Mount Carmel sophomore Maura Fiamoncini has burst onto the elite javelin scene this season with the second-best throw in the state and a just-announced berth at the Penn Relays.
But Saturday at the Selinsgrove Classic her coach, Ana Ditchey, was almost nostalgic about what it was like to show up at the javelin runway when the diminutive Red Tornadoes thrower was a freshman.
"Nobody knew who we were," said the coach. "We surprised them because she doesn't look like someone who can throw the javelin."
Indeed.
Fiamoncini has grown a bit since last season, but is still just 5-2 and weighs less than 100 pounds.
"People are looking for strength in the javelin but what they don't understand is that it's all technique. "If your arm isn't going in the right place and hitting the right point of release it's not going anywhere.
"Maura is all technique."
Skills honed through years of playing baseball with the boys and then softball with the girls helped Fiamoncini with her release.
"It's quick and it's correct," said Ditchey.
That combined with a coachability factor that the Mount Carmel mentor said puts Fiamoncini in "a league of her own" has made for an amazing trajectory of success for the young thrower.
Beginning with dual meet throws in the 90s last year, Fiamoncini progressed to a freshman PR of 128-3 at a dual meet at the beginning of May. Her throw of 124-2 at the District 4 Class AA meet got her a silver medal and a trip to Shippensburg where threw 120-3 for 10th place overall.
During the summer Fiamoncini, who is also a two-year starting point guard for the successful Red Tornadoes basketball team, alternated between javelin and basketball workouts.
"In the summer I started to work on basketball and track," said the Penn Relays qualifier. "Every other day I was at one or another. I liked playing basketball and I liked throwing so I kept going."
Many times her coach said it was Fiamoncini pushing for the workouts on javelin.
"It's rare for a kid to call and say, 'Coach are we going down today?'" said Ditchey.
This spring all that off-season work paid off.
"(Due to the basketball team's postseason run) she did start track two weeks late," said her coach. "That in itself is a big deal. But she accomplished a lot in a short amount of time."
Fiamoncini led off with a 138-2 at the home season-opener and then backed it up with a 146-6 mark away at Central Columbia. A 141-8 throw came on her last attempt in the swirling wind of the Selinsgrove Classic after her coach exhorted her to, "Throw like it's your only throw.
"She can adjust quickly," said Ditchey. "I told her it doesn't matter how good you are if you can't throw in all kinds of weather. "If I went up to a lot of people and said you have to throw it lower they couldn't change it. But she just listens and changes it. "She'll do whatever she needs to do to fix it."
Fiamoncini said her coach has been invaluable to her success thus far.
"Miss Ditchey helped a lot with my technique and that's what got me there," said the sophomore. "She is such a great motivator and knows just what to say to get me to throw well."
Like in the second week of the season when Fiamoncini threw 122 on one of her attempts at the Central Columbia away meet.
"I said we don't do that anymore," said Ditchey. "The next throw she threw 146. That's just how good she is."
Coming into the season Fiamoncini said, "My goal was actually to hit 130.
"I didn't think I would be throwing this far."
Time for a readjustment?
"Maybe 150?" she said.
Ditchey thinks she can get there.
"There are still a couple of things that we're working on.
"That day after she threw 146-6 I looked at the tape and said, 'OK, we have a lot to work on.'
"That's the thing -- never being satisfied. And between the two of us we'll never be satisfied.
"I think she's surprising herself. She has no idea what she's capable of. "
But the field she competes in is getting a pretty good idea and, tiny or not, Fiamoncini is anonymous no more.
