Colon Observes Leap Year Maturity Helps Pullman Long Jumper Put Last Season’s Struggles Behind Him

That Ricardo Colon has the best long jump in the state so far this season isn’t a surprise.

And it really isn’t surprising the Pullman junior ran an impressive 15.2 seconds the first time he did the 110-meter high hurdles two weeks ago.

What really shocked Greyhounds coach Mike Hinz is that Colon went to the coaches and volunteered to run the 110s.

“He has a much different attitude about a lot of different things now,” Hinz said. “He’s starting to look toward the future.”

Colon, who jumped 22-feet, 8-3/4-inches last weekend, said, “I want a college scholarship.”

He went a long way to come to that realization.

His father, a professor in the Washington State University agriculture school, went to Italy, France and Spain last year. Ricardo joined the family last fall in France. While there, he checked out a school for fun and it just happened that the school was a type of sports academy.

He ended up working with the jumpers, getting pointers from a French long jump champion.

“I picked up a lot of new things, mostly technical stuff,” Colon said. “I didn’t do a lot to get in shape. I think I got more disciplined watching and being with them. They’re more focused, more serious. I’m training a lot harder, more serious. I changed a lot.”

That was a welcome relief to Hinz, who basically kicked Colon off the team last spring for refusing to do some workouts.

“I was like a little brat,” Colon admitted.

He had run on a state champion relay team as a freshman but only wanted to long jump last year. But he was a different person after spending fall quarter in France.

“The first thing he said this spring when I first saw him was he was doing well in all his classes,” Hinz said. “That was an important turnaround. Classes had always been secondary to him. I thought it was significant that that was the very first thing he had to say. It was just another sign of being bitten by the maturity bug.”

Though he prefers to long jump, he will do whatever events would help the team.

“I just find (long jumping) an exciting and comfortable event,” he said. “I don’t think it’s as stressful as the sprints. I’ve always been a better leaper. I just like to jump, period.”

Hinz said, “He has tremendous speed and tremendous explosive power. It’s just a great gift that he has. And now he has developed a work ethic to go along with that. That’s why we’re optimistic his jumping is really going to take off this year.”

Last year Colon was third at state, jumping 21-7-1/4. He was 1-1/2 inches behind teammate Chad Schwendiman with junior Greg Snyder of Stanwood winning at 22-1.

Colon was well off his best but he was still recovering from a sprained ankle. The week Colon had his run-in with the coaches, he didn’t exactly have a good week of practice. It was at the end of the week when he had his personal record of 23-8-1/2 in a meet.

“Immediately after that I said I was kicking him off the team next week,” Hinz joked. “Unfortunately, at that same meet, after he got off such a good jump he was going to go for 24 feet, but he came off the board (awkwardly) and sprained his ankle (on his very last jump). We sat him until the district meet.”

He returned to set a Frontier League district meet mark of 23-3-1/2.

Colon will have to stay sharp. Although the Frontier advances just one athlete per event to state, three league long jumpers exceeded the state meet qualifying minimum last year. Schwendiman has graduated but Pat Ferguson of East Valley, who was 4-1/2 inches behind Colon to finish fifth at state, returns.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: FRONTIER TRACK Defending league champions: East Valley boys; West Valley girls have won four straight. State placings: WV girls fifth. Returning state champions: Jeannette Zimmer, Cheney, 1,600, 5:03.69. Returning state placers: Mike Schroder, WV (3rd-javelin); Ricardo Colon, Pullman (3-long jump); Pat Ferguson, EV (5-long jump); Zimmer, Cheney (3-3,200); Jennifer Herbert, Clarkston (3-300 hurdles); Christal Nicholson, EV (5-300 hurdles); Amy Aldendorf, WV (5-shot put); Star Olson, EV (4-triple jump). Key league meet: EV at league-favorite WV girls on April 25; in tight boys race, all meets with favorite EV. Big invitationals: Besides the bigger meets listed in the GSL glance, other major invitationals include Ritzville on Saturday; Freeman on April 20 and Riverside on April 27. Postseason: The District 7 is May 14 and 17 at EWU; State is May 24-25 at Tacoma.