Jim Thorpe junior Rayan Green was looking to return to the PIAA Championships and grab a medal in the high jump.
Pine Grove sophomore Maddie Frew wanted to build on a successful freshman season, repeat her championships and continue to improve.
Both succeeded this past spring and became two of the best all-around athletes in the Schuylkill League. Both also developed specialties.
For Frew, it was the 100-meter hurdles. In Green’s case, it was a new event to him, the triple jump, and not the high jump that finally brought him his state medal.
For their performances, Green and Frew are The Republican-Herald 2015 All-Area Track and Field Athletes of the Year.
Green was the clear choice for the Male Athlete of the Year.
He won league titles in the triple jump, 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles, and followed that with District 11 Class AAA championships in the high and triple jumps. Green went on to finish seventh
in the triple jump at Shippensburg University on May 24 for his first state medal.
The race for Female Athlete of the Year was close, with Frew getting the nod.
She earned four league medals for the second straight year, winning titles in the 100 hurdles, triple jump and 1,600 relay with Rachel Edge, Nilitza Malave and McKayla Lally. All three championships were repeats from 2014. Frew was also a runner-up to Lally in the 300 hurdles at leagues.
Frew went on to win her second straight District 11 Class AA championship in the 100 hurdles. She added third-place finishes in the 300 hurdles and triple jump, qualifying for states in those two events by beating the state qualifying standard. Frew is still looking for her first PIAA medal, but had her best performance at states in the 100 hurdles, reaching the semifinals.
The Coach of the Year is Jim Thorpe’s Frank Miller.
Despite low numbers, the Olympian boys finished 5-0 in Division I — 6-0 overall — and grabbed their first division title in program history. Jim Thorpe clinched the championship in the last event of the final dual meet of the season April 29, when Dylan Bucior, Chalid Small-Stokes, Ben Saxon and Samuel Gilkes won the 1,600 relay to seal a 77-73 victory over Pottsville.
The Olympian boys also won team titles at the Jim Thorpe Invitational (April 10), Tamaqua Invitational (April 17) and Pine Grove Invitational (April 24).
Green develops into all-around athlete
Green entered this season as the two-time defending league champ in the high jump. He was also a state qualifier in the event as a sophomore after a runner-up finish at districts.
Back in March, the high jump was his main focus. Green experimented with the triple jump as a freshman and sophomore, but this season, his coaches insisted he do it. Jason Jacobs, Jim Thorpe’s jumping coach, felt Green’s 6-foot-5 size would allow him to excel at it.
Green finally gave in. It was a good decision.
“I really wasn’t expecting to do that well in it for my first year doing it because my coaches have been trying to get me to do it since my freshman and sophomore year, and I like never listened to them,” Green said. “Coach Jake and coach Miller like told me to do triple jump and I was a state medalist, seventh place. I am pretty satisfied with that considering it was my first time doing it.”
Green won his first league title in the event May 6 at Blue Mountain High School in 43 feet, 9.5 inches. A week later at districts at Whitehall High School, Green turned in the best performance of his career with a school-record 47-9. That’s when Green realized how good the triple jump could be for him.
It earned him a No. 2 seed for the event at states. Green started strong during the competition, hitting 45-8.25 on his first attempt. That turned out to be his best jump of the event, good for his seventh-place finish.
Green’s technique improved throughout the season. The biggest switch came during practice for districts at Whitehall High School when Jacobs changed Green’s steps from a left, left, right jump to a right, right, left.
As he’s done all season, Green credited YouTube videos with helping to improve in his technique.
“I just like watching Olympic athletes in the triple jump and I try to copy their technique,” Green said. “When I am there at practice, I try to picture myself in their shoes.”
Green had a solid season in the high jump, too, setting a school record in the event at 6-4 in April.
He missed out on his third consecutive league title when he came into the competition at 5-10 and failed to clear it. He rebounded the next week, winning his first district title in the event at 6-3 as he competed in the triple jump at the same time.
Green also became one of the league’s best hurdlers. He won his first league titles in both events, running the 110 hurdles in 15.71 seconds and the 300 hurdles in 41.02.
“I always thought I had a chance at hurdles because race after race I would get faster and faster, and for some reason my technique got better,” Green said. “But just like the high jump, I need to get stronger for those events.”
To do that, Green is planning on playing football for the first time his fall. He also works out three days a week with his cousin Ricardo Kennedy, who is a high and triple jumper at Kutztown University.
What this past season showed Green is what kind of athlete he can become with the right attitude.
“I am capable of doing anything as long as I work for what I want and push for what I am striving for,” Green said.
“The one thing I do like about track is that if you lose, you really can’t blame anyone but yourself. If you lose, you just need to get better, basically.”
Frew builds on
freshman campaign
Frew’s freshman season couldn’t have been better as she topped it off by qualifying for states in four events — 100 hurdles, triple jump, 400 relay, 1,600 relay. This spring, she wanted to prove that 2014 was no fluke.
“I knew that going into the season and over the winter that I couldn’t take it lightly,” she said. “That I had to push myself harder than I did before and take it more seriously. I knew that I wanted to repeat my titles. I didn’t want to get worse. I wanted to keep getting better.”
That’s what Frew did.
Her biggest strides came in the 100 hurdles, an event that has come naturally to Frew, who has a background in gymnastics and dance.
Pine Grove head and hurdles coach Eric Kurtz felt Frew’s turning point came in early April when she got down to three steps between each hurdle versus four. That allowed her to focus more on her form and getting faster between the hurdles.
“Mr. Kurtz told me that if I want to get somewhere that I need to be in the 15s,” Frew said. “When he told me that, that is all I wanted to do and get as fast as I possibly could.”
Frew’s best time in the event in 2014 was 16.25 seconds. She ran a 15.53 at this season’s league meet, breaking the league meet record held by Pottsville’s Daniella Woiski (15.63) from 2013. Frew followed that with a school-record time of 15.41 at districts.
On Day 1 of the PIAA Championships, Frew was fourth in her heat in 15.83, qualifying for the semifinals. Frew ran the same time the next day, but she was unable to get to the finals, coming in sixth in her heat.
Frew also wanted to add another individual event to her repertoire this spring, and that became the 300 hurdles. The event allowed her to improve her stamina and strength for the 100 hurdles.
Frew was second to Lally (45.87) at leagues in 47.34, then came in third at districts behind Lally (46.62) and Salisbury’s Lindsay Bauer (47.18) in 47.54. Frew qualified by beating the state qualifying standard of 47.64.
Frew made strides in the triple jump, too, an event she was basically forced into doing last season.
“I didn’t pick the triple jump,” she said. “The coaches needed me to do it and they asked me to do it. Once I started doing it, and I was jumping what I was, I wasn’t able to get out of it. Then I started to like it.”
Frew’s league-winning distance in the triple jump last season was 33-11.5. She hit 34-8 at leagues May 6, winning the championship on her final attempt of the competition. Frew then had a school-record of 36-0.5 at districts, beating the state qualifying standard of 35-6.
This past spring gave Frew a boost of confidence and she is out for more in 2016. She plans on attending a sprinting and hurdling camp at some point this summer, and then will compete in indoor track during the winter to get ready for next spring.
“This year I learned that I just need to relax, have fun with it and not be so worried about what is going on with the craziness with it,” Frew said on what she learned about herself at states this year. “Just run my race.”
Olympians make
history under Miller
Miller, a 1998 Jim Thorpe graduate, wasn’t coaching when the program was born in the early 2000s, but he’s been a huge part of its growth since he took it over in 2007.
Miller knew he had talent on the boys’ side this spring, but the numbers were a concern. The Olympians started the year with 25 athletes, were at 22 after the first week and had 20 during the dual-meet final against Pottsville.
Still, that talent overcame the numbers.
“It was a concern because that wins dual meets,” Miller said of the numbers. “Some things bounced our way earlier in the season and then when you realized, when you have the six or seven horses that you truly had, a lot of first places also wins dual meets going forward.”
Green led the way, but the area with the strongest depth for the Olympians was the mid-distance and distance events. Senior Johnathan Condly ended up winning his second straight league title in the 3,200, while Bucior, a junior, grabbed league titles in the 800 and 1,600. Condly and Bucior, along with senior Jake Saxon and sophomore Ben Saxon, also won the 3,200 relay title at leagues.
The development of Gilkes, a senior, in the sprints, along with juniors Randy Sanon (sprints), Jian Gentile (distance) and Jason Montemuro (pole vault), along with sophomore Joseph Schwartz (hurdles) gave the Olympians some depth to work with.
The low numbers also forced Miller and his coaching staff to learn how to become better meet strategists in order to maximize their talent. Miller’s assistants this season included Joe Jaskot (distance), Eric Moore (throws), Bob Wagner (throws), Walt Bevilicqua (pole vault), Patty Rehring (jumps) and Jacobs.
A hard-fought season-opening 76-74 win over Lehighton on March 27 got the spring started. An 81-69 victory over Blue Mountain, Jim Thorpe’s first over the Eagles, on April 13 turned out to be a huge confidence boost. The Olympians then finished the title off with their win over the Crimson Tide.
“Each year we tell the kids when we start the year undefeated as 0-0 we will do whatever we can to win every single dual meet until we lose one,” Miller said. “Once you lose one, the odds of winning a team title are pretty much out the window so at that point in time that is when we begin the individual focus.
“This year, it didn’t happen, which is obviously a good thing. But, from an individualistic stand point, the selfishness of our kids maybe prevented them slightly from performing their best in the major postseason meets when that time rolled around due to having to run so much during dual meets to continue to remain unbeaten.”