Ty Spradlin is the defending district champion in the high jump. He's just one year behind in his defense of that title.

The Bryan senior, the only Viking taking part in the District 12-5A high jump competition this season, was unable to participate last year because of a knee injury.

"I was in football and got cut wrong," Spradlin said. "They found cartilage [damage] in my knee and I had to have knee surgery."

He didn't know how bad the injury would be until track season, though.

"I jumped two meets and my knee was bothering me too much, so I went ahead and went with the knee surgery," Spradlin said. "It was my left knee, which is my plant knee."

Bryan track coach Justin Smith was impressed with the way Spradlin bounced back.

"He went through that knee injury and really had a tough time finishing last year," Smith said. "He came back this year, got after it really strong, and has [had] a productive track season. He's gotten better week after week. I'm interested to see what he is going to do for district."

Spradlin's return to competition has gone well.

"It hasn't been hard at all," said Spradlin, who expects to go higher than he has all year at the 12-5A meet. "6 [feet]-6 [inches], maybe 6-8. I can get 6-8 and nobody else in our district has cleared that height."

Smith doesn't doubt Spradlin.

"He's jumped 6-4 and has had some really good jumps," Smith said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he jumped 6-6. He's been that kind of guy. He started off at 6 feet and went to 6-2, then 6-4."

The 6-4 is a career best. Spradlin win the 13-5A championship in 2007 as a sophomore with a leap of 6-1. The only school in this year's meet that wasn't in Bryan's district then is Copperas Cove, which will have three jumpers in the competition.

Spradlin's 6-4, which he first cleared at the Montgomery Bear Relays, is the best in the district so far this year. With three qualifying for the regional meet, he seems a good bet to advance.

High jump drew Spradlin's interest during his sophomore season. He had never tried it before then.

"I was doing long jump at first and I looked over and saw Coach [Alan] Fritsche coaching, and it looked like a lot of fun, so I went over and tried it," Spradlin said. Fritsche now coaches at Rudder.

"I ended up being good at it," Spradlin said. "He made it look like so much fun."

To be good, though, has taken hard work. Smith says that comes naturally to Spradlin.

"The main thing is confidence, getting back that confidence, and he's handled that as well as anybody I've been around," Smith said. "He's a great kid, a hard-working kid. You don't have to push him because he's self-motivated. He's kind of a country kid with country work ethic."

Spradlin doesn't plan to talk to his fellow jumpers about how he feels like the defending champ. It's too hard to explain the asterisk .

"I'm just going to go out and try to win it," said Spradlin, who will compete at 2:15 p.m. Thursday.

Half of the field event finals will be held Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m., and running preliminaries are set to begin at 3 p.m. The only running final Wednesday is the 3,200-meter run. The girls and boys varsity teams will run those at the conclusion of the running prelims.

On Thursday, field events start at 1 p.m. Running finals begin at 5 p.m. The top three finishers in each event will advance to the Class 5A Region II meet.

Freshman and JV competition will be held in conjunction with the varsity meet.

DISTRICT 12-5A TRACK & FIELD

* When/where: Wednesday and Thursday at Tigerland Stadium