Lucas, McCord earn PIAA hardware

Warwick senior Alex McCord soars over the high jump bar on his second attempt at 6 feet, 4 inches, which was good enough to earn him a sixth-place State medal last Saturday. (Photo by Chris Knight)

Instead of sitting back last Friday night to relish the PIAA State Triple-A silver medal he won in the boys discus, Warwick’s David Lucas tried to shake off his performance in that event.

The Warrior senior, who also captured PIAA silver in the discus last year, expected more of himself than the 183-1 he uncorked on his last throw of the finals.

But Lucas still had the shot put competition which required his full focus on Saturday.

It seems he must have turned the page pretty well.

Seeded 11th with a throw of 51-8 1/4, the Penn State University recruit took silver with a school-record heave of 56-8 on the final day of the State Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University. Knoch sophomore Jordan Geist won the gold medal in the shot put at 65-9 3/4.

“I know that Jordan Geist is one heck of a competitor and just a great athlete all-around,” Lucas said. “So I was happy for him with how well he competed in shot put put on Saturday. But for me to come in seeded 11th and then to finish second with a big PR and to throw very well, I was ecstatic.”

Warwick senior Alex McCord, too, was happy to return home with a State medal after finishing sixth in the boys high jump while clearing the bar at 6-4.

“I was shooting for a little better than sixth place, but it’s cool because I had the opportunity to compete in the State Meet, whereas last year I didn’t have that opportunity,” said McCord, who will be a preferred walk-on at Penn State to compete in the decathlon. “I mean, sixth place is still very good because there’s a lot of people that didn’t qualify for States, so I’m grateful.”

Rounding out Warwick’s list of State qualifiers was junior Ian Harpel, who ran a time of 52.33 seconds in the boys 400 preliminaries on Friday.

As a team, the Warwick boys placed in the PIAA Triple-A standings with 19 points.

Lucas certainly figured big in where the Warriors finished with his two silver medals in his final high school competition. He will leave the halls of Warwick with two school records to his name. In addition to his mark of 199-7 in the discus, set at the Penn Relays in late April, Lucas shattered the shot put record formerly held by his teammate Adam Wagaman, who threw 55-1 on May 3 at McCaskey.

“It was a really good feeling,” Lucas said, “because I’ve put in countless hours of throwing both discus and shot put over my whole high school career. And to finally have it all pay off at the last meet, and for that to be a school record throw, it’s fantastic to now have my name on the record board for both events.”

Prior to Saturday, Lucas’ personal best throw in the shot put was 53-0. He surpassed that by more than three feet on his final attempt of the trials.

“It felt good,” Lucas recalled. “It had a very nice pop in the front of the circle, so I knew that it was a good throw as soon as it came off … I’ve been having a few good weeks of practice, I’ve been throwing pretty good marks. I knew they were going far, (but) I never knew exactly how far they were going. So it was nice to step up and get the shot put out there.”

In the finals, Lucas wasn’t able to add to his distance in the shot put, but he still had enough to hold off bronze-medalist Kieran Moore (54-11), of Upper Dublin.

“Even though my throws in the finals didn’t exceed or meet my third throw in the trials, I still felt like it was a good performance,” Lucas said.

Unfortunately, however, his frame of mind wasn’t quite as positive 24 hours earlier following the discus.

After stepping down from the podium on the infield of Shippensburg’s Seth Grove Stadium, Lucas said simply to reporters, “Should have done better. It’s tough because I just didn’t do it and it’s really disappointing. It’s really upsetting, frankly. I can’t sit here and say that I’m ecstatic about my distance or that I’m overjoyed about how I competed. I should have done much better.”

He was seeded second going into the finals, but his best throw up to that point of 168-11 was un-Lucas-like. His early struggles included hitting the cage bordering the circle on his first warm-up throw.

“I did it last year,” Lucas said. “(My thoughts were), ‘I just got that bad throw out of the way. It’s out of the system.’”

Despite efforts to stretch out his back, the nagging injury was admittedly causing him “some grief” in Friday’s competition.

“It’s no excuse,” he said. “You’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do and I just didn’t put it together.’

Lucas improved on his second throw of the finals, unleashing an effort of 170-11, and then he stepped up with 183-1 on his final attempt. It was still three feet shy of Geist, who won the gold medal at 186-2.

“Quite frankly, I should have opened with my 183 and I should have continued to progress from there,” Lucas said. “I just wasn’t doing it. I should have been better today. I’ve got shot (Saturday) which is something I can say is a first for me at States.”

Asked if he felt that he could have reached the 190’s with a couple more attempts, Lucas said. “Yeah, but I just wasn’t there. You can put it together at any point – it only takes one throw. But I didn’t have it.”

McCord put it together at the District Championships one week earlier, winning the gold medal at 6-4 while punching his ticket to States. That was a major improvement from 2014, when he tied for seventh place at 6-2.

Last Saturday, McCord had no problems at 6-0 and 6-2, clearing the bar on his first attempt at both heights. Up next was 6-4 and he successfully got over on his second try.

When the bar was bumped up to 6-6, McCord’s best attempt was his first one.

“I got over it and everything, I was feeling great and then I think I just hit hit it with my leg,” he said.

Williamsport sophomore Qayyim Ali won the gold at 6-6, a height that Coatesville silver-medalist Jay Whitfield, Conestoga bronze-medalist Andrew Diehl and Laurel Highlands fourth-place finisher Chad Livingston also cleared.

“I’ve done 6-6 plenty of times before, just not (Saturday),” McCord said. “Everything has to be exactly right. It’s so little time going over the bar where you need to know right when to kick your feet and when to drive your arms and all that stuff.”

There will be more competitions ahead for McCord as a member of the Nittany Lions. Before that, however, he is hoping to enter an AAU Meet in the decathlon this summer, where he can qualify for Nationals in Virginia.

For both Lucas and McCord, however, their days of pulling on a Warwick jersey are behind them.

“It’s bittersweet,” McCord said. “It was a fun four years, but I’m ready to move on to college.”

“It’s sad to know that it’s over,” Lucas acknowledged. “But I’m very proud to have competed where I have. To compete for Warwick, to compete in the L-L League, in District Three and just the PIAA in general , it’s been a tremendous experience. I couldn’t have been any happier with how my whole career in high school track and field has gone.”

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