Shoaf wins high jump, places in three events in Class 2A state championship
By FRED KRONER
It took 84 years, but Mahomet-Seymour finally has its second track and field state champion in the high jump.
Back in 1937 – when it was known as Mahomet Community High School – Paul Blue set a school record, winning the one-class high jump at the state meet with a leap of 6 feet, 1 ¼ inches.
On Friday (June 18) at Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston, M-S senior C.J. Shoaf annexed the Class 2A high jump crown. The 6-foot-4, 160-pound Shoaf leaped 6 feet, 9 ½ inches.
Eight days after signing a letter of intent to continue his career at the University of Illinois, Shoaf displayed the form that led to his school-record jump of 7 feet, ¼ inches earlier in the season. That leap had him tied for the fifth-best performance this spring nationally among high schoolers.
As is his custom, Shoaf passed on lower heights on Friday until the bar reached 6 feet, 5 ½ inches.
He sailed over it on his first jump.
“On that attempt, I actually won (state),” Shoaf said.
All other competitors had been eliminated by the time Shoaf made his first approach.
Having nothing else to prove, he was able to ask meet officials to set the bar at the height of his choice.
He picked 6 feet, 9 ½ inches and made it on his second attempt.
Next, he tried 7 feet, ¼ inch, a height where M-S coach Keith Pogue said, “he had good attempts.”
Shoaf, who is just in his fifth year jumping, didn’t make it, but was well on his way to the best day at state of any male athlete from Mahomet-Seymour.
In the closest race of the day, Shoaf lost a photo finish in the 110-meter high hurdles.
The winner, East St. Louis senior Devonte Ford, was timed in 14.065 seconds.
Shoaf’s official time was a school-record 14.066 seconds.
“It was definitely heartbreaking,” Shoaf said, “but I ran a PR (personal record).”
After a brief break, he was back on the track for the finals of the 300-meter hurdles.
The M-S senior wasn’t finished with heartbreak for the day.
He and East St. Louis’ Ford were quick out of the blocks.
“We got out strong and he was right with me,” Shoaf said, “when he drilled a hurdle (the seventh one). It was really loud when he hit and I didn’t know what it was. It kind of scared me.”
Almost instantaneously, the ESL runner crashed into Shoaf’s lane.
“C.J. was thrown off his rhythm,” Pogue said.
“It came as a surprise,” Shoaf said, “and I had a little bit of a stumble.”
He recovered to place third in a time of 38.79 seconds, just off the school-record time (38.40) he ran at sectionals.
“It was still a great race,” Pogue said.
Ford placed seventh in the nine-runner finals.
Shoaf had qualified for state in a fourth event and gave his best in the 200 meters, the day’s last individual race.
“I was tired,” he said, “but it was definitely cool to go to state in four events and place in three.”
Historic is a better description of Shoaf’s performance on a day that was anything but ‘cool.’
He is the first M-S athlete to place in three individual events at the state track and field meet in one year – ever – and set a school record for the most points scored by a Bulldog athlete at one state meet, totaling 25 points.
“He had a fantastic season,” Pogue said.
Shoaf’s performance and a seventh-place effort by the M-S 3,200-meter relay enabled the school to secure a top 10 team finish at state for the fourth consecutive meet (which covers five years, since there was no state meet in 2020).
The Bulldogs had 28 points and placed eighth.
In 2019, the M-S boys’ team was third at state. In 2018, the team was second and in 2017, the Bulldogs ended in a tie for ninth at state.
Since 2017, M-S is the only Class 2A program in the state with four top-10 team finishes in the finals. In fact, no other 2A school has had more than two top-10 team placements in that same time span.
“Our kids go in with great expectations of competing for championships,” Pogue said. “They aren’t just happy to be there.”
The M-S 3,200-meter relay featured four first-time state track qualifiers in Kyle Nofziger, Matthew Sims, Joseph Scheele and Jonah Singer.
They toured the eight-lap event in 8 minutes, 17.77 seconds and took seventh place, to earn all-state honors.
The top nine in each of the day’s 18 events received all-state recognition.
“They were disappointed (with the finish), but the heat was brutal,” Pogue said. “I’m proud of the kids. It was a great way to send Matthew off.”
Sims was the lone senior on a relay that otherwise consisted of juniors.
“We should be formidable in the distances again next year,” Pogue added.
The IHSA recognized the heat – and the heat index – when it delayed the start of the day’s running events to 5 p.m., three hours after it was originally scheduled to begin.
“It was so extremely hot,” Pogue said. “It’s later in the year (for a state meet typically held in late May), so it wasn’t surprising.
“I’m proud of the way the kids responded. It was a great, weird season. We tried to work and get better as a team. The kids are excited about going forward.”
The M-S team bus was ushered into town Friday night at 9:25 by a fire truck escort that led them back to the high school.
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It was the encouragement of former M-S junior high coach Kelly Bails that drew Shoaf into the jumping arena as an eighth-grader.
He had an auspicious start.
“We didn’t have a lot of meets or practices,” Shoaf said. “They were rained out.”
In the handful of times he competed prior to the sectional as an eighth-grader, his best effort was 4 feet, 10 inches.
The 2017 postseason brought out the best in Shoaf.
He broke the junior high school record, clearing 5 feet, 8 inches and placing fourth at state.
It wasn’t a given, however, that he would continue with the sport in high school.
“I was playing baseball at the time,” said Shoaf, who was a pitcher and an outfielder. “Going to state made it easier.”
He put his baseball ambitions aside, thanks to a comment made by his father.
“It was a hard decision,” Shoaf said. “It took most of the summer.
“I had been playing baseball almost 10 years and definitely enjoyed it. My dad asked, ‘Which one do you enjoy practicing most?’ I really enjoyed track at the time.”
That was then. This is now.
Shoaf didn’t envision the record-shattering career that followed.
“I never knew I would do what I have done,” he said, “and I never thought about (competing) beyond high school.”
His early years in high school didn’t accurately reflect how his career would flourish.
His best jump as a freshman was 6 feet, 1 ½ inches. As a sophomore, he cleared 6 feet, 5 inches and earned all-state accolades by placing sixth at state.
Now when Shoaf goes to meets, he typically passes until the bar gets raised to around 6 feet, 6 inches.
Former M-S assistant coach Gary Garrison added to Shoaf’s workload as a freshman, convincing him to try the hurdles.
“He saw the height I had (6-foot-1 at the time) and thought I might be pretty good,” Shoaf said. “I tried them for a day, and stuck with them.”
As a sophomore, Shoaf qualified for state in the hurdles and just missed earning a medal.
He saw the benefits to hurdling and jumping.
“They are a good combination,” he said. “It helped me get my speed and tempo up.”
In the high jump, Shoaf flashed his potential as a junior during the three indoor meets that were held prior to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down all school sports for the remainder of 2020.
He hit 6 feet, 10 inches in the high jump, a height that would have placed him among the Big Ten Conference leaders.
“That’s when everything clicked for me,” Shoaf said.
He began hearing from college coaches on a regular basis.
Besides Illinois, Indiana, Michigan State and Penn State were other schools that showed the most interest.
The COVID-19 imposed break came at an ideal time.
“I feel like maybe it was a good thing,” Shoaf said. “I was fighting a calf injury, and having it shut down helped.”
Even during the down time away from school sports, he wasn’t inactive.
“I was able to get a lot of lifting in and worked with my personal trainer,” Shoaf said. “I got stronger and faster.”
He also worked out with the Champaign-based Pole Vault Junkies club, which also tutors hurdlers, jumpers and throwers.
Earlier this spring, Shoaf participated without affiliation at several indoor high school meets in the Chicago area.
He sailed over the 7-foot barrier for the first time.
“To go over 7 feet was a big thing,” Shoaf said. “Not many people in high school do it. I knew 7 feet is a crazy barrier.
“The whole facility stopped and cheered for me.”
Shoaf was the first high schooler nationally to eclipse the 7-foot mark in 2021.
Since he was competing unaffiliated, his height didn’t warrant consideration as a school record at M-S.
Shoaf figured since he hit that height once, he could do it again. He was right. On Monday (May 24) at Champaign Judah Christian’s appropriately-named Field of Dreams, Shoaf leaped 7 feet and ¼ inch.
At state, he wasn’t psyched out trying to raise the bar to elevated heights.
“I’ve had attempts at 7-1 and 7-2 where I came close (to clearing it),” he said. “I had the height. I’d gotten everything but my feet over the bar.
“I needed to execute my form.”
His exploits as a senior in the high jump carried over to his other events.
At various times as a senior, Shoaf broke school records in the 110-meter high hurdles (five times) and the 300-meter intermediate hurdles.
In the days leading up to state, Shoaf didn’t have any strenuous workouts.
“I focused on rest,” he said. “I wasn’t going to get any faster, stronger or more endurance this week.”
His future is secure, since signing a letter of intent with Illinois.
The COVID-19 pandemic prevented him from taking any official college visits, but Shoaf was already familiar with the UI campus.
“It was everything I was looking for and I feel that I will do well there,” he said. “It’s one of the best track schools in the nation.
“The facilities are nice and were redone this year.”
Shoaf is undecided on a major.
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Mahomet-Seymour’s all-time state scorecard for boys’ track and field shows state championships earned in six events.
Eleven of those titles were secured in field events. One was by a relay and just one was by a runner in an individual race.
After Shoaf’s 2021 high jump crown, the breakdown by event for the school is: discus (three champions), pole vault (three), shot put (three), high jump (two), 400-meter relay (one) and 3,200-meter run (one).
