Jordan Geist of Knoch (shown above at last week's TSTCA meet) beat his own state record once more in the shot put at YSU (Photo by Phil Grove)
Before the Super Bowl fireworks, some PA teams journeyed over to Youngstown for some fireworks of their own. One thrower you might be familiar with broke another state record.
For Knoch's Jordan Geist, he improved his PR to 71 feet, 4.5 inches and narrowly missed grabbing a share of the national junior class record. Nick Vena of New Jersey still has it at 71-5.
"That is another goal/PR to shoot for this week, and it would be awesome to do it at the SPIRE Showcase," Geist said of just missing putting his name to the national record books.
Still US#5 AT nationally, Geist also raised the bar in his best throw average in a series. Starting at 69-8, the junior hit his best in round 2 before a foul to end his prelim throws. In the finals, Geist put down marks of 70-5, 69-10.5 and 70-3 for an average of 70-3.8.
The Knoch standout now has six throws over 70 feet this indoor season.
"Right now the technique is missing little things here and there, but it is consistent enough to going far," he said of his second-consecutive series with three over 70.
"As far as the strength training goes, we are still just doing some strength gaining stuff. Once we get into peaking season with our different lifting, it will be scary to see how far I can throw."
Watch Geist's throw from Youngstown State below (courtesy of Hickory coach Keith Woods)
After Geist, Hickory's Evan Blaire tok second with a throw of 59-5.5. Hempfield Dom Marshall was second with a season best 59-0.5, bettering his PA#3.
Beaver Falls' Domenic Perretta, grabbed a PA#1 in the 800 meters, but it didn't come by the most conventional means. Perretta won the second heat of the 800 by over 12 seconds. the first heat, which included Seneca Valley's Mike Kolor and Penn Trafford's Nick Wagner was supposed to be the faster section, but Perretta wound up in the slower section, but still running a state leading time of 1:54.14. He eclipses Jaxson Hoey's state-leading mark that has stood since last month's Hispanic Games.
Meanwhile, Kolor and Wagner still ended up with seaon bests in a good battle in the first heat. Kolor ran a PA#4 1:55.27, a bit faster than his time against college runners last week at Bucknell. Wagner ran a PA#7 1:55.72 to finish second in the heat (third overall) right behind Kolor.
Jace Roundtree of Kiski bettered his own PA#1 (which he was tied with Patrick Kimball of Mt. Lebanon for) in the 60 hurdles. Roundtree ran an 8.25 for the win over a nice Ohio-laden field.
McDowell's Caleb Sanford out-dueled Hempfield's Hayden Fox in the pole vault. Both cleared 15-0 with Sanford taking the win on jumps. Fox becomes the third PA vaulter to reach 15 this season and moves up to PA#2, tied with State College's Griffin Thompson. Sanford remains at PA#1.
Kolor's Seneca Valley team finished third in the 4x800 in a PA#10 8:11.02. Penn Hills took third in the 4x400 in a PA#12 3:31.41.
Gabby Holmberg of Hempfield (7) won the 400 meters in a new PA#8 time of 58.35. Penn Hills' Jayla Ellis won the long jump with a PA#11 leap of 17-0.25. Michelle Karabin of Greenburg Central Catholic cleared 11-6 to take the win in the pole vault. Oakland Catholic's Olivia Rowe won the triple jump with a jump of 35-8.
(Phil Grove also contributed to this section)