10 Berks boys who should find the medal stand at District 3 track championships
The District 3 Track and Field Championships will be held Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University.
For a complete time schedule, click here.
For Class 3A performance lists, click here.
For Class 2A performance lists, click here.
Here are the 10 best bets among Berks boys to medal:
Brady Mider, Berks Catholic
Mider is always at the top of the list when it comes to Berks track and field.
The defending Class 3A champ returns fresh off a personal best 62-4.75 at the Firing Meet; that’s more than 10 inches over his previous PR, posted one weekend earlier at the Hoka/Henderson Invitational.
Mider has regularly been throwing 60-plus; no one else in the district has reached that elite plateau.
The No. 2 seed, Logan Wegman of Exeter, is more than four feet behind.
Mider is a threat to win the discus as well. He reached 170 for the first time May 3, at Henderson, and finished second at the Firing Meet last week in 162-10.
The Iowa recruit peaked in the disc at districts last year, throwing 161-1.
He won district shot put gold last year at 59-2.25 and won the state tournament a week later at 58-0.25. He earned silver medals in both the shot and discus as a sophomore.
Josiah Newman-Kegerise, Exeter
If Brady Mider doesn’t come home with a pair of golds it’ll be because of this guy.
Newman-Kegerise is the No. 1 seed in the discus after throwing 175-2 to win the Shaner Meet. Until last week, when Mider got there, no one else in District 3 had reached 170.
Newman-Kegerise’s throw at the Shaner wasn’t a fluke; a week earlier, in a dual meet at Daniel Boone, he hit 174-10.
The senior won his first county title in the discus last week, hitting 167-3 – topping Mider by nearly 4 ½ feet.
Newman-Kegerise is also in the running in the shot put, where he appears to be peaking. His best toss of 51-7.5 came last week, when he finished third at the Firing. That was more than 18 inches better than he had thrown before.
Luke Martinez, Schuylkill Valley
Martinez knows his way to the medal stand at Seth Grove Stadium. As a junior he brought home Class 2A gold in the pole vault and silver in the long jump.
He heads to Shippensburg as the only Berks boys seeded in the top three in three events: He’s No. 1 in the pole vault (14-3) and long jump (22-2.50) and No. 3 in the triple jump (43-2.50).
Martinez is the only competitor in the field to top 13 feet but he hasn’t hit 14 in nearly three weeks. He won the Firing Meet at 13-6, a height he has cleared in almost every competition.
The long jump will be a bigger challenge. He hasn’t hit 22 since a dual meet against Twin Valley nearly a month ago. His best since then came last week when he reached 21-4.5. Two other competitors in the field, including Kutztown’s Connor Loeb, have reached that mark.
Martinez appears to be peaking in the triple jump, which he won last week with a PR of 43-2.5; a week earlier he PR’d at 42-8.25.
Trinity’s Jeremiah Hargrove enters as the top seed at 46-10.75; he hit 44-3 last weekend at the Mid-Penn Championships.
Martinez won both the pole vault and triple jump at the Firing Meet; he ended up No. 2 in the long jump after Reading High’s Xavier Beatty uncorked a 23-5.5, a PR by more than 18 inches.
Jaydon Witman, Hamburg
The senior is seeded No. 1 in both the 110 and 300 hurdles.
He’s the only Class 2A hurdler to break 15-flat in the 110, and he’s done it consistently. He won the Firing Meet at 14.83 and ran a 14.57 in the prelims. He recorded his PR April 27 at the Schuylkill Valley Invitational.
The 300 figures to be a tight race. He enters with a PR of 39.83, which he ran last week at the Firing. Steel-High’s Evan James has logged a 39.85. No one else in the field has broken 40.
Witman finished sixth in the 110 at districts last year in 15.76; he was 15th in the 300 (44.97).
John Kowalski, Schuylkill Valley
The Panthers’ junior ran in the shadows of Berks sprinters from larger schools all season before breaking through with a victory in the 200 at the Firing Meet, where he bested Gov. Mifflin’s Sean Singleton, Exeter’s Lukas Petersen and Daniel Boone’s Cameron Cremi with a 22.46.
He heads to districts No. 1 in Class 2A at 22.25; only one other runner in the field has broken 23. Kowalski recorded his season’s best time in the prelims at the Stephan Meet.
Kowalski didn’t finish better than fourth in the 100 at any of the major county meets but finds himself at the head of the 2A field. His best time (11.06) came at the Stephan Meet, where he finished fifth.
Collin Niedrowski, Wyomissing
Last year’s Class 2A javelin champ hasn’t been able match last year’s production, when he was consistently in the 190’s and won districts at 181-8. He adopted a different throwing technique in the offseason after suffering through elbow issues last year, and it has yet to click.
He’s coming off his best throw of the season, a 172-7 which was good enough to earn a silver medal last week at the county championship.
That’s fourth-highest entering the district competition.
Zack Zerbe, Gov. Mifflin
Zerbe ran a scorching 1:54.60 to win the Firing Meet 800 by nearly two seconds and will be the only runner in the district 3A field to have cracked 1:55. He’s shaved five seconds off last year’s time.
He’s the No. 7 seed in the 3200 after running a 9:20.93 to win the county championship in that event. A year ago he finished fourth in this race at 9:18.98. With him skipping the 1600 he should have enough left to be at his top for both events.
Zerbe was second in the state indoor championships in the 800 at 1:53.64.
David Giles, Wyomissing
Giles earned a pair of medals as a sophomore, finishing third in the 3200 and sixth in the 800, and he’s in even better position heading into this weekend.
The junior has the best time in the 3200 by nearly five seconds after turning in a personal-best 9:34.82 at the Firing Meet, where he finished fourth.
He’s No. 2, behind teammate Cameron Cohen, in the 1600 after posting a PR with a 4:23.32.
Giles is also part of the Spartans’ top-seeded 4×800 relay.
Xavier Beatty, Reading High
The multi-talented junior, a relative newcomer to the sport, tacked nearly 18 inches onto his best to pull out a stunning long jump victory at the Firing Meet.
His leap of 23-5.5 is six inches ahead of the district field.
The Red Knights football star is moving up quickly in the event; just two weeks ago he won Shaner Meet gold at 21-10.7.
He’s fast enough to have qualified for districts in both the 100 and 200 but will instead concentrate solely on the long jump.
Drew Forrey, Wyomissing
Forrey missed the second half of his senior football season and all but one game of basketball due to a broken leg. That may have led to a slow start this spring but he busted out last weekend with a season-best throw to win the Firing javelin and his second-best throw of the season to finish third in the discus.
He heads to districts seeded No. 1 in the Class 2A discus, No. 2 in the javelin and No. 7 in the shot put.
His discus PR of 157-6, which he hit at the Stephan Meet, is five feet ahead of the field.
Forrey’s javelin best of 175-10, which won the Firing Meet, is 14 feet off the top seed, Trinity’s Jeremiah Hargrove. He’ll also get plenty of competition from Spartans teammates Collin Niedrowski and Isaac Focht.
Forrey earned a district bronze in the javelin last year.
