The Bucks junior ran the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 14.24 to tie the Lackawanna Track Conference record set in 1988 by Lakeland\u2019s Joby Fawcett. He added wins in the 100 in 11.1 seconds and the 300 hurdles and ran the anchor leg of the 1,600 relay, leading Dunmore to an 87-63 win over Mid Valley in a Division III boys track meet, as the Bucks stopped the Spartans\u2019 32-meet win streak.<\/p>\n
Family: Father, Philip; mother, Jennifer; sister, Kierstyn.<\/p>\n
What was that 110-hurdle race like and what did you think of your performance: Obviously in the beginning of the year I ran a good time, and it was shocking after coming off an injury from last year. It was a good time, and I was wondering how I was going to keep PRing. Then, this week we did a lot more drills on my trail leg, and on not hitting as many hurdles, and I felt confident going into that race after warming up. I went over the first hurdle, and after the first couple hurdles, I knew it was going to be a good race. I nicked a few (hurdles) and there\u2019s still room to improve.<\/p>\n
What was the injury: I tore my PCL right before our last track season.<\/p>\n
You still hold the school record at Susquehanna with a time of 15.44. What did it take to get to where you\u2019re at now: I did a lot of training this offseason. I did a lot of training with Athletic Republic in Moosic and Brandon Byrd in Allentown. We put a lot of work into my speed and agility. I worked on hurdles at both places. It\u2019s hard to balance with gaining weight for football and gaining speed, but that\u2019s just the work you\u2019ve got to put in. Hard work shows when the results come out. If you don\u2019t put in the work in the offseason, you\u2019re not going to keep PRing every year.<\/p>\n
When you hit that time in the 110 hurdles, was it difficult to refocus or is it ever difficult to refocus or ramp up from event to event: I\u2019ve never really had a problem getting amped up before an event. After I run the 110s and I hear the time, I\u2019m like, OK that\u2019s the time I needed. All right, what\u2019s the next event? Especially in the 110s right back to the 100, you get happy about the time and you\u2019ve got to go right back to turning the dial up and dialing into the next event.<\/p>\n
What did you think of the team\u2019s performance against Mid Valley: I thought the team had an amazing performance. They didn\u2019t let up. We won a lot, we got a lot of firsts and seconds that we needed. Ryan Mecca got a lot of good placing that we needed him to get. Josh Dudick and Carter Sload have been amazing in the field. Our throwers placed where they needed to place, and we had a lot of glue players like Jake Costanzo, and Carter Sload is a big part of that relay team. It all adds up. The team is something. We\u2019ve got a lot of potential this year.<\/p>\n
What does a win like that do for the team: It proved what we can do this season. We have so much talent that\u2019s going to really show later in the season as we keep PRing, and it proves that we\u2019ve got a lot of potential, not only as an individual but as a team for team districts or even potentially team states.<\/p>\n
Last week you were part of the 400 relay team that set a school record, and you ran the 1,600 relay this week. What makes you guys so successful: I like to see Dunmore as a culture. It\u2019s one big family. No matter what you\u2019re doing and the season, you\u2019re doing something with your teammates all the time. You put trust in your teammates when you hand the baton off or anything or if the meet comes down to one of your teammates, you can put all the trust in them because it\u2019s a super competitive town and Dunmore is not a fan of losing.<\/p>\n
You also play football. What has the Dunmore community been like with both sports: The culture here is just absolutely amazing. I wouldn\u2019t ever want to trade it for the world. Coming here really showed what it felt like to be in a sports town. Coming from Susquehanna, Susquehanna is great, but Dunmore really opened my eyes to everyone cares about how you\u2019re doing and if you\u2019re doing good. They always pay attention here. One time I walked into McDonald\u2019s and an old man talked to me about how good the football team is doing and how excited he was and it just lightens up your mood.<\/p>\n
Do you have any plans for after high school yet: I\u2019m still undecided, but I\u2019m looking around. I went around to a lot of different colleges. I still haven\u2019t decided if I want to get into track more in college or football. Hopefully wherever I can get a good education and think about life after sports, but I\u2019m still undecided.<\/p>\n
Athlete you admire: My cousin, Skyla Wilson. She obviously came from a small town in Susquehanna, and she really worked her way to the top with hurdling. Now, she\u2019s got an opportunity to try out for the Olympic Trials in the next couple years, and it just really proved that small towns can produce great talent.<\/p>\n
Do you have any superstitions or rituals before or during a meet: Before every race and every football game, I put a prayer up to my grandpa who passed away when I was younger, and he meant the world to me. So, I make sure to have a conversation with him before I do anything in sports and hopefully he gives me some luck.<\/p>\n
Favorite food: I\u2019m gonna have to go with a nice filet. A nice steak.<\/p>\n
Favorite sports teams: New York Giants and New York Yankees.<\/p>\n
Three people you\u2019d like to have dinner with: Kobe Bryant, David Goggins and Arnold Schwarzenegger.<\/p>\n
Favorite movie: \u201cThe Purge: Election Year\u201d<\/p>\n
Favorite TV show: \u201cShooter\u201d<\/p>\n
Favorite musical artist: Jon Pardi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bucks junior ran the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 14.24 to tie the Lackawanna Track Conference…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[7804,305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-165195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-athlete-of-the-week","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}