Exeter discus ace Josiah Newman-Kegerise: ‘I’m aiming for the top’
Josiah Newman-Kegerise finished second in the Firing Meet discus last season, his performance light years better than his first go-around when he finished a distant 13th and saw powerhouses Jven Williams and Brady Mider nearly double his meager distance in 2022.
Still, the Exeter junior was not pleased with his silver-medal winning throw. He was peaking this time a year ago, recording a PR at the Shaner Meet, then topping it a week later at the county championships.
He wanted to get to districts and extend himself.
“It was just a bummer to me that it was over so soon,” he said of a junior season that ended a couple feet shy of qualifying for districts. “I finally started getting the numbers I wanted to get, then it was over.
“I was pretty upset. I wanted to go to districts. I was two feet short. (I thought): ‘Man, that sucks; I don’t want to have that happen again.’ ”
When Newman-Kegerise shows up at the District 3 Championships next week he won’t be just another face in the crowd; he well could be the guy to beat.
He will be Thursday when the William H. Firing Meet convenes with trials on the track and finals in several field events, including his specialty, the discus.
Newman-Kegerise enters fresh off a Shaner Meet victory, where he threw a personal-best 175-2, the best distance in the county this season. Mider, the defending county champ, was at the Henderson Invitational that same day, winning the discus in 170-5, a personal best.
The two have gone head-to-head just once this season, at the Bruce Dallas Invitational April 6 at Cumberland Valley. Neither was at his best. Mider went 145-9 and finished fifth; Newman-Kegerise was seventh after a 140-11. Logan Wegman, Exeter’s elite shot putter, outdid them both, throwing 154-1 to finish second.
The convergence of that trio makes the discus one of the more intriguing events at the Firing Meet, which concludes Saturday with track finals and the remaining field events.
Newman-Kegerise is looking forward to challenging Mider in person. Two years ago, when he was a novice in the sport, he looked up at him and Williams in awe. Topping Mider’s best throw last week meant something to him, even if the throws came miles apart.
“That was my goal, ever since the sophomore (Firing) meet,” Newman-Kegerise said. “This is the guy I want to beat. I mean, he’s won a lot of stuff. He’s No. 1 in the state for shot; I want to be No. 1 in state for something. For discus, I’m aiming for the top.”
Newman-Kegerise has enjoyed a rapid rise in the event. He’s more than 30 feet beyond his best toss last season and he’s steadily built momentum in recent weeks. A few days before the Shaner he topped 170 for the first time with a 174-10 in a dual meet against Daniel Boone. In mid-April, at Hempfield’s Black Knight Invitational, he hit 169 for the first time and won the event.
“I never had a gold medal before that,” said the introspective Newman-Kegerise. “Discus is my thing. So if I was going to be focusing so much on discus I wanted to get at least one (gold) medal this year, and now I have two.”
At 5-10 Newman-Kegerise doesn’t have the football lineman type body that generally populates the throwing circles. In fact, before coming out for track he wasn’t involved in athletics in high school. He was more concerned with maintaining his 4.0 GPA and involved himself in less physically demanding activities such as the Student Government Association and the Spanish Club. (He’s also Senior Class vice president.)
Once he got in the throwing circle he was hooked. He was inspired, not intimidated, by watching the hulking Williams – a future champ who now plays football at Penn State – spin that discus through the air like a frisbee.
Newman-Kegerise went to work that summer refining his technique and hit the weight room hard. Now he’s a chiseled 188-pounds, capable of spinning through the circle like a top and flinging that sphere into orbit, the disc coming off his hand smoothly.
“(After last season’s disappointment) I decided I was gonna gain more weight and get stronger, and that really helped me out,” he said.
“No one works harder than him,” says Exeter throws coach Kevin Foehl of Newman-Kegerise’s year-round dedication.
The discus, compared to the shot, is more dependent on technique, footwork in the circle, explosion on the throw. There’s a critical mental component, too, Newman-Kegerise has learned.
“There’s a certain mindset I need to have (to succeed),” he said. “If I think about it too much the night before, I get nervous or antsy, (and) my performance drops. Last year I put too much pressure on myself; it really stressed me out. It hindered my experience. This year I’ve tried to not think about it too much. I focus hard at practice, then I get home, I’m doing something else. I’m not thinking about track.”
When he attends Penn State in the fall he’ll be thinking solely about pursuit of a biology degree. With his skills he could find a spot on a track team at a smaller school but academics are his No. 1 priority. His goal is to become a doctor.
First he wants to add to his gold collection.
“I’m looking to win,” he said of the Firing. “I’m looking for a PR, not just to win. I really want to push myself up there, because I need to prepare myself for districts.”
And beyond. His throw at the Shaner is the best in District 3 this season and fourth-best in the state. He’s not looking at an abbreviated season this time.
“Honestly, at this point it doesn’t really mean anything to me (to have one of the top distances in the state) until I’m there,” he said. “I’m not gonna get a medal for having a throw prior to the meet. I need to do everything I can in the moment and succeed when I’m there.”
If he continues to progress and things break right Newman-Kegerise thinks he’s capable of hitting 190 feet. No one in Berks has touched that number over the last decade.
“The sky’s the limit for the kid,” Foehl said.
Earlier this season Newman-Kegerise broke the program record of 157. It seemed like a big deal to him at the time, and it was; that record had stood for 48 years.
“It feels weird now that I broke it,” he said. “When I was a sophomore I was looking at those numbers (and thought): ‘Maybe one day the wind will carry me far and I’ll throw just enough to beat the record.’ Here I am now.”
