LAKEWOOD – Not even an injury could keep Noah Osterloh from a championship Thursday.

Osterloh endured a bone bruise on his left heel and jumped 43 feet, 9¼ inches in the boys triple jump title for The Classical Academy.

“It wasn’t the mark I was looking for, but I feel good about how things went,” Osterloh said. “I really wanted a personal record today, but I had that injury flare up.”

The TCA senior entered the event seeded first with a season-best jump of 45-2, which was sixth in the state.

Osterloh said the injury stifled his third phase of the event, but that didn’t matter.

His first mark of the day placed him ahead of the field for the remainder of the contest.

“I’m definitely happy with the jump, but the competitor in me wanted more,” Osterloh said. “But, looking at the bigger picture, this is big for our team. I’m happy I won this and I’m happy I got to do it next to this guy.”

“This guy,” referring to Jordan Wenger, who placed second in the event at 43-4¼, also craved better jumps during the first day of the meet.

Wenger hoped to earn his third consecutive triple jump title and entered this year’s event seeded second behind Osterloh.

But Wenger battled a right adductor injury, which forced him to scratch on half of his jump attempts.

On his final jump, though, Wenger achieved his best mark of the day and moved from fifth to second place.

“I’m looking forward to winning the state title as a team, so I’m OK with the result,” Wenger said. “That final jump didn’t feel great – it hurt. It wasn’t the jump I was looking for, but it got me where I needed to be as far as podium goes.”