Athlete of the Week: Jaleel Smith of Winston-Salem Prep caps senior year with 1-A long jump title

You can't blame Jaleel Smith for walking around with a broad smile on his face.

Not only is Smith, a senior at Winston-Salem Prep, graduating on Thursday, the accomplishment of being a state champion is still a fresh memory.

Smith had a leap of 22 feet, 6.5 inches in the long jump on May 14 to win the 1-A state championship. It was a personal best for Smith and he nailed it on his third and final attempt of the competition. It was also the first time he competed in the long jump at the state meet.

He thought it was a pretty good jump at the time but it took a while before he found out how good it was.

"As soon as I got up, I had to run over to the track to run the 4x200 relay," Smith said. "I had no idea I had even won at that point. I didn't find out until about two hours later."

Smith said that several of his teammates told him they made an announcement that he had won, but he never heard any announcement.

"We were getting ready to run the 4x100 when they told me I won," Smith said. "I thought they were messing with me."

Once Smith and his teammates completed the 4x100 relay, he went to the scoring table where they confirmed the news.

"They told me I needed to get up to the podium," Smith said. "That's when it really hit me."

Smith ended up having a really good day at the state championship meet. He also finished second in the 110 hurdles and the 4x100 relay team finished fifth. The 4x200 relay team dropped the baton and was disqualified, but Smith was still positive.

"It has been several years since a boys relay team from Prep had qualified for a regional meet, let alone a state meet," Smith said. "So I'd say it was a really good day. I'm still on cloud nine."

Smith said that his long jumps in the preliminary rounds weren't very good by his standards, but good enough to get him into the final.

"My first jump in the finals was pretty bad. I only hit 19-8," Smith said. "My second jump was better at 21-10, and I really locked in on the last jump. That was just the second time I went for more than 22 feet in my career. The first time I did that was at the regional the week before at Montreat College."

Smith has been a student at Winston-Salem Prep since sixth grade. He started running track in seventh grade and said that he started taking it more seriously when he was in eighth grade.

"I knew I was getting pretty good at it," he said."I started watching videos of Noah Lyles and Usain Bolt. I realized there was a lot more to it at that point."

Smith said that his favorite event to compete in is the 110 hurdles, even though he has had a lot of unpleasant experiences in that event.

"I didn't start running hurdles until my sophomore year," he said. "I felt like I got pretty good at it really fast. I qualified for the state meet last year but didn't finish. Everyone was falling down in the race. I got banged up pretty bad and still have a scar on my knee from when I fell. It turns out that the officials placed the hurdles in the wrong places and it threw everyone off. They called for a re-run, but the trainers wouldn't let me do it. But I will say that winning the long jump this year and finishing second in the hurdles this year helped make up for that."

Smith played JV basketball at Winston-Salem Prep as a freshman and sophomore and played varsity as a junior.

Because of basketball, he didn't get a chance to compete in indoor track until his senior year since they take place at the same time. He made the most of his only season of indoor track, winning the conference championship and finishing second in the 1-A state meet in the 55 meters.

Asked about how he fared in the long jump during the indoor state meet, Smith didn't mince his words.

"I did really bad," he said with a laugh. "But winning the long jump at my last meet more than made up for everything else."

Smith ranks No. 6 in his class and will graduate with a 3.5 GPA. He is also the secretary of the Student Government Association, is on the yearbook staff and is a middle school advisor, where he takes a middle school student at Winston-Salem Prep under his wing.

Smith was inducted into the National Honor Society and National Technical Honor Society and will run track at Fayetteville State.

"I'm excited for my next opportunity at Fayetteville State as I continue to develop in track and field," Smith said. "I still feel like I have a lot of room for growth."

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 5:45 AM.