Boldridge breaks father’s triple jump record in historic leap

Leighton Boldridge did more than reset the Atchison High School triple jump record. He took down the mark tied to his father, James Howey, turning a 39-year-old standard into a family handoff and giving Atchison a rare athletic moment built on both legacy and surprise.

Boldridge, a senior and first-year track-and-field competitor, set the record in just his second meet and only the fifth triple jump of his career. His leap of 46 feet, 2.5 inches carried him past the old Atchison High mark and signaled that his move from baseball to track was paying off almost immediately. The jump came at the Bonner Springs Invite at Bonner Springs High School, where he won the boys triple jump and also placed third in the long jump at 20-9.75.

That combination matters because Boldridge was not entering track as a longtime specialist. He has also been identified as a Class of 2026 athlete in football, basketball and wrestling at Atchison High School, which makes the rapid rise in the triple jump stand out even more. In a sport that often rewards years of repetition, Boldridge needed only a handful of attempts to reach a school record that had stood for 39 years.

For Atchison fans, the record carries a deeper local meaning than a line in a results sheet. It links two generations of the same athletic family and gives the Redmen a new standard to chase the next time the triple jump runway is set up. The mark also fits a growing spring theme in the county, after Atchison County Community High School junior Ben Handke broke a separate triple jump record at 43-4.75, showing how quickly the event has become a place where familiar names are rewriting the record book.

Boldridge’s leap now stands as both a personal breakthrough and a public benchmark. It is the kind of performance that changes how a program is remembered, and how younger athletes in Atchison County picture what is possible.