Fort Cherry’s Brown on target for big season in javelin
Fort Cherry’s Devon Brown throws the javelin during the Chartiers-Houston Mixed Relays at Buccaneer Stadium Friday.
Burgesttown’s Erin Smith, middle, competes in the 110-meter hurdles at the 3rd-Annual Chartiers-Houston Mixed Relays Friday.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter Chartiers-Houston's Julius Thomas running the anchor leg for the win in the 4x100 relay at the 3rd annual Chartiers-Houston Mixed Relays. The Bucs finished third in team scoring with 51 points.
HOUSTON – Devon Brown watched in amazement as Jenna Lucas won her second consecutive WPIAL Class AA javelin title with a throw of more than 157 feet in 2014.
Even as he saw Lucas throw in practice on the grass at Fort Cherry’s Jim Garry Stadium, Brown, then a freshman, thought to himself, how can a girl who is only 5-6 throw a javelin that far and be so much better than everyone else?
So, when Brown returned to the Rangers’ track and field team, he picked up a javelin and started throwing. At 6-6 and weighing more than 200 pounds, Brown wondered how far he could throw the javelin with his height and, more importantly, long arms.
Well, pretty far, actually.
At a non-section dual meet Wednesday, Brown’s throw went past the grassy area that was measurable at McGuffey and over a fence for an official 172 feet.
Now, the better question for Brown and his coaches is how far can the junior throw once he becomes technically sound like Lucas, who won back-to-back WPIAL and PIAA titles, or Wake Forest senior Jessie Merckle, who also won four titles at Fort Cherry despite being, well, short.
As Brown ran down the runway on the hill above Chartiers-Houston’s Buccanneer Stadium at the C-H Mixed Relays Friday afternoon, he knew he wouldn’t have much luck throwing uphill. He still had an average of 155 feet and, along with Matt Staley and Shannon Relihan, helped the Rangers win the javelin and finish in second place in the team scoring.
After a sophomore season in which he struggled with the throwing technique, Brown is finally finding success, but that has also meant higher expectations for himself.
“The javelin was kind of painful,” Brown recalled. “I didn’t really know how to throw it at first, so I kind of used all arm and it tore up my elbow quite a bit. It wasn’t the greatest experience the first time throwing it.”
In his first season throwing the javelin last spring, Brown did not qualify for the WPIAL Championships after throwing a 131-9 at the Class AA Southern Qualifier, but he did for the discus and finished 11th, missing the cut for the state championships.
After a his throw at McGuffey this week, it’s become obvious to Brown that his best shot at a WPIAL title is the javelin. McGuffey’s Ryan Stienstraw won the WPIAL Class AA championship with a throw of 172-9 last year and only one of the top nine finishers is back.
“Last year was up and down,” Brown said. “It was a little bit discouraging, but I gave my arm a rest all summer and really came back strong. I focused on technique coming into the year and worked out in the winter a lot more. I think that had something to do with it.”
Maybe an instructional video has also played a factor. First-year throws coach Jack Merckle, Jessie’s brother and a 2011 Fort Cherry graduate, has been using video of his sister’s technique to show his throwers how it’s done.
Perfect footwork and precision technique is much more difficult for a thrower of Brown’s size, but that doesn’t mean he lacks athleticism. Brown anchors the Rangers’ 400-meter relay team and almost helped the Rangers win the event Thursday.
“His size is something I definitely enjoy working with,” Jack Merckle said. “He’s easy to coach because he’s so big, but he has a lot of room to improve because his form is not that great, honestly. At this point, he has room to grow. He has to get his steps more in tune, getting his muscle memory down and keeping the javelin steady.”
He certainly has the work ethic and attitude to improve, and it stems from a difficult start to his junior season. As Fort Cherry’s starting quarterback and as the top post player in basketball, Brown was not able to reach the postseason.
When the basketball season ended, Brown started getting ready for track and field. Ben Maxin, the Rangers’ head track and field coach, believes with practice and time, success is more than attainable for his top boys javelin thrower.
“It’s exciting. I wouldn’t say he’s a stereotypical good javelin thrower,” Maxin said. “You have to change a few things with his run up, his approach, his footwork. With a big guy like him, it’s probably harder for him to have good footwork than a smaller, quicker guy, but he does have speed for a big guy.”
Speaking of speed, Bentworth sophomore Brenna Cavanaugh has it in spades and the Bearcats certainly need it. Cavanaugh finished third at the WPIAL Championships in the 100 hurdles last year and took sixth at the PIAA Championships.
Now, she’s leading Bentworth’s 17-person team that had a difficult time filling the 14 events and couldn’t field a hurdle relays team. Instead, Cavanaugh ran on the other relay teams.
Though Cavanaugh has a bigger role this season, Bentworth head coach Jerome Nixon, who is in his 14th season, isn’t the least bit concerned about her shot at a PIAA title. He believes asking her to do more will better prepare Cavanaugh for Shippensburg, but like many local track and field teams, he is concerned about low numbers on his roster.
“Believe it or not, everyone is telling me the same thing, that they’re having the same problem that I’m having as far as getting kids to come out,” Nixon said. “I was just talking to another coach and some of these kids are being told they’re only supposed to do one sport.”
McGuffey’s track and field team won the team title for the second consecutive year with 114 points. Fort Cherry finished second with 94 points and Chartiers-Houston was third with 51.
McGuffey had wins in the 4 x 800 relay, the hurdles, 800 medley relay, 4 x 200 relay, 4 x 300 hurdles, 4 x 1,600 relay, 4 x 400 relay, the shot put and the throwers.