Lewis Leaps Into the Spotlight, Shares American Record in High Jump

For 24 hours last weekend, Dennis Lewis celebrated his new American outdoor high jump record. Then, Sunday, he had to give it back. Now, he and Dwight Stones share the mark.

Lewis, a freshman at Long Beach City College, had come up with an amazing performance Saturday.

After arriving late for a meet at USC and taking no practice jumps, he began jumping at his customary height of 7 feet. At the second height, 7-2, the only other jumper still in the competition failed to clear and Lewis won.

He decided to continue jumping by himself, going after Tyke Peacock’s national community college record of 7-5 3/4. He bettered it, clearing 7-6 on his third attempt.

“Then everybody was yelling, ‘7-10’,” Lewis, 26, told reporters at a luncheon Monday. “I moved it to 7-7, made that, and then up to 7-8. I cleared that on my second try. Then I decided to go for 7-9. I had a good attempt. My hips cleared the bar, but when I got over the bar, the power failed.”

The real failure, however, may have been by the officials. Because the high jump competition was measured in feet and inches, not meters, Lewis’ marks had to be converted. The officials, in checking standard conversion tables, discovered that there is no recognized metric equivalent for 7-8.

Stones’ American record of 7-8 converts to 2.34 meters. The next increment, 2.35, converts to 7-8 1/2. As a result, when the conversion finally was made, Lewis had to settle for the lower figure, giving him only a share of the record.

Apparently, though, it didn’t bother him. “I’m not upset about the changing of the marks,” Lewis said. “It’s early in the season. There is no way I can be peaking now. How can I be peaking when it’s my first meet?

“My goal is to be the first one to go 8 feet. With serious training, it can be done. I definitely will be able to go 7-10. Definitely. For this season, I want to be consistent at 7-6, there is no reason why I can’t clear 7-6 every meet.”

If it’s beginning to sound as if Lewis is rivaling Stones in braggadocio, it’s only because he’s making up for lost time. After jumping 7-2 as a high school senior for a national indoor record, Lewis enrolled at Michigan State. He went 7-3 indoors, but he faltered in the classroom.

“I wasn’t really prepared for the college atmosphere,” Lewis said. “So I left and went home (to Ypsilanti) and enrolled in a small school near my home.”

Lewis gave up high jumping and took a job on the Ford assembly line, then was laid off. After that, he worked for a janitorial service and as a machine operator in a plastics plant. He had totally dropped out of track and spent much of his time playing basketball.

“One day,” he said, “I was watching a meet on TV, the Milrose Games, I think. I watched these guys jumping 7-2 and 7-4. I knew I could do that. So I started going out to a school and jumping by myself. I made an adjustment on my approach run--it had been too straight.”

Then, in December of 1983, Lewis cleared 7-7 in his first meet back. He capped the indoor season with an upset win at the national indoor championships.

Track Notes Dwight Stones began his remarks by blasting officials of The Athletics Congress. “We’ve got to continue to measure metrically,” he said. “The imperial system means absolutely nothing in this sport. When an athlete is not able to break a record because of a mistake by an official, it’s unconscionable.” . . . Dennis Lewis said he credits much of his success to basketball. “Basketball is what helps me the most,” he said. “Every time I stop playing, my jumping goes way down. I think they go together well. It’s where I get my conditioning.” Lewis currently plays on two city-league teams.