#SDSportsAwards, boys field: Parker's Zack Anderson leaps ahead

Zack Anderson is always pushing for new heights, even after jumping higher than any high school athlete in the state this season – and last. The sky is the limit for the Parker standout.

The Class B state high jump champion joined rare company this year with his 7-foot jump, a significant mark in track circles that’s rarely exceeded by prep competitors. Anderson cleared 7-feet at the Jesse James Invite this season in Garretson.

“That’s definitely a height that, once I got it, I thought okay, ‘I can get this again,’” Anderson said earlier this year at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays (wherein he won the high jump).

But Anderson knows as well as any the confluence of factors that must come together perfectly to push a person upward over 84 inches into the air.

MORE: See other winners of the S.D. Sports Awards

“Natural ability and athleticism can push you into the mid six-foot range,” Anderson said, adding, “once you want to get to the point where you’re stretching for heights, you have to have the form right.”

That Anderson has even more inches to give is impressive, and as a future competitor for the University of South Dakota, he’ll have plenty of time to hone his craft.

For now, he’s the state’s best high jumper – and is no slouch in the long jump and triple jump, either. That he competes for a small, Class B school is a badge of honor – not a slight. Anderson stared down the state’s three classes and out-of-state competitors at the Dakota Relays, taking home gold with a jump of 6-7.