Following mom's advice

After being tasked with trying the high jump by his mother, when the time came, Post Falls High senior Tyler Trengove returned the favor when it came to his hair.

Yes, his hair.

“There’s nothing really special about it,” Trengove said. “I listen to a rapper named Little Yatchy, who has beads in his hair. And it’s red. I used to have really long, flippy hair, and then one day I went in for a trim and shaved the sides and did my hair in a man bun. I asked my mom to braid my hair, and she asked ‘why would you ever do that?’ I told her to just do it, and try it out, and I haven’t done a track meet since without it. It’s kind of a superstitious thing now.”

In the high jump, where he must clear a bar, he used to worry about his hair affecting the jump. Not so much anymore.

“Sometimes I do if I’ve got it in a ponytail,” Trengove said. “But I feel like my head should be well over the bar by the time I start to come down.”

At first, Trengove tried his luck at playing basketball.

It didn’t work out so well.

“I really don’t have the hand/eye coordination to do that, so I tried track,” Trengove said. “The whole dribbling thing — trying not to look at the ball as I was dribbling was a challenge. So I kind of gave it up after I didn’t make the freshman team.”

Trengove had the idea of being a hurdler when competing in track and field as he was first getting started in the sport.

Then his mom, Kris, just wanted him to try the high jump.

“I was going to do the hurdles and other running events,” Trengove said. “And both my parents did the high jump when they were in school. So my mom wanted me to try the high jump.”

First things first, he had to find some videos on the event.

“I had no idea what it was at first,” Trengove said. “After watching them, I thought, ‘I could do this.’ And now I’m here.”

Trengove added that Post Falls jumps coach Marc Allert has been a huge help as well, as has Trojans head track and field coach Wade Quesnell.

“Both coach Quesnell and Allert have been there for me the entire time,” Trengove said. “My mom is good friends with Allert’s wife (Darci), so she knew that the middle school didn’t have a coach in the jumps, so I came here to work with him. They’ve been there for me when I needed them and really kept me going.”

“He was just kind of average in the jumps when he got here,” Quesnell said. “Last year, he really caught fire and then won the long jump, triple jump and high jump at Meet of Champions, which is not easy to do.”

Due to the odd weather this spring, Trengove hasn’t quite hit his peak, Quesnell believes.

“He hasn’t been able to get to 6-8 quite yet,” Quesnell said. “Hopefully with the weather getting better, he can get up to his PR (6 feet, 8½ inches) and go from there.”

Competing in the high jump is really a family thing.

“I wanted to do other events, but with both my mom and dad doing the high jump, I ended up because they did,” Trengove said. “And my grandpa (Rich Lund) coached at Kootenai. And he high jumped as well. They’ve all been my top fans all the way through my six years of track.”

During his early years in the hurdles, a few technical issues kept Trengove from finding success in that event.

“I spent too much time going over the hurdle,” Trengove said. “I was in the air more than I was sprinting after the hurdles, so it just kind of slowed me down.”

Now, Trengove competes in the high jump, triple jump and long jump for the Post Falls High track and field team.

Trengove won the boys 5A high jump last year at the state meet, clearing 6-8. He was first in the long jump (22 feet, 6½ inches) and second in the triple jump (43-10¼). Trengove has also competed in the Simplot Games at Holt Arena in Pocatello, as well as Junior Olympics. His personal best in long jump is 22-7¼ and 44-5 in the triple jump.

Trengove won the 5A long jump (22-6½) and was second at state in the triple jump (43-10¼) as a junior, and was sixth in the high jump (6-0) and seventh in the long jump (21-1¾) as a sophomore.

Trengove has won the Pasco Invitational the past two years, winning this year’s event in April with a high jump of 6-4.

“I seem to jump a lot better when I’ve got bigger competition,” Trengove said. “It makes me want to beat them more, so I’m able to pull out bigger jumps.”

Along the way, Trengove has faced some challenges from Ty Wright of Shelley, who beat Trengove in the 2018 Simplot Games at Idaho State University.

“He’s a really good jumper,” Trengove said of Wright. “He went over 6-10 this year, and that was pretty cool to see. That is my goal up until state, where I want to go over 7 feet.”

Trengove added his experience at the Pasco Invitational was a lot better this year than in previous years.

“My sophomore and junior year, I left Pasco sunburned,” Trengove said. “This year, it was a downpour of rain during the high jump.”

The rain, believe it or not, actually helped Trengove.

“I prefer it that way, or overcast,” Trengove said. “If it’s too hot, it takes my energy a lot faster. If it’s too cold, it’s hard to stay warm in between events.”

No matter what happens, Trengove tries to keep things in perspective.

“I just like to do my best and try not to be hard on myself if I don’t jump as well as I was expecting,” Trengove said. “I usually don’t listen to music before a jump because it distracts me. When I listen to songs that I like, it will take me away from what I need to be doing.”

One thing is for certain, Trengove is realistic about what his expectations are for this year’s state 5A meet, May 17-18 at Eagle High.

“I’m probably not going to win all three this year,” Trengove said. “There’s other kids that have gotten better from last year. I just want to win the high jump, because that’s the event that I’ve got the most passion for. I just want to win it one last time.”

And it truly could be his final time competing in the event.

“I’m not going to college right after school,” Trengove said. “I’m going to take a gap year and just work and save up some money, then I’ll decide if I want to continue on with track from there. Or I might just go and get a general degree. I think I just need a mental break from this after going to school for so many years.”