus to where it probably always belonged. He then grinded his way to becoming one of the best jumpers in the entire nation, at an Ohio State University. Even if it was not “the Ohio State University”. Which is funny because there is likely a coach somewhere in D1 who is kicking themselves, wondering why the best long jumper in all of D1, was never recruited to join their team.

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