The Road to Eugene: Cameron Echols-Luper
6/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Outdoor Track
With two days to go before the NCAA Championships, GoFrogs.com takes a look at Cameron Echols-Luper’s road to Eugene leading up to his berth in the long jump at the NCAA Championships.
This won’t be Echols-Luper’s first trip to Eugene either. Last season, he was a member of the 4x100 relay that finished 10th overall at 39.52 seconds, which was a seasonal-best for the Horned Frogs. This year, the relay has already rattled off a mark of 39.15 twice, the most recent at the West Prelims, giving them the third best time overall heading into the NCAA Championships.
In the long jump last season, his top mark came at the Big 12 Championships behind a leap of 7.40m (24-3.5). 2015 has been very good to the sophomore from Auburn, Alabama. In his first indoor meet this season, he tallied a distance of 7.62m (25-0). That jump alone brought him up from sixth in the TCU indoor record book to third. In the invite section of the long jump at the Tyson Invitational, Echols-Luper went toe-to-toe with the stacked field, posting another PR at 7.72m (25-4) en route to a fourth-place finish.
With his fifth jump of the 2015 Big 12 Indoor Championships, Echols-Luper hit a mark of 7.61m (24-11.75) to win the crown to become TCU’s first Big 12 Champion in the event and the fourth indoor conference winner. At the NCAA Indoor Championships, he notched another personal-best, launching himself to a distance of 7.91m (25-11.5). The jump put him at No. 2 in the TCU indoor record books and earned him First Team All-America honors.
Echols-Luper opened the outdoor slate by rattling off three-straight wins spread across the 4x100 relay and the long jump. At the Michael Johnson Classic, he opened up in the long jump with a victory by hitting a mark of 7.44m (24-5). After that, he helped the relay to a victory behind a time of 39.53 seconds. At the Horned Frog Invitational, he ran the first leg of the winning relay at 39.18 seconds, the second-best time for the quartet this season.
Jumping for the final time at home this season, Echols-Luper landed at 7.73m (25-4.5) to not only pick up a second-place finish, but also solidifying a spot for him at the NCAA West Prelims. Although finishing fourth was not the desired result at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, Echols-Luper turned his sights to regionals, looking to punch his ticket to Eugene.
After fouling his first attempt, Echols-Luper hit a mark of 7.76m (25-5.5), which would’ve been a seasonal-best and would’ve got him in at the No. 12 spot, but he wasn’t done there. With a non-legal wind at his back, he put together a distance of 7.96m (26-1.5) to catapult him into third-place, booking his ticket for the NCAA Championships.
Combined with both regions, Echols-Luper posted the fourth-best mark overall among qualifiers, only seven inches (0.18m) from the leader.
Among TCU’s 20 national titles, four have come from the long jump event, but none been won by a male student-athlete. Whitney Gipson claimed both the indoor (6.91m/22-8) and outdoor (6.82m/22-4.5) crowns in 2012, while Lorraine Ugen won the 2013 outdoor (6.77m/22-2.5) and the 2014 indoor (6.73m/22-1) championships.
Echols-Luper will have the opportunity to become the first male Horned Frog to accomplish the feat when he takes center stage at 5:15 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, June 10.
