Track & Field: Riverhead’s triple jumpers save best for last
SECTION XI DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIPS
Davion Porter is the relative newcomer to the triple jump. Marcus Moore is the veteran.
Porter is quick to remind his Riverhead teammate of that fact.
“I talk a lot of smack,” said Porter, a senior. “This is my first year doing this. First season ever tripling. And [Moore’s] been doing this since middle school.”
On his final triple jump at Tuesday’s Division II Championship at Longwood High School, Porter popped his best jump of the season at 44 feet 4 1/2 inches, momentarily propelling himself into second place in the competition and ahead of his teammate, Moore.
Porter darted toward Moore after the jump and the two embraced, smiling and laughing.
But Moore still had one jump left.
And just like Porter, Moore saved his best for last, setting his own personal best of 45-1.
“I can’t let you beat me,” Moore said to his teammate after the official read aloud the distance.
Moore’s jump allowed him to leapfrog his teammate and finish second in the competition. Porter settled for third.
On a day where Smithtown East’s Michael Camera popped a huge jump of more than 47 feet to win the competition, the two Riverhead jumpers walked away all smiles for their performance.
For Moore, the big jump at the end came as a bit of a surprise.
“It was a weird day for me,” he said. “Usually I give my best jump those first two jumps I take. I kept getting scared because I didn’t think I was going to make finals at first.”
In the triple jump, there are two flights of competitors. Then the top seven advance to the finals. For the seven finalists, the best jump of the day is used to determine the final places.
Moore needed to nail his last jump in his flight to get himself into the finals. Once he got there, his jumps kept improving. He went from 41-9 1/2 to 43-9 1/2 to finally his season’s best of 45-1.
Moore finished second in the triple jump at divisions last year as well, albiet with a lesser jump of 42-10.
“I was like, ‘I’m not trying to finish second as a junior and then my senior year do worse,'” Moore said.
For Moore, the triple jump is his main focus. Porter will shift his attention to the high jump on the second day of the competition Thursday. He also ran the 200 but did not advance into the finals.
Most of the events on the track Tuesday were preliminaries. The majority of finals are on Thursday.
The two finals on the track were the 800 and 3,200. In Division III, Shoreham-Wading River’s Ryan Udvadia emerged a double champion.
He ran 1 minute 57.38 seconds in the first event, the 800.
Udvadia said he was nervous about the 800 coming into the day, knowing he was going up against a talented runner in James Burke of Port Jefferson. But Burke missed a chunk of the season battling an illness and wasn’t up to his normal par in Tuesday’s race.
“Coaches told me take it out hard and run the last lap and that’s what I did,” Udvadia said. “Got positive results.”
Going out hard at the start of a race is unusual for Udvadia, who prefers to sit back before making his move. In the longer distances like the 1,600 and 3,200, that works for him. But in the 800, there isn’t much time to wait.
“It helps me a lot with the 1,600 and 3,200,” Udvadia said of running the 800. “It gives me some speed and a little bit of endurance.”
In the 3,200 just over an hour later, Udvadia took it easy at the start before surging into first with just over 800 meters remaining. He opened up a big lead going into the final 400 meters and crossed the finish line in 9:44.44, raising his right hand in victory as he crossed the line.
His teammate, senior Keith Steinbrecher, finished in third in 9:55.43.
Steinbrecher said when he’s racing, he always knows Udvadia is going to make his move into first at some point. His goal, he said, is to focus on the other runners around him.
“I was just trying to make my move against the other couple of guys that were in that pack with us,” he said.
Steinbrecher said he’s focused more on running the mile this year as well as the steeplechase, which he’ll run Thursday. Udvadia and Steinbrecher will both run as part of the 4 x 800 relay Thursday as well.
In the 800, Shoreham’s Gladysz finished third in 2:00.96. Senior Connor McAlary was sixth in the 3,200 in 10:08.72.
The Wildcats will send two runners to the finals of the 100: Jordan Wright (11.2) and Bryce Casey (11.22). Casey also qualified for the finals of the 200 (23:09). Matt Leunig will run the finals of the 400-hurdles (58.93). McGann-Mercy’s Luis Cintron also made the finals (1:00.13).
Mercy’s Dale Kelly qualified for the 400-dash finals (52.4).
For Riverhead, Jacob Robinson will the 200 finals (22.87). Two Blue Waves will run the finals of the 110-hurdles: Darren Jefferson (15.41) and Andrew Smith (15.72).