Boys track and field: Halverson, one more time, has high hopes

It seems appropriate that Henry Halverson was named Grant's Prom King a few weeks ago.

He shares his first name with royalty.

Henry is a fourth, just like King Henry the Fourth of England, whose reign lasted from 1399 to 1413.

"It was cool being Prom King," said Halverson, whose Prom Queen just happened to be his girlfriend, Karleigh Bolton. "I got a cool crown and a cool sash and some nice photos. It was an honor."

Now that his reign as prom king is over, Halverson is angling for another shot at royalty.

High jump royalty.

The 6-foot-4 Halverson, long and lean and a former basketball player, is one of the best high jumpers in Lake County and in Grant history.

He is in downstate Charleston this weekend at Eastern Illinois University for the state track and field state meet. This is the third year in a row that Halverson has advanced in the high jump. But he has never placed, and placing translates to a top-eight finish.

Halverson's top goal this weekend is to be among the best of the best state high jumpers and earn a place in the top eight. In other words, he wants to be considered high jump royalty in the state of Illinois.

"I need to place. I just need to place. I'm due," Halverson said with a slight laugh, referring to his previous two trips to state that ended without him placing. "It's my goal to place this time. I want to place in the top eight, I want to be all-state."

And to do that, Halverson wants to set a new personal best.

His highest mark ever in a high school meet is 6-foot-5, set last year in the indoor state meet at Illinois Wesleyan.

Halverson believes that if he can raise that PR by at least an inch or so, he'll be in range of placing this weekend.

"I'm ready to go and I feel good. I think I can get a PR," Halverson said. "I like a little bit of pressure like that. I think I usually perform well under pressure."

Halverson says that high jump is a high-pressure sport anyway, a very mental sport that can strike fear and anxiety into even the most seasoned jumpers.

To stay as calm and focused as possible, Halverson has a routine before he jumps. And it involves a whole lot of nothing.

"I think about nothing, so I think about the color black," Halverson said. "Right before I jump, I close my eyes and I try to clear my mind of everything and I have my mind go to black, otherwise my mind tends to wander."

Halverson will, however, allow himself to think of one person while he is at the state meet: his friend and former teammate Mariah Soeder. She was a freshman at Grant and Halverson was a sophomore when they both went to the state meet for the first time. Soeder passed away nearly two years ago.

"We talked all the time about the state meet and wanting to place down there," Halverson said. "I want to place at state this year in honor of her."

When Halverson first got into high jump as a freshman, he was clearing a modest 5 feet 6.

One year later, he was clearing 6 feet and qualified for state. And then last year is when he set his personal best mark of 6-5, nearly a foot of improvement in two years. Not bad for a guy who tried high jump in middle school for the first time ever and didn't even really like it because it seemed intimidating.

"Most kids might improve 2 to 3 inches in a year. Very few go up by 6 inches in one year like Henry did between his freshman and sophomore year," Grant high jump coach Nick Nenni said. "That's when I learned never to put a limit on Henry. He is such a student of the game. He wants to be an expert about all things high jump. His biggest advantage is that he's always researching, always watching videos, always studying ways to get better and to find any little thing that might improve his technique. He wants to know more about high jump than anyone else."

Nenni says that Halverson is only the second track athlete in Grant history to advance downstate for three consecutive years in the same event. The first was Jonathan Wells, also a high jumper.

Wells, a 2014 graduate, owns the Grant records for high jump: 7-2 for indoor and 7 feet for outdoor. Now competing at Illinois, Wells just won the Big Ten meet in high jump with a 7-5.

For reference, the Illinois state high school record in high jump is 7-foot-5¼, set by Tom Smith of Heyworth in 1985. Most top Olympians are near 8 feet.

Halverson has his eye on all those marks.

"I've looked at videos of Jonathan Wells and of Olympians like Erik Kynard from the United States and Derek Drouin of Canada," Halverson said. "Those are high jumpers I try to replicate. I try to make my form like theirs. I really do a lot of research and I'm always looking for new (tips). I think that's helped me a lot."

Halverson will continue to study high jump next year at Harper College, where he plans to compete for the track team. His goal is to go from Harper to a four-year school and compete at the NCAA level.

"I had always thought that basketball was going to be my thing," Halverson said. "I grew up playing a lot of basketball. I wanted to play basketball in college.

"But once I got to high school and I put more time into track and high jump, I realized how much I like it, and it made me want to focus more on high jump. I'm really motivated to became as good as I can be, and I think I can still get a lot better."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

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