Gavin Schmidt delivered in the discus Saturday after his disappointment in districts, the Strath Haven senior finishing second in the PIAA Class 3A state championships with a throw of 177-1.
For the longest time it looked like Schmidt would win gold in the event, but Peyton Murray of Hempfield Area grabbed the gold with a throw of 186-6.
“His first throw was 15 feet better than anybody in the first flight,” Strath Haven coach George Munro said. “Then he threw two feet farther on his last throw to get into the finals. In the second flight nobody really stepped up and he was still leading after the first round in that flight.”
When Murray launched a throw of 171-2, Schmidt threw 177-1. Murray threw 186 on his last throw, Schmidt 175-2. All in all, a great high school career for Schmidt.
“It’s been a great 14 months,” Munro said. “He didn’t do track until last year. He didn’t know how to throw the discus until March of last year. He just put so much time into it from Day 1 and he fell in love with the event.”
Munro coaxed Schmidt into trying indoor track by convincing him he could throw the discus twice a week.
“All winter he’s saying, ‘I can’t wait until discus season,’ because it’s not an indoor event,” Munro said of Schmidt. “Oh, yeah, I’m going to miss him and Brian (Seals). Brian, District 1 champ, state finalist. He had a great career. He was our No. 1 thrower for the last three years. Gavin is a little more talented, but Brian was the glue that held everybody together. He put big performances out there, set the tone for the work at practice. Just a really good leader on our team.”
Seals finished ninth in states with a throw of 151-9. Like Schmidt, he’s going to throw the discus on the next level.
In the girls’ Class 3A discus, junior Abigail DeFruscio (Haverford) got the eighth-place medal with a throw of 116-8.
Other Delco highlights in the 3A field events included the fifth-place medal that Noah Wampole of Radnor secured with an effort of 6-5 in the high jump. Wampole cleared that height to finish second in districts.
In the girls’ high jump, Isabella Tront of Garnet Valley finished with a sixth-place medal with an effort of 5-4.
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In an all-Delco final, the Chester High girls won the Class 3A 4 X 400 relay in dramatic fashion over Haverford.
Minutes later the Cardinal O’Hara Class 3A boys’ 4 X 400 relay came within an eyelash of winning gold.
Instead, the team of Zion Knox, Logan Maloney, Danny Schikel and Jaden Collins finished second in 3:13.87, a blink of an eye behind Coatesville, which clocked 3:13.80 thanks to a dive forward by Robert Turner.
It was an interesting day of relays for Delco teams in Class 3A.
In the boys’ 4 x 800 the Penncrest team of Nick Fante, Rowan Carr, Brendan Hefferan and Kadin Salaria finished fourth, clocking 7:46.78. Council Rock North won the event in 7:38.73.
Medaling with a finish of eighth in the event was Ridley (Caleb Winward, Jesufifunmi Olugbenga, Joey Lanci, Jackson Kane), which crossed the finish line eighth in 7:50.26.
In the 4 x 100 relay, O’Hara (Schikel, Maloney, Collins, Knox) was fourth in 42.17 while Academy Park (Joshua Dean, Camir Jones, Maurice Richardson, Shaun Moat) was sixth in 42.19. Coatesville won the event in 41.45.
In the girls’ 4 X 100 relay Garnet Valley (Laura Wert, Avery McCrimon, Rebekah Burnshaw, Felicia Grimmelbein) ran 48.53 to finish sixth.
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Also, in Class 3A, in the 200 meters Joshua Dean (Academy Park) ran 22.30 to finish sixth. Maloney (O’Hara) was seventh in 22.40 and Jaelyn Galloway (Haverford) was eighth in 22.5.
In the 100-meter hurdles, sophomore Damira Allen of Chester was third in 14.28, just a hundredth of a second out of second place.
Senior Macaela Walker of Oxford got the gold in 13.74 and Ella Bahn of Spring Grove was second in 14.27.
In the 3A 110 hurdles, senior George Bostwick of Penncrest ran 14.62 to medal in seventh place.
In the girls’ 400 meters, JaNaisa Dearry (Chester) ran 54.93 to finish third, while sophomore Ava Cavanaugh (Haverford) 56.92 medaled seventh.
In the 400 meters, senior AJ Glavicic (Strath Haven) broke the finish line at third in 47.88. Senior Jaden Collins (O’Hara) was sixth in 48.57, Olugbenga (Ridley) eighth in 57.39.
In girls’ sprints. Jorden Gore (Cardinal O’Hara) was fourth in the 100 meters in 12.0, Alasia Mosley (Chester) sixth in 12:18.
Joshua Dean (Academy Park) was sixth in the state 100 meters in 10.85.
