BOYS TRACK: State finals preview

Kokomo Tribune - Friday, June 4, 2021

Before this season began, former Western track and field coach Marvin Boswell re-joined the boys program as a throws coach. When Western senior Daniel Marley finished with basketball season, he started working with Boswell and it was an uneasy adjustment.

"It was different starting because he had a lot different of an idea of throwing than I did," Marley said. "It was hard to get on track with him."

Then one day, there was a moment in practice where Marley realized the new ideas were making an impact in his performance in shot put.

"Sophomore year I threw 47 [feet] and this year I was like 49, and I'd hit 49 in a meet. And one time it was like at the end of practice and I was just throwing and I went over 50, and I looked at him, and he looked back at me, and we were just quiet. It was like, 'Wow, it works.'"

Marley's best effort in the regular season was 50 feet, 9 inches. In the Kokomo Sectional on May 20 he took second with an effort of 48-6 to qualify for the regional. On May 27 at the Kokomo Regional, he unloaded an effort of 52-9.25, bettering his personal best by more than 2 feet and setting a mark for the rest of the competitors to aim at.

After that huge throw, but before the rest of the competitors had wrapped up, the gravity of the moment sunk in. Marley told the story of that feeling.

"When I did it … there was a lot in the moment," Marley said. "The last round of throws was going on, I was sitting on the ground praying that 'God, let me make it if I deserve it,' and I was like, shaking, I was about to cry. It was crazy, a lot going on in my head."

Marley's effort was worthy. He won the regional shot put competition to quality for the State Finals, and will head to state with two other Western individuals, Evan Kretz and Brayden Curnutt, and a relay team for a strong Panther contingent at the meet today at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis.

Fellow thrower Kretz, a junior, was second in the regional in discus with an effort of 162-5, qualifying both by his place, and by bettering the state standard of 159-3. Curnutt, a senior, was second in the 1,600 after clocking a time of 4:26.85. And Curnutt, junior Pete Bradshaw, senior Cade Shock and senior Drew Caldwell make up Western's 4x800 team that took third at the regional in 8:05.71.

Additionally, Kokomo junior Plez Lawrence will run at state after taking third in the 200 dash, and Maconaquah senior Nolan Kelly will run the 400 dash at state after taking third.

Marley, a Marian University football recruit, felt extra motivation to get to state as a senior. He got stronger over the past two years since he last competed — the Coronavirus pandemic wiped out the IHSAA's 2020 spring season — and felt a sense of urgency this year.

He said a factor that made him more effective this year was "I think my heart — I'm more into it now. It's harder to do because there's a lot more going on, but either you qualify or you're done, your season's over. That has meant a lot more, especially after last year not being able to throw. It was a lot more personal this year."

He's enthused about getting to state this year and said that Western qualifying in four events shows the dedication coach Gary Jewell has to the program and the athletes.

"We have a really good throws coach. Evan was able to finally get back on track," Jewell said. He noted Kretz refined his technique this season. "After that, you could see him making gains along the way.

"It's been really special to see Dan especially make the improvements that he's made. He's now throwing 7 feet, almost 8 feet farther than he did as a sophomore. All in all, it's good for our program to have this many guys qualify for state, coming off a year away from everything. It's good for our kids coming up out of our middle school program to see what we're doing this year."

Jewell is a distance coach primarily and coached the runners on the relay team, as well as Kretz, on the cross country squad that made it to the state finals last fall. That was a first for Western's boys XC program.

"You look at our 4x8 and it's four really competitive guys," Jewell said. "Brayden leads it off at regional, it was the first time he ever broke two minutes in the 800. Pete Bradshaw is also hyper competitive at everything that he does — in athletics with running and swimming and in the classroom.

"Cade Shock is the same way. He's highly driven in the classroom, he's highly driven at this. He was eighth man last fall, he didn't get to run at state. This spring he's the one who put it all together. We needed one more guy and he was the guy. Then you round it up with Drew Caldwell, who is an all-around athlete, no matter what it is he's good at it.

"It makes it really easy to be a coach when you have guys that are this athletic and this competitive. They take it very seriously."

Curnutt is the only one of the bunch with experience at the state track meet. He was 27th in the 3,200 as a sophomore when running on a stress fracture.

"With Brayden, he has much higher expectations than he had two years ago," Jewell said. "He said, ‘I want to run essentially under 4:20 if I can.' And I think he can."

Lawrence's times in the 200 dash got faster at every step of the tourney trail. When the Kat junior entered the sectional, his seed time was :23.29. He bettered that slightly in the preliminary round, then took second in the sectional in in :22.81. A week later at the regional, he bettered that mark in the preliminaries, then took third in :22.55 to qualify for state.

"For him right now his mind is in the right place. He's very focused on his technique and his race plan," Kokomo coach Jordan Ousley said of Lawrence. "He's just starting to put everything together. He had an up-and-down season, he had some setbacks earlier in the season, some injuries. He's starting to hit his stride pretty well."

Since Lawrence only has the 200 to run at state, he should be fresh compared with athletes who are in multiple events. If everything goes perfectly, the goal is to improve enough to advance from the preliminaries to the finals.

"He's excited," Ousley said. "It's a big deal to make it for anyone. He knows he's going to compete. He's excited to go down there and try his best and do what he can. His goal is to beat his time from regional. Right now I think he's seeded 15th and he's going to try to do better than his seed time and seed placement."

Lawrence is seeded 15th in the 200. Marley is seeded 18th in shot put. Kretz is seeded 13th in discus. Curnutt is seeded 21st in the 1,600. The Panther relay team is seeded 15th in the 4x800. Kelly took third in the 400 at the regional. Times for runners who finished second through seventh in that race were unavailable so Kelly is seeded 26th at state.

The state meet begins at 3 p.m. with pole vault and continues on through the evening.