Good Long Jump Distances: Rate Your Mark by Level
Long jump has a units problem before it has anything else. American high school meets mostly measure in feet and inches, college and international results are in meters, and recruiting standards are usually published in meters. Half the confusion about whether a jump is any good comes from comparing two numbers in different systems.
Useful anchors: 20 feet is about 6.10m. 22 feet is about 6.71m. 24 feet is about 7.32m. For any other mark, the feet and inches to meters converter rounds it the way a results sheet does.
The real numbers first. Nobody publishes an average long jump by age. What is published: section and state qualifying marks, a youth championship standard, and college recruiting ranges. Every row below is one of those, named and linked. Marks are wind-legal; a jump with more than +2.0 m/s of tailwind is wind-aided and does not meet a standard.
| Level (boys) | Long jump | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Middle school championship level | 5.70m (18' 8.25") | FLYRA 2026 Florida youth state championship qualifying standard (a middle school meet) |
| Varsity: advancing from league finals | 5.79m to 6.32m (19' 0" to 20' 9") | CIF Southern Section 2026 minimum standards for 2nd and 3rd place at league finals, Division 4 19' 0" to Division 1 20' 9" |
| State-qualifier level | 6.05m to 6.65m (19' 10" to 21' 9.75") | CIF-SS 2026 at-large standards 20' 0" (D4, 6.09m) to 21' 9" (D1, 6.62m); Oregon OSAA 2026 state standards 6.07m (1A) to 6.65m (6A); Missouri MSHSAA 2026 district standards 6.05m (Class 1) to 6.65m (Class 5) |
| College walk-on range | 6.10m to 7.20m (20' 0" to 23' 7.25") | Published D3 (6.70m to 7.20m) and NAIA (6.10m to 7.20m) recruiting ranges |
| College scholarship range | 6.60m to 7.70m (21' 7.75" to 25' 3") | Published D1 (6.80m to 7.70m) and D2 (6.60m to 7.60m) ranges |
| Level (girls) | Long jump | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Middle school championship level | 4.80m (15' 8.75") | FLYRA 2026 Florida youth state championship qualifying standard (a middle school meet) |
| Varsity: advancing from league finals | 4.57m to 4.90m (15' 0" to 16' 1") | CIF Southern Section 2026 minimum standards for 2nd and 3rd place at league finals, Division 3 15' 0" to Division 1 16' 1" |
| State-qualifier level | 4.67m to 5.45m (15' 3.75" to 17' 10.5") | CIF-SS 2026 at-large standards 16' 6" (D4, 5.02m) to 17' 3" (D1, 5.25m); Oregon OSAA 2026 state standards 4.67m (2A) to 5.45m (6A); Missouri MSHSAA 2026 district standards 4.77m (Class 1) to 5.36m (Class 5) |
| College walk-on range | 5.00m to 5.70m (16' 4.75" to 18' 8.25") | Published D3 (5.00m to 5.60m) and NAIA (5.20m to 5.70m) recruiting ranges |
| College scholarship range | 4.90m to 6.50m (16' 0.75" to 21' 3.75") | Published D1 (5.60m to 6.50m) and D2 (4.90m to 6.00m) ranges |
Sources, all 2026 and all marks as published: CIF Southern Section minimum and at-large standards, OSAA state championship qualifying standards, MSHSAA district qualifying standards, FLYRA qualification standards. The CIF-SS minimum standard is the mark a 2nd or 3rd place finisher at league finals must have to advance; the at-large standard earns an entry without placing. OSAA standards are the four-year average of fourth place at state. MSHSAA publishes district qualifying standards by class.
The published college ranges
- NCAA Division I: boys about 7.70m at the top to 6.80m at the bottom, which is roughly 25 feet 3 down to 22 feet 4. Girls about 6.50m to 5.60m, roughly 21 feet 4 down to 18 feet 4.
- NCAA Division II: boys about 7.60m to 6.60m. Girls about 6.00m to 4.90m.
- NCAA Division III: boys about 7.20m to 6.70m. Girls about 5.60m to 5.00m.
- NAIA: boys about 7.20m to 6.10m. Girls about 5.70m to 5.20m.
So a boy jumping 22 feet is inside the college bands. A girl jumping 18 feet is too. Those are the numbers worth aiming at, and they are published rather than invented.
On "good distance for a 13 year old"
No governing body publishes an average long jump by age, in this event or any other. Nobody holds representative data for a whole age group, only results from athletes who competed. Any age table you find was either scraped from meet results, which over-samples the athletes who race, or made up.
For a young jumper the number that matters is your own progression, and the one technical thing that separates beginners from everyone else, which is not leg strength.
The thing that adds distance fastest
Hitting the board without slowing down. Most young jumpers decelerate over the last three strides because they are aiming their feet at the take-off board. That costs more distance than any amount of extra squat.
Fixing it is a run-up problem, not a jumping problem: a consistent approach, checked and marked, run at a speed you can actually control. Athletes routinely add a foot or more without getting any stronger, purely by arriving at the board at full speed.
The second thing is that wind counts here too. A tailwind over +2.0 m/s makes a horizontal jump wind-aided, exactly as it does in the sprints. Plenty of athletes do not realize their personal best is a windy mark until a coach points it out.
Check yours
Put your best jump against every division on the standards page. It accepts feet and inches or meters, so you do not have to convert anything yourself. The long jump ladder on its own is here for boys and girls.
Want next season's number rather than this one? The long jump progression by age tool takes a mark at 14 or 15 and shows what the same standing is worth at 17 and 18, on a curve TrackReels derives from the USATF championship records for each age division, then places the age-18 mark against the college standards.
Related: wind-legal marks explained, which event should you run, what marks get you recruited, feet and inches to meters converter.