Taylor wins long jump at Meet of Champions
CRESCENT JUNIOR Kinidi Taylor shows off the gold medal she won at the 2022 Meet of Champions last week. Taylor conquered the long jump event as she set a new PR of 19-4 3/4. [Photo provided]
The best long jump in the state by a female in 2022 already belonged to Kinidi Taylor.
On Tuesday, the Crescent High School junior one-upped herself.
Taylor leapt 19 feet, 4 3/4 inches to win the event at the Meet of Champions held on the campus of Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee.
The Meet of Champions is hosted by the Oklahoma Track Coaches Association and is open to athletes in all classifications.
The gold and silver medalists in each event at state automatically qualify for the meet and additional selections are made from among those who finished third-sixth in each event.
Taylor’s jump set a new PR and bested Cache’s Madisyn Crandall’s 18-7 1/4.
Crandall was the 2022 Class 4A state runner-up behind Kingfisher’s Ally Stephenson in the event. She won the 2021 state title in the event.
Taylor won the 2A long jump in 2021 and 2022.
She entered the Meet of Champions with the best jump of anyone in the state when she flew 19-3 at a field-only event at Chisholm in April.
The next best jump was by Sand Springs’ Layne Kirkendoll, who managed 19-1 during a meet this season. Kirkendoll eventually finished fourth at the Class 6A state meet.
The next best jump belonged to Stephenson, who set a PR with 18-6 at the Western Conference meet in April.
But Taylor bested them all.
She jumped 18-5 to win Class 2A this season, a jump that would have won every state meet except Class 6A.
Kadance Barnett of Bartlesville was the runner-up in the 6A meet (where she jumped 18-8 1/4), but she finished third at the Meet of Champions (18-5 1/4).
Four jumps at the meet bested the 18-foot mark. Caya Smith of Putnam City West placed fourth with 18-4 3/4.
Taylor won three golds and a silver at the 2022 state meet.
She was also a state champ in the 400 and 800 meter relays along with teammates Jill Watkins, Calen Cox and Reydon Walker.
That quartet finished sixth in the 400 relay at the Meet of Champions. That was one place ahead of Cashion’s Bella Woody, Abby Hobgood, Reese Williams and Lauren Lamb.
Taylor was also the state runner-up in the 100 meter dash. She took eighth in the event at the Meet of Champions.
Also competing at the meet was Crescent’s Kinzie Bell, who was sixth in the discus throw with a toss of 117-7.
Bell was the 2A state runner-up in the event.