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Surprise, surprise

3 min read

SHIPPENSBURG – Chase Caldwell didn’t want to be here.

After failing to qualify for the PIAA track and field championships in the javelin, his preferred event, Caldwell wouldn’t have minded simply staying home and icing his balky elbow, which forced him to throw nearly 17 feet shorter than his seeded distance at last week’s WPIAL meet.

But Caldwell did qualify for the state meet in the 110-meter hurdles and was a backup on Washington’s 400 relay team. Caldwell figured he couldn’t back out now. He had to make the trip to Shippensburg.

It’s a good thing Caldwell did.

Caldwell provided one of the biggest surprises – locally anyway – during the first of two days at Shippensburg’s Seth Grove Stadium by finishing the 110 hurdles in 15.14 seconds, tied for the fourth-best time in the entire field.

The time was markedly better than the 15.45 Caldwell ran at the WPIAL championships, and it pushed him through to today’s 10:15 a.m. semifinals, where he’ll run alongside teammate Quorteze Levy, who ran a 15.56.

“I wanted to throw the javelin,” Caldwell said. “But I didn’t want to come because I couldn’t throw.

“I had to come for the 4×100 because I’m the alternate. I got here and said, ‘Well, I’m here. Might as well run the hurdles.’ “

Caldwell has been peaking at the right time after missing nearly two weeks in the middle of the season with lower back pain.

He’s been working with Prexies assistant Derek Hull – a former standout hurdler himself at Wash High – on whipping his trail leg around. That way he’s quicker through the hurdle and quicker to the ground.

“He’s been on my case the whole year, and we’ve been practicing a lot,” Caldwell said. “Just got better, I guess.”

So, has advancing to the second day made enough of an impression on Caldwell that he’ll want to come back?

“I’m coming back (Saturday),” Caldwell said. “I don’t have a choice.”

Fort Cherry’s Jenna Lucas will be back today, and this time around she should win a medal that makes a little more sense than the one she picked up Friday.

Despite only starting to throw the discus seriously this season, Lucas beat her personal-best by nearly seven feet, broke the school record four times, threw a 116-01 and wound up finishing eighth to earn a PIAA Class AA medal.

Not bad for someone whose two biggest goals at the beginning of the season were to hit 90 feet and not hit a person walking nearby.

“I don’t know. I’m still in shock,” Lucas said, looking down at her medal. “I was just hoping to not embarrass myself and smack the pole or something.”

Lucas picked up the discus as a way to fill in for Rachel Bellhy, who missed part of the season because of an injury.

Her reason for it?

“I thought it looked awesome whenever it came out of your hand, with the spin and everything,” Lucas joked.

Well, at least she had the technique.

“I didn’t know how to do much of anything,” said Lucas, who won a WPIAL title in the javelin. “I didn’t even know how to spin right. I cannot explain this.”

The modest-to-a-fault Lucas, one of the area’s best natural athletes, now has a chance to become the first Fort Cherry track athlete to medal in multiple events at the PIAA meet.

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