In 2013, Chris Cook was the only athlete from the San Benito High boys’ track and field team to qualify for the CIF State Meet.
The surprise wasn’t that the 6-foot, 157-pound Cook ended up going to state — he’s a tremendous, versatile athlete, capable of posting fast times in the 400-meter run — but the stunner was it came in an event he had only started competing in at the beginning of the season, the long jump.
Despite competing in the high jump since he was a freshman — displaying impressive aerial skills in the process — Cook didn’t start long jumping until a quarter of the way through the 2013 season.
“In one of the first meets of the year, coach (Iran White) said to go ahead and try the long jump,” said Cook, who earned a partial athletic scholarship to run and jump at UC Santa Barbara, where he’ll be majoring in biochemistry. “My first jump was a 20-4, and from there the rest is history.”
From the moment he took flight, Cook was a natural in the long jump. At last year’s CCS Championships, he went 22-10 to take sixth place and qualify for state.
Cook actually hit the automatic state qualifying mark on his first attempt — each athlete gets four attempts — before opting not to take additional jumps so he could focus on trying to qualify for state in the high jump.
At last year’s section meet, the long jump and high jump events were taking place at virtually the same time, Cook said. Cook said he ended up missing state in the high jump by one inch — he finished sixth with a jump of 6 feet, 3 inches — but he didn’t second-guess his decision to not take any more attempts in the long jump.
“It was pretty disappointing (that I didn’t qualify for state in the high jump), but you learn more from your failure than you do in success,” he said.
Due to a lingering left knee injury and an illness earlier in the season, Cook said he has gotten off to a slow start. Entering the week, Cook was ranked fourth in the CCS in the long jump (21-8) and sixth in the high jump (6-4).
The latter, which was accomplished in a tri-meet on March 26, equaled his personal record. But Cook is still regaining the form that allowed him to go a career-best 22-10 in the long jump in last year’s section finals.
However, at a recent practice he looked spry and said he’s feeling fully recovered now and confident he will set a personal record in both of his events.
“I’m just looking to make progress, fix some of the bad habits I’ve formed and hopefully set some PRs once league and CCS starts,” Cook said. “Even though I have some form issues I need to fix, it’s kind of nice knowing I’m still hitting some good marks even when I’m doing things wrong.”
White feels Cook is on the verge of accomplishing great things.
“We’re hoping for a top-5 finish or so from him (in the long jump) at state,” White said. “Chris is a really hard worker, has a good deal of talent and he’s smart. You put all that together, and it makes for the total package.”
Before Cook begins his approach, he takes a couple of steps forward, then back, to get into a rhythm and establish a mind-body connection for optimal performance.
Cook comes from a family of track athletes; his dad, Thomas, did the long jump and high jump in high school, and his older brother, Mitchell, a 2009 San Benito graduate, competed in 100, 200 and 4×100 and 4×400 relay events.
Cook vividly remembers being in the stands to watch Mitchell in competition, especially on the weekends. Mitchell, who was recently hired by the Hollister Fire Department, now has the joy of watching his younger brother in action.
“I remember watching my brother and thinking how cool it was and wishing someday I could be out there,” Cook said. “Sure enough, it happened.”
