'He Always Wants to Go Higher'

By Allen Lessels
UNH Insider

Humor us for a second, please.

Get up from where you're sitting and find your nearest interior door. Look up – unless you happen to be seven feet tall and are able to look down – at the top of the door.

Consider this for a moment: Kevin McGrath, a senior on the University of New Hampshire track team, can jump higher than that door. He can take a running start, plant a foot and leap over a bar placed at a height that is higher than that door and come down in a landing pit.

"It's absolutely crazy what he can do," said UNH assistant track & field coach Anna Magle-Haberek. "It's crazy to think he can throw his whole body over that bar. You really have to be all in. You have to run as hard as you can, make that plant and transfer all your momentum to going vertical."

McGrath's teammate and classmate, decathlete Brian Genet, puts it this way: "Oh yeah, he's a freak of nature. The amount of bounce that guy gets is crazy. It's determination and genetics. That's basically it."

The determination rolls into hard work and all of the above turned into a breakout year in the high jump for McGrath.

The support he gave his teammates along the way, coupled with the fact that he did it all coming back from a major knee injury suffered as a freshman and dealing with setbacks in training and competition due to COVID and other injury issues, led to McGrath being named the male winner of the Coaches Award on May 10 at the 4th Annual Senior Showcase and A Night at the WESPYs.

McGrath, a New Hampshire native out of Hopkinton High School, won championships in the high jump at both the America East Indoor & Outdoor Championships this year.

At the Indoor championships in late February, he broke his own indoor school record with a jump of 6 feet, 10.75 inches. He had set the school mark earlier in the month at 6 feet, 9.75 inches. The previous mark of 6 feet, 9 inches was a dozen years old, set by Pat Casey in 2010.

McGrath after setting the indoor high jump school record for the first time at the New England Championships where he placed first.

A standard interior door, by the way, measures 6 feet, 8 inches.

Slowed in the spring by an injury, McGrath battled back to win the America East Outdoors championship with a leap of 6 feet, 8.75 inches. He matched that height at the New England Championships on Friday. He does not own the school outdoor record: that belongs to Matt Guarente with a jump of 6 feet, 9.5 inches in 2008.

McGrath is not done yet and plans to continue shooting for the outdoors record and to improve on the indoors mark.

He returns to the Wildcats next year while working on his MBA.

Assistant coach Anna Magle-Haberek and McGrath after he broke his own school record at the America East Indoor Championships and won gold.

"I'll be back next year to break my own record," he said. "It's not high enough right now. I can definitely jump a lot higher than that."

Along with his winning accomplishments in the high jump, the track & field staff nominated McGrath for the Coaches Award for his approach and attitude, as well as that stick-to-itiveness through adversity.

"What he's done after injuries and COVID is pretty remarkable," said Robert Hoppler, UNH's director of men's and women's track & field and cross country. "Meanwhile, he's a great student and a great teammate. The kids love him. He's optimistic and he's positive even when things weren't going well. He shows up every day and is a positive person at practice, always talking about doing well."

McGrath at the America East Outdoor Championships where he won gold. (Photo by Brian Foley)

McGrath backs up his confidence on the track.

"There wasn't a shadow of doubt in his mind that he was going to get the school record," Hoppler said. "He always believed that. He never quit, never lost his belief in the face of all those challenges."

Even in the heat of competition, McGrath is ready to support his teammates, Magle-Haberek said.

"It's amazing to watch him support everyone else around him," she said. "In one of our meets he was in the middle of jumping for the school record and one of the races went by. He was in between two of his jumps and ran to the side of the track to cheer on his teammates. That's a huge part of his leadership ability.

Magle-Haberek is in her first year with the team and was a Big 12 high jump champion while competing for the University of Colorado. She's excited to see what McGrath can do next year.

"He always wants to go higher," she said. "I have no doubt if he stays healthy and keeps training like he does, with his dedication and another year of training, he should clear seven feet. That's a big goal of his and UNH has never had a seven-footer. The four-minute mile is certainly a benchmark in track and a 7-foot high jump is definitely a big one."

McGrath, who is about 6-foot-2 and 170-175 pounds, prides himself on his work ethic and the mental side of his game and is excited about next year as well.

"On our approaches to the jump, speed is a big thing," McGrath said. "The high jump is also a huge mental thing. When I'm going to attack a bar, I'm thinking and envisioning to myself that I know I can clear it based on how much I've practiced and worked at it. When I'm going for a record height, I'm thinking I basically cleared it in the gym, not physically but by the work I've put in, and I have to go out and do it in competition. When I unlock that in my mind, I don't get nervous. I step up knowing I can do it."

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