By Christopher Hunt
All photos by Don Rich, Mary DiBiase Blaich, and Tim Fulton
Nick Vena already locked up his third straight national title. The pressure faded. He found a familiar place. The Morristown junior imagined himself alone at practice.
No crowd. No expectations. Just a throwing circle and a 12-pound ball grinding against his neck. He did all the things he trained himself over and over to execute. Vena calmly launched a 70-foot, 9-inch blast on his final attempt to win his third straight national shot put championship and break his own Armory scholastic facility record at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships Saturday.
“I had to be myself,” he said. “It was just like me at practice. I had to go through those same motions as I do at practice.”
Vena was always as relaxed. He fouled his first two attempts, putting him in danger of leaving the competition without even a legal mark. He stepped over the toe-board on his first attempt and his second crashed into the left side of the cage.
“Opening up, I think I wasn’t really comfortable with the circle just yet,” he said. “I had a lot of nerves going. I was little too hyped up.”
Vena’s “safety throw” sailed 69-6.75, which would have been good enough to win and see Vena leave the circle visibly sighing in relief. Davis Fraker of Peachtree, Ga., threw his lifetime best, 67-8, on his last attempt to finish second. It was Vena’s first time throwing 70 feet in the Armory this season, where his best is a nation-leading 71-5.
“It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world,” Vena said of his third title. “Winning one is great. This is unbelievable.”
Haddonfield just missed a record in the 4x1 mile relay. Colin Baker (4:20.2), Matthew Nussbaum (4:30.4), Ben Potts (4:17.8) and Jon Vitez (4:13.7) won the race in 17:22.12, less than a second off of the national record of 17:21.58 set by West Windor-Plainsboro North last year.
“I was pretty angry afterward,” Vitez said. “Not because of the way we ran but just because we got so close. It stings a little bit not to get it.”
Haddonfield’s intentions were clear after Potts sprinted a 60-second first quarter mile. Then began lapping most of the field.
“Coach told us if you’re going to be aggressive then you have to go out aggressive” Potts said. “I probably went out a little too hard but I think that put me in the right mindset for what we were trying to do.”
Vitez eyeballed the clock each lap, calculating splits his head, knowing that he needed 4:13 or lower to catch the record .
“I wasn’t feeling particularly well but once we started going, the crowd got into it and I just gave it all I had,” he said. “It hurts right now but we’ll all feel better about it later.”
Georgetown Prep (Md.) didn’t make an assault on any records but they have become one of the most interesting stories of the competition. Running under Little Hoyas TC, the team finished third in the sprint medley Friday from the first heat, missing the national title by about half a second. Then Saturday, Russell Hornsby, Nick Letourneau, Joey Chapin and Joe Woiwode won the 4x800 from the first second in 7:48.99, the second-fastest time in the country this season.
Georgetown Prep hadn’t run faster than 8:18.21 this season, which barely qualified for the national meet. But Hornsby, a transfer from Jamestown High in Virginia, hadn’t run for the team all season because the transfer made him ineligible. That coupled, with the two root canals, knee pain and persistent shin splints that Hornsby suffered this season made him uncertain if he would even compete.
The shin splits forced him out of training for nearly all of February. He said he’s only been back running for about two weeks. But none of that showed when he dropped a 1:54.6 leadoff leg. Outside of two developmental type races earlier this winter, Hornsby hadn’t been in a competitive race since August.
“I really wanted a chance to run with these guys,” Hornsby said. “I’ve never been on this caliber of a team on the track.”
Woiwode, who clocked a 1:53.6 anchor, was a 400-meter runner up until this season. He moved up because his body couldn’t handle the intense sprinting. Woiwode pulled his right hamstring last winter, which kept him out for seven weeks. He missed his entire sophomore year after pulling his left hamstring. If he wanted to keep running, he needed to move up.
“We expected to come top six,” Woiwode said. “We didn’t expect to win necessarily. We thought we could run 7:50. We still had to watch the (three) other races. It’s pretty nerve-racking. We had to do the same thing yesterday.”
They weren’t the only ones getting accustomed to something new. Rich D’Ambrosio of Malvern (Pa.) had never competed in the pentathlon before. In fact, he had never thrown the shot put or raced 1,000 meters. But his coach convinced him to give the pentathlon a try. He trailed by 167 points behind Andre Davis of Old Bridge heading into the last event, the 1,000. Davis struggled in the 1,000 and slipped back to fifth while D’Ambrosio capitalized and won a national title in his debut in the event, scoring 3,590 points.
“I’ll be back next year,” he said. “I didn’t want to do this at first but, you know, when you win something this big, it makes you want to do it again.”
Sophomore Urina Harrell of Together Elite (Serra High, Calif.) won the girls pentathlon with 3,504 points. Harrell also struggled with bad shin pain and was debating on whether she would make the trip to New York. She finished third as an eighth-grader and fifth last year.
“I’ve been waiting since eighth grade to finally do this,” she said. “It’s amazing. It was one of my better days.”
Speed City (Long Beach Poly) didn’t know what to expect in the girls 4x800. It was their first shot at the relay this year since California doesn’t have an indoor season. The team still looked race sharp as Arielle Steveson (2:17), Erica Winston (2:19), Ne’Ausha Logan (2:19) and Dynasty Gammage (2:12) won in 9:08.77, the second fastest time in the country this season. Fayetteville-Manilus won the 4x800 at Nike Indoor Nationals in Boston Saturday in 9:02.80.
Bronxville’s Henrietta Miers shadowed Gammage for three laps and tried to surge by on the last but Gammage held her off on the first turn and Miers couldn’t hold pace down the back straightaway. Bronxville was second in 9:12.26.
“I knew on the bell lap I was going to give it all I had,” Gammage said. “I just kept thinking that I wasn’t going to let her pass me.”
The girls sprint finals are poised to present the best head-to-head matchups of the entire meet. Whitney Fountain of Columbus in the Bronx has the qualifying time heading into the girls 60 final (7.43) and the second-fastest in the 200 (23.93). Aston Purvis of St. Elizabeth (Calif.) holds the leading time in the 200 (23.57) and the second-fastest in the 60 (7.45).
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
