Noah Zimmerman is no April Fool.

In the first meet of his final season Thursday, April 1, the Camp Verde High School senior served notice that he is one of Arizona’s top jumpers.

After over a year of down time due to rain, snow and Coronavirus cancellations of meets, Zimmermann achieved personal records in the boys high, long and triple jump at the Marauder Early Qualifier.

“This year, I have topped last year by a foot, in most [events],” said Zimmermann, who would go on to win the high and triple jump, finishing runner-up in the long jump at the nine-team meet at Mingus Union High School. “I have definitely grown.”

Zimmermann built more than three-and-a-half feet on a top 15 finish at the 2019 Division IV state triple jump championships, establishing himself as the new division leader in the event with a first-round jump of 42 feet, 6.75 inches.

“He is the best leader I have seen since I have been coaching,” said Amy Wall, third-year Cowboys head track and field coach, who is in her 11th year overall coaching the team. “I believe he will end up being in the top 24 in all four of his events.”

That is the only bar this season to qualify in each event for the state high school championships, one that Zimmermann is likely to meet not only in the triple jump but also the high jump--an event he also won April 1 with another personal record of 5 feet, 10 inches.

Zimmermann will likely compete in the event with “two really good girl high jumpers,” as he described them, senior Jena Nelson and sophomore Erica Ritzenthaler, at the state championships.

Not that Zimmermann, in his four years competing in track and field events for Camp Verde, has had any problems making it to the postseason, or inspiring other teammates to do the same.

“He is a servant leader and leads by example,” Wall added. “Everyone respects him, and we are very blessed to have him as part of our team.” 

In fact, if COVID-19 had not shut down Arizona’s entire spring 2020 high school sports season after his first meet, Zimmermann would have likely been running with underclass teammates Alex Dale, Logan Kurowski and Jacob Oothoudt for the 4 x 400-meter relay state championships as a junior as well.

“Jacob Oothoudt is, I think, going to be qualifying for discus,” Zimmermann predicted. “He is throwing in the 115-, 120-[foot] range, and it is impressive.

“Last year, he was our fastest 400 [-meter] runner, before all the meets got cancelled.”

Dale, Kurowski, Oothoudt and Zimmermann placed second at the Marauder Early Qualifier with a time of 3:42, an improvement of more than 11 seconds over their last finish--a victory at the Valley Christian Non-Qualifier 13 months prior.

Zimmermann also plans on competing in the long jump--an event he finished second in April 1 despite another PR, a top jump of 19 feet, 8 inches.

“Someone just beat me with a 20-foot jump,” he said. “I’m hoping to go to [the] mid-20s. It’s been really, really fun to have a larger team experience jumping, since we have a lot of jumpers.”  

As part of that larger team experience, Zimmermann’s goal since late January has been to encourage improvement in all of his teammates and help them recover what was lost during quarantine. 

“I feel like I lost a lot of progression last year; I lost a lot of stamina,” he said. “So I had to build that back up this year.”

To that end, he was able to bring the teams out to the track two months early after school and lead extended preseason workouts.

“We were doing long, slow runs--purely distance running--every other day, working on endurance [and] building our lungs back up,” he explained. “From there, we finally started going into our speed workouts, getting faster, jumping farther. 

“Right now, I’m leading stretches. We’ve been able to make very small changes to abide by the COVID rules, and we’ve been able to stay really consistent with working out.”