1st Meet Recap - April 9th, 2021

This past Friday our Alfred State throwers competed in their first meet of the 2020-21 season.  It was also the first time in many years that Alfred State had hosted a meet.  We had great weather, great competition, and exciting performances.

The meet began at 3:30pm, and all throwers were given 4 attempts per event.  We just finished up the men’s discus before dusk.

The men’s competition started off with the hammer.  Overall, we had our two best performances in the hammer throw.  Freshman Nate Chambers won the competition with a throw of 48.03m.  Directly on his heels was sophomore Dylan Perlino.  Dylan threw 47.88m.  Both of those performances qualify these two athletes for our regional championships in mid-May.  These two performances also rank Nate 3rd and Dylan 4th all-time in the hammer throw at Alfred State.  Also having strong performances were freshmen Joe Hammer, Devin Gross, and Wilfredo Rodriguez.  Joe finished with a personal best of 24.05m, Devin hit 21.51m, and Wilfredo threw 17.90m.

After the hammer, we transitioned to the shot-put event on the other side of the track and field complex.  As with the hammer, we had great performances here as well.  Dylan led our group with a toss of 11.17m.  Joe and Nate were right behind with tosses of 10.45m and 10.26m, respectively.  Wilfredo (9.57m), Jamison Pomroy (8.68m), and Devin (8.28m) all had personal marks.

Lastly, we wrapped up with the discus portion of the competition.  Beginning right around 6:45pm, we were able to get 44 discus tosses in before dusk.  Dylan led our throwers with a mark of 37.97m.  Nate and Wilfredo were right behind with throws of 36.70m and 26.52m.  Jamison, Joe, and Devin also had solid marks of 25.29m, 24.00m, and 23.99m respectively.  

We began this spring semester with many unknowns.  We weren’t sure if we would have an indoor season, an outdoor season, or any seasons at all.  Beginning in January, we started having practices 2x per week from 8:30pm-10:30pm.  We made it through those late evening practice sessions and successfully transitioned to outdoor training outdoors.  There are still many unknowns left this season.  What we may have taken for granted in the past with Friday or Saturday track meets may go by the wayside.  We sit on the edge of our seats waiting for correspondence from other coaches and universities with updates about meet schedules, dates, and times.  

For now, it looks as though we will have a track meet every weekend until Mother’s Day.  We are not quite sure of all the specific dates and times, but we know we will be competing.

We all took a collective breath Friday night.  Some of our throwers hadn’t competed since last March.  For another it had been a couple of years.  To say I’m proud of this group would be an understatement.  We have traversed many challenges thus far within this infant season.  We have collectively overcome many obstacles, challenges, and road blocks.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to coach this group of throwers.  A thank you isn’t quite enough, but for now it will suffice.  Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to call myself your coach!