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SPRINGFIELD — Marcus Walton is a high jumper with a convenient superpower. He can fly.
Don’t believe it? Just look up, and you’ll spot the Parkview senior with a flat-top as high as his vertical and a smile as wide as his stride. That’s Walton up there, soaring as if one of Odin’s ravens pulled from Norse mythology and morphed into human form. A Parkview Viking on the precipice of becoming the best high jumper in Missouri high school history.
Last year, Walton soared over the high-jump horizontal bar to 6 feet 10 inches, 20 inches higher than his freshman mark and five inches short of the all-Class state record—a record set in 1982 by Parkview alumnus Bill Jasinski.
“I’ve thought about nothing except the Parkview record since I stepped into Parkview track my freshman year,” Walton, last year’s Class 5 state champion, said. “That was the one goal. I’m just ready. I want to take it down so bad. It’s been up there for so long.
“It’d be cool to leave my legacy other than just being a state champion. It’s something that whenever people walk past [the sign] in the hall they can be like, ‘wow, he actually did something here.’ I’ve never talked to Bill [Jasinksi]. But, I look up to you if you see this.”
Legacy is a word Walton has taken seriously since flying into Parkview’s halls over three years ago.
“I just remember him as a freshman telling me he was going to break the school record, which is the all-Class record. I said, ‘You know you’re talking about jumping 7-3, and he’s like, “Yeah, I’m gonna jump 7-3,” Parkview track coach Jay Miller said.
When he’s up in the air, it’s silence. A mute button on the noise below interrupted only by the white noise of wind.
“You can’t see anybody up there. It’s just sky and you and a bar,” Walton said. “[At Parkview] I have school, and friends that are always wanting to talk to me. At home I have family stuff going on. Track is kind of where I get to be myself, and especially high jump, where I have people under me looking up to me.
“When I’m jumping, it just feels like I’m flying. It’s a time to be free.”
But it’s Walton’s elegant form that fills the sky for eyes fixed to bodies forever fixed to earth. Coaches from North Dakota State included, where Walton has committed to spend his next four years and where his high jump is expected to reach another level.
“We don’t have anybody [at Parkview] who is really tuned into all the technicalities of the high jump, [meaning] he’s going off pure talent, and when college coaches look at him they go, ‘Oh, we can tweak this, this and this. We can take him from 6-10 to 7-2 right now,” Miller said.
Walton’s high-jump coach at Parkview is Amber Doolittle, a high-jumper in high school who’s built a strong relationship with Walton.
“She’s like another version of me,” Walton said of Doolittle. “She just understands how to talk to me whenever I’m getting upset and knows how to calm me down.”
Even with Doolittle’s knowledge, Walton’s potential still hasn’t truly been tapped.
“The technicalities of the high jump as far as your takeoff point to where you actually leave the ground compared to your approach, there is so much to that one small variation that can have a dramatic effect on getting over the bar,” Miller said.
“There are technical things we don’t know, and we do a lot of research and try to make changes the best we can. No high school person has that kind of technical expert. So he’s doing this mostly just off of natural talent.”
Despite Walton’s outward modesty, it’s a talent that, inwardly, he seems to know he possesses. After all, you don’t throw around the word Olympics without a certain level of swagger.
“I want to go to the Olympics in 2020,” he said. “If I can jump 7-6 and qualify for the Olympic trials, that would be nice. It’s every kid’s dream to excel in their sport, and that would just be amazing. I mean, Olympics is, ahhhhhh! It’s the dream.”
The winged Viking first went airborne at Pipkin Middle School in Springfield. His parents, who attended Nixa (mom) and Kickapoo (dad), were late for pick-up one day. His P.E. coach saw an opportunity.
“He asked if I just wanted to come join track,” Walton said. “And I was like, ‘sure, whatever.’ They’d been bugging me about it.”
Walton started at 3-10 but had already improved to 4-7 by the end of seventh grade. One year later, he took first at every meet except all-city.
“It rained that day. Threw off my game.”
Walton’s kryptonite is precipitation? Could be worse.
“Then freshman year, I don’t really know what happened. I went from 5-2 to 5-8, and I guess football workouts and lifting in high school played a big part in it. I gained those six inches and then after that I went to Hillcrest Invitational and jumped 5-10 and was super excited. And then I jumped 6 feet, and that was super exciting. There’s nothing like doing what you love and progressing at it.”
Walton reached 6-1 freshman year but narrowly missed qualifying for state. Sophomore year, he added the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400 relays to his lineup. (Walton has also added the long jump, and plans on competing for a state title in that event as well). The extra events made the high jump tougher, but progress continued.
“I got over 6-4 and onto Parkview’s Top 10 list, and after that I realized track is something I want to be apart of until I finish with college and possibly farther than that.”
Then, junior year happened, a year that in many ways has shaped Walton’s future.
“[Junior] year was freaking crazy,” Walton said. “I have no idea what happened. I jumped 5-10 at the Hillcrest Invitational. Super p.o.’d. I just remember walking off and never wanting to feel like that again.
“Then I came out, jumped 6-4 and I was like, ‘Great, I’m back to where I was last year.’ And then I jumped 6-6 and I was like, holy crap this is happening. And then 6-8 I was like, ‘Jesus, can I do it? Can I possibly pass 7 feet today?’ And then once I got to 6-10 I just didn’t know what to do. I was having trouble keeping calm and keeping my breath down, because the high jump is definitely something I love. It’s something that means a lot to me, and I just remember the feeling going through my body like, ‘I can’t believe I just did this.’ And then I caught 7 feet with my butt, but it’s something I can work towards this year.”
That saying about dreaming it and doing it? In this case, it’s not just a saying.
“I’ve had plenty of dreams about breaking the record. Especially daydreams. Those are bad because they get super intense. I’ll be audibly screaming in my dream. Because once I jump 7-4, I’m gonna freak out.”
Once I jump 7’4”, he says. For Walton, it’s happening. The record will fall.
“High jump is just my life,” he said. “There’s nothing that brings as much joy to me as high jump does. Not everybody can be good at it. You have to work. You have to excel. And I’m glad it can show in such progressive amounts for me.”
