By Andy Walter

DOVER — In the moment after Makhi Smith landed in the sand, there was only silence.

But then the Smyrna High sophomore heard the official call out his distance — 21-3.75.

Smith had just come up with the best jump of his career at the best time.

His distance pushed him past Salesianum’s Ethan Hinds (21-0.75) to give him the boys’ Division I state title in the long jump on Friday afternoon.

“It was kind of a big moment,” said Smyrna coach Maura Schafer. “We were like, ‘OK, you’ve got one left.’ And when he hit that sand, we were like, ‘Woo boy, this one isn’t going to be close.’

“As soon as he hit that sand, I think everybody standing there knew it was going to be in the 21s.”

Smith’s winning leap was just one of many memorable performances as the DIAA track & field state championships got underway with a handful of finals and qualifying events at Dover High on Friday afternoon.

Lake Forest made its presence felt in the boys’ Division II meet.

The Spartans go into today’s final day with 39 points, which gives them an eight-point lead over second-place Tatnall (31). Lake Forest is the only Henlopen Conference school leading in the four divisions.

The Spartans collected 34 of their points in a pair of field events. Michael Brown won the Division II long jump title with a leap of 20-5.25 while teammate Kendal Smith (20-4.75) took second.

In the high jump, Lake’s Earle Dunning (6-0) won the title while Brown (5-10) placed third.

Smyrna, the Henlopen Conference team champion, knows it has its work cut out for it if it’s going to catch Salesianum in the boys’ Division I championship race. The Sals have the first-day lead with 44 points while the Eagles are second with 31.

Smith said his winning jump was just a matter of learning from his earlier attempts.

“I made two mistakes,” he said. “I knew what those mistakes were and I fixed them.”

Along with Smith’s win in the long jump, Smyrna’s Devon Demoe won the high jump with a top height of 6-2.

Schafer knows the Eagles will need some big performances today to stay within range of the Sals.

“Overachieving is going to have to happen for sure,” she said. “It feels good to start the meet that way. Hopefully we can keep it going.”

Among the other downstate champions were Sussex Central’ Bre Reid in the Division I girls’ long jump (18-6.25) and Polytech’s Division I boys’ 3,200-meter relay team of Ty Sabanayagam, Tyler Blandin, Jack Fisher and Matt Gatune (8:11.44).

Panthers’ coach Czar Bloom said Gatune made the decision to run the anchor leg of the relay along with the 3,200 on Friday. A week ago, Gatune posted the fastest time by a Henlopen runner ever in winning the event (9:32.9).

After running in the relay on Friday, Gatune finished only third in the Division I 3,200 finals (9:42.02). But teammate Kenny Guy (9:28.6) placed second by breaking Gatune’s conference mark.

“Now Kenny’s the fastest,” said Bloom. “But that’s been the trend with those guys since middle school. They’re just great kids. They’re so humble. They don’t mind who switches off.”

Polytech’s Casey Talamini-Kelemen also had a pretty good first day despite not winning a title. The senior took second in both the high jump and the pole vault.

In the pole vault, Talamini-Kelemen finished behind Padua standout Erin Kelleher, who broke her own state record with a vault of 13-2 on Friday. Talamini-Kelemen cleared 11-6 before missing at 12-0.

“I’ve seen her vault for ages and I finally got up there myself,” said Talamini-Kelemen, who equaled her career best. “It was a good day. It’s good to have some good competition, that’s for sure.”

Talamini-Kelemen, who will continue her jumping career at Lehigh, still has a shot at a state title today in her best event, the triple jump.

“She had a little spill so she hasn’t been able to do much vaulting in the past couple weeks,” said Bloom. “She’s actually been pretty sore. She’s a tripler first — that’s her bread and butter. So be vaulting on the side, that’s pretty good.

“She’s had a heck of a career. She’s an awesome competitor. When the competition comes, she’s ready to bring it up a level and that’s what’s so fun.”