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l a f a y e t t e s a v i n g s p r e s e n t s t r a c k a n d f i e l d : g e o f f d a v i s To New Heights Davis excelling in final season at Purdue BY KYLE CHARTERS KCharters@GoldandBlack.com School in Indianapolis, Davis was arriving home from an open gym when he learned his mom had lined him up an opportunity. "She told me 'Yeah, I made a call to Purdue. I know you don't want me taking care of all your business, but I did it,'" of the best high jumpers in the country. Saturday, he tied a personal record of 7-feet, 3.25-inches in an outdoor jump fter washing out of the state fiat the Tiger Track Classic in Auburn, Ala., nals as a high school senior, high winning the event and setting a mark jumper Geoff Davis thought his prosthat's the seventh-best in the country pects for continuing his athletic career this season. In the indoor NCAA Chamin college were over. pionships last month, he His mom, however, had finished fifth, jumping 7-5 to other ideas. set a Purdue record. Rather than let her son It's been a vast improvewallow in the disappointment from high school days. ment of his failed final meet As a sophomore and junior — he finished last — Yolanat Lawrence Central, Davis da Davis scoured the Interfinished fifth and third, renet for contact information spectively, in the state. Then, of track and field programs as a senior, he failed to clear at Indiana universities, cold any height, the only state calling coaches one-by-one participant to do so, and and hoping for a positive recame in dead last. sponse. Or any response reIf there was a national Purdue ally. She got one at Purdue, ranking for high school where then-head coach Jack Senior high jumper Geoff Davis has come a long way since entering Purdue as a jumping prospects, Davis' Warner was willing to take walk-on. name wasn't there. Geoff Davis on as a walk-on. Geoff Davis said. "I was like 'OK, thank "I wouldn't have been that high," "I did the recruiting for him," Yolan- you.' … I had to walk on and prove he said. "… They don't start giving da Davis said laughing. what I was made of." scholarships for high jump unless Geoff Davis, meanwhile, had little Apparently, that's a lot. Davis has you're (jumping) like 7-feet. I didn't reidea of his mom's pursuit. A basketball far exceeded expectations since arriv- ally think about (doing it in college) too player also at Lawrence Central High ing at Purdue in 2010, becoming one much until she made the call." A Commitment As a kid, David Boudia stood three stories above the water. Scared. Ten years later, he won the gold. Lafayette Savings Bank champions commitment. www.LSBANK.com / 742-1064 GoldanDBlack express • volume 23, express 28 • 20