Knock athlete named state's top track/field player
JEFFERSON TWP — Yet another honor has come Jordan Geist’s way.
Geist, who recently completed his junior year at Knoch as the PIAA Class AAA champion in the discus and shot put, is the Gatorade Pennsylvania Boys Track & Field Player of the Year.
“It’s a tremendous honor in that the Gatorade award covers all events, track and field,” Knoch coach Wess Brahler said. “The fact Jordan dominated two events led to this, I’m sure.
“I don’t think anyone else in the county has ever won this award. It’s huge.”
Judy Geist, Jordan’s mother and Knoch’s throwing coach, said the Gatorade Award “gets his name out there and that’s important.
“He gets a lot of stuff from Gatorade, like a cooler and water bottles, for the team. A plaque and banner get sent to the school and a trophy gets sent to the house.
“Jordan is the first Knoch athlete to ever win this award and he’s well-deserving of it,” Coach Geist added.
Geist himself is thrilled to win the award because 30-year-old Ryan Whiting — a world shot put champion and 2012 U.S. Olympian — once received the same honor.
“It feels pretty cool that I’m at the same level Ryan Whiting was at when he was my age. It feels like that, anyway,” Geist said.
By winning the Pennsylvania honor in track and field, Geist’s name is thrown into the pool of candidates for Gatorade’s National Track and Field Player of the Year.
That winner will be announced this week.
