The Game Within
James Parenti is prepared for the event before the event.
Perhaps just as important for the Moniteau senior thrower is what happens leading up to his Class AA discus competition at the PIAA Track and Field Championships, which begin Friday morning at Shippensburg University.
A sort of track and field version of “The Hunger Games” occurs as Parenti and his competition race to snatch a disc.
“Pennsylvania is one of the only states that does this,” Parenti said. “They provide you (with the disc). Last year I was actually lucky. I ended up with the same disc I competed with all year.
“It's pretty much first-come, first-serve,” Parenti said. “There's about 20, 25 laid out on towels and after people do their warmups they announce you can go get your disc. Everyone runs for them.”
Parenti has used this week to throw every kind of discus he can get his hands on.
New ones. Old ones. Ones weighted more on the rim. If it's a disc, Parenti has probably thrown it.
“I want to be prepared for anything,” he said.
Parenti finished fourth in the discus last season at the state meet and he has his sights set on a shinier medal this time around.
Parenti is seeded second in the event. He has a school-record throw of 171 feet, 10 inches to his name.
The top seed, Brock Grundy of Hickory, sits at 179-5.
Parenti will throw the discus on Friday. He also qualified in the shot put and is seeded 17th. He will throw that on Saturday.
“Discus is my primary event and I'm glad that's on Friday,” Parenti said. “I can relax a lot more throwing the shot without the discus being on my mind.”
Parenti said he feels like he is throwing at his best heading into the biggest meet of the season.
“I'm in a great place technique-wise right now,” Parenti said. “It feels good.”
Other things to look for on the boys side at the PIAA Track and Field Championships:
The Class AAA 3,200-meter run at the state meet will have a distinct WPIAL flavor.
The top five seeds in the event are District 7 runners.
Mars junior Zach Leachman is one of them. He's seeded fourth after breaking his own school record at the WPIAL championships by more than 13 seconds with a time of 9:20.57.
“I'd say it's an advantage,” Leachman said of all the familiar faces who will be running with him in the event at Shippensburg University this weekend. “I got to race them at WPIAL and I get to do it again. We're all very familiar with each other.”
WPIAL champion Zach Kinne of North Allegheny is the top seed after turning in a time of 9:13.47 last week at the district championship meet.Leachman said that time is well within his reach.He said he focused his training this week on shorter runs and more sprint work.“The kicks can be huge at states,” Leachman said.Leachman said he planned on scaling back his workload from his usual 40 to 50 miles during a typical week to 25.It's all in the pursuit of keeping his legs fresh for the biggest meet of the season.“I wasn't necessarily rested for the WPIAL meet,” Leachman said.Last year, Leachman placed ninth at the state meet in the 3,200 — painfully close to the medal stand.“I'm definitely going to treat it like any other meet,” Leachman said. “I tweaked my training a bit this year and I'm way more confident.”A pair of pole vaulters have a shot at state gold.Moniteau senior Kyle Norling is seeded third in Class AA while Butler senior Jack Codispot is a misleading 12th.Codispot's best jump of the season — 15-6 — would put him third and only six inches off the top height.North Catholic's Joe Kearney is looking to bounce back from last season's state meet disappointment in the long jump.Kearney entered the PIAA meet last year as the WPIAL champion, but placed 12th.He has the district title again and the top seed heading into this year's competition at 23 feet, 5 inches.Butler junior Sami Taoufik is also looking to erase bad memories.He didn't even make the state meet last year in the high jump, but he enters competition this year at Shippensburg as a WPIAL champion and the seventh seed.That's misleading, however. His best jump of the year — 6-7 — is good enough to place him at the top of the list.Taoufik has placed an added emphasis on details this season.“I'm always putting in work in practice. You have to. It's always a grind,” he said. “Every day, whether I'm lifting of stretching or doing form work, I'm working on something.“Form work is the hard part. Making sure everything is right with my form is the hard part. But it makes all the difference in the world.”
Following are the Butler County area qualifiers for the PIAA Track and Field Championships, which begin Friday at Shippensburg University.Note: Seed times and distances are based on district championship performances.BoysClass AAA100-meter dash: 4-Tyler Yurich (Seneca Valley) 10.75, 27-Ryan Marcella (Butler) 11.091,600-meter run: 5-Sam Owori (Seneca Valley) 4:18.51, 6-Connor Volk-Klos (Seneca Valley) 4:18.98300-meter hurdles: 17-Luke Smith (Seneca Valley) 39.79800-meter run: 7-Seth Ketler (Seneca Valley) 1:55.453,00-meter run: 4-Zach Leachman (Mars) 9:20.571,600-meter relay: 22-Seneca Valley 3:25.37, 25-Butler 3:26.57High jump: 7-Sami Taoufik (Butler) 6-5Pole vault: 12-Jack Codispot (Butler) 14-3, 21-Andrew Kline (Butler) 13-9Long jump: 15-Gavin Thomas (Seneca Valley) 22-1Triple jump: 24-Zack Duda (Seneca Valley) 44-1Javelin: 26-Sean Northcott (Slippery Rock) 165-2BoysClass AA400-meter relay: 11-North Catholic 43.72400-meter run: 3-Hunter Jones (Karns City) 49.71, 14-Sam Mager (North Catholic) 51.38, 23-Kaden Scherer (Karns City) 52.45300-meter hurdles: 9-Ethan McDeavitt (Moniteau) 40.52200-meter run: 22-Trevor Paschall (North Catholic) 22.831,600-meter relay: 19-Karns City 3:30.06Pole vault: 3-Kyle Norling (Moniteau) 14-0Long jump: 1-Joe Kearney (North Catholic) 23-5Shot put: 17-James Parenti (Moniteau) 48-6Discus: 2-James Parenti (Moniteau) 171-10
