Salisbury senior Steven Lozada has been eyeing the school’s pole vault record for about two years. Ever since clearing 12 feet, 6 inches in his sophomore season, Lozada began to take aim for the record.

With his final high school season winding down, Lozada surpassed the record and etch his name in Salisbury’s record books. Lozada cleared 14 feet, 11 inches in the Falcons’ home meet against Lehighton back on April 16 to make history.

“That’s been a goal since the end of sophomore year,” Lozada said. “I jumped 12-6, and we knew we were about two-and-a-half or three feet out from it. I’ve been chasing that ever since then.”

Lozada broke the record that held for over 35 years when Matt Foust set it at 14-10 1/2 in 1989. And he did it with his first jump against Lehighton nearly a month ago after not clearing that height in practice ever before.

But the Falcon senior wasn’t done.

A little over a week later, Lozada improved on his own record by jumping 15 feet even at the Blue Mountain Invitational on April 24. Then four days later, he cleared 15 feet, 6 inches against Wilson in the regular season finale to set the record even higher.

While Lozada didn’t clear the height he had hoped for at this past week’s Colonial League Championships, he still placed first and has his sights set on an even higher mark for districts and states. And he’s got a new pole to bring out should the opportunity present itself.

“For pole vault, the goal is just to get as close to 16 feet as possible,” Lozada said. “I just got a bigger pole about two weeks ago. I’m hoping I have the chance to jump with that because that would be a pole I use for a personal record jump.”

Lozada hasn’t had the opportunity to use that new 15-7 pole yet, but the postseason might be the perfect atmosphere to bring it out.

“It’s about two poles higher than what I jumped 15-6,” Lozada said. “Let’s say if I clear 15-6 and go up to 15-9, I’m probably going to move up to that pole and give it a try.”

The District 11 Class 2A Track and Field Championshups are set for Tuesday and Wednesday back at Whitehall High School.