Seven Warriors qualify for state meet
By JEFF FISHBEIN, Sentinel sports editor, jfishbein@lewistownsentinel.comArticle Photos
The Warriors crowned five district champions, advanced seven participants to the state meet May 23-24 at Shippensburg and finished second only to State College in the girls team standings.
Were there disappointments? Sure — a few members of the team failed to live up to their seeding, and you might even say to their potential. But in most of those cases, the difference was the difficulty based in the fact that only the winner of each event gets an automatic bid. In several cases, the ones who missed the extra week did so by tiny fractions of seconds against the state qualifying standard, which allows additional athletes to advance.
Among those who will make the trip to Seth Grove Stadium are a few who have been there before. Others are headed south for the first time to compete on Memorial Day weekend.
Indian Valley’s gold medalists were Amanda Randolph, making her second trip to states in the pole vault; Heather Adams, who shattered the school record in the discus and will defend that mark; Karissa Bowersox in the shot put; Laura Loht, who won the javelin title handily; and Mike Parker, who cut his time below 10 minutes in the 3,200-meter run.
The other qualifiers were Michael Brode, who was second in the javelin, and Bree Shugarts, also a second in the 800.
The reactions among the group were varied. Randolph devoted her effort to a lost friend. Adams was as happy for runner-up — and teammate — Lindsey Kauffman as she was for herself. Loht was businesslike, almost nonchalant about her win. Bowersox showed the appreciation of someone who had to work a little harder to get to the top — in fact, that was the same emotion Parker expressed after his eight trips around the Mansion Park track.
“It came down to the last round of throws, the last three people. The girl before me had thrown 32, and I was at 31,” Bowersox explained. “I had to push it. I knew I could get above that. I was pumped.”
Her best throw, 34-10, put her more than two feet into the lead, and guaranteed her a trip to Shippensburg.
“I’m real excited to go there and just see what I can get,” she said.
Parker gave most of the credit for his time — 9:57.77 — to the efforts of one of his coaches, and played down his own ability in the outcome.
“I think what it came down to is, it wasn’t who was in the best shape, it wasn’t who could run that fast, it was who wanted it the most,” he said. “I wanted it the most.”
Shugarts was another who knew she couldn’t have gotten to this point without help.
“I can’t take any credit for going out there. God has really blessed me and given me all the strength I have,” she said.
Shugarts, who entered the meet with one run under the state time achieved, had no regrets about finishing with a 2:14.97, 2.5 seconds behind State College’s Chloe Schmidt, a three-event gold medalist at the meet.
“She’s a really good runner, one of the tops in the state,” Shugarts said. “I was really glad I was given the opportunity to run against her because she was really pushing me and it helped me go faster.”
Loht’s margin of victory was perhaps the largest among the Warrior contingent, with a spread of more than 20 feet between her 135-10 and the No. 2 thrower. Perhaps her success is fueled by her businesslike demeanor when it comes to competition.
“I’m just going out and throwing. If I come up with a win, I come up with a win,” she said. “Things have just been coming up at the right times.”
She reserved her excitement about state qualification while waiting to see what sort of competition she’ll be facing from other districts.
“I guess it just hasn’t hit yet, but it will,” she said.
Or maybe it’s just something about javelin throwers. Brode was happy about making states, but had no qualms about a little self-criticism.
“It’s still off of my PR, which was a little bit upsetting. I wanted to achieve that at least,” he said.
He also was less than happy that his first throw with his new javelin landed in stones.
“People kept coming up to me saying, ‘Just throw.’ I tried to block everything out of my head and not worry about it too much,” he said.
Although Adams’ record hurl is above her average, she believes it makes it easier for her to do better each time she gets in the cage.
I kind of have a mindset that once I throw something, I feel like I have a better chance of throwing it again,” she said.
And the big seed number gave her a psychological edge.
“I think it kind of made (the other girls) feel the pressure that, ‘Oh, this girl can throw 120s, I better throw that, too,’” she said.
Randolph had a meet much like a year ago, right down to the way she missed 9-6 on her first try. But her 10-6 finish punched her ticket for the big meet.
“Today I was being pushed a lot. This is my closest competition,” she said. “I just want to go and do better than I did last year.”
