When Jefferson High junior Josh Eckmann competes at the Class B State Track Meet in Butte this weekend, it will be a big stage appearance. Eckmann goes into the meet with the second best Class B high jump in the state this season at 6’ 4” and championships at both the district and divisional level. He will also compete in four other events: triple jump, 300 hurdles and both relay events.
That’s big for any high schooler. Match that with the fact that he was among the leaders at the state golf tournament last week when a weather delay forced him to forego the second round to compete at the division track meet, and very few high school athletes can claim the same level of success. But success is nothing new for Eckmann. Neither is being on the big stage. He started doing that even before high school.
Back in the summer of 2014, before his freshman year at Jefferson High, Eckmann earned All-American honors at the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics in the high jump. Five foot seven at the time, he cleared 5’ 5”, his personal best at the time. That was good enough for a seventh place tie in his 13-14 age group, with the top eight places earning a medal. It also earned him congratulations from a highly decorated Olympian, Carl Lewis.
Standing next to Lewis on the Houston, Texas stage was a real thrill he said at the time. “It was a great experience to meet such a decorated Olympian,” he said in an interview with the Monitor. The competition at Houston was tough, with the winner clearing 6’ 4 3/4”, the same height as the previous national record set two years earlier and a half inch more than the previous junior olympics meet record set in 1993.
Eckmann was the only medal winner at the national event who was “unattached,” meaning he was not there representing and backed by an established track club. The soon-to-be JHS athlete also qualified for the triple jump at the national junior Olympics, though he was unable to medal in that event. In his interview at the time, Eckmann said he planned to continue competing in track in high school as well as adding football, basketball and golf to his extra curricular activities.
Since then he has quarterbacked the JHS football team, played on the division winning JHS basketball team and shot an 81 in round one of the state golf tournament. So when Eckmann focuses his efforts in all of his events at the state track meet this weekend, he will not be in totally unfamiliar territory.
“The atmosphere in the stadium was amazing with all the fans, participants and the many events going on at once,” Eckmann told the Monitor of the competition in Houston in 2014. “I am glad I was able to perform by best in that setting.” Plenty of JHS fans and others will be cheering for Eckmann – and all the competitors at the state meet – to do their best this week.
