St. Francis High School senior-to-be Casey Roche continued his dramatic summertime improvement in 2006, with his third personal breakthrough since the final high school competition.
Roche, who ended the high school season with a career best of 16-07, has since gone 16-09.25 at the Junior Olympics Regionals, 17-00 at the Los Gatos All-Comers and then 17-5 at the USATF Junior Olympics in Baltimore last Sunday, July 30.
The personal-best clearance gives Roche a share of the 2006 state lead with recently graduated Scott Roth of Granite Bay, and moves him into a tie with Roth for third on the all-time California state HS list. He also is within one inch of the state 11th-grade record of 17-06.00, set by Acalanes High’s Brent Burns in 1986.
Track and field is in the genes for Roche’s family. His father, Casey Sr., was the vault coach at Stanford when Cardinal alum Toby Stevenson rose to prominence in the event. His mom was an Olympic Trials finalist in the 100-meter high hurdles in 1980, his grandfather competed in the hurdles and horizontal jumps at UCLA, and his uncle was an Olympian in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
— DyeStatCal
