×

Williamsport’s Mahon sets personal best to win 800

SELINSGROVE — Owen Mahon pumped the brakes a little coming off the starting line. It caused the Williamsport runner to fall back in the pack of the fast heat of the boys 800-meter run Saturday.

But the junior had the bigger picture of the race in mind. He and coach Jeremy Steppe had already decided he needed to trim some speed off his first 200 meters of the race, and getting shuffled back in the pack allowed him to hit the pace he wanted to run.

When Mahon hit that 200-meter mark, he put it into overdrive. He dared the rest of a strong 800 field to catch him and they never did. Mahon set a personal best to win the 800 Saturday at the Selinsgrove Classic. He bested a field which included state bronze medalist Ethan Knoebel of Southern Columbia, Warrior Run’s Addison Magyar who won a state medal in the 3,200 relay, and Lewisburg’s James Koconis, who was a state qualifier in the 3,200 relay last year.

Mahon was one of four individual boys to win titles at Harold L. Bolig Stadium yesterday. Williamsport’s Allen Taylor was a three-time winner, setting meet records in both the 110 and 300 hurdles and adding a triple jump title. Montoursville’s Dom Caputo battled through wet conditions to post a win in the high jump, and Lewisburg’s Josh Gose won the shot put. The Lewisburg boys also won the 3,200 relay.

The charge from Mahon may have been the biggest surprise of the entire meet. He missed all of last season because of stress fractures in his legs. He had run low 2-minute times two years ago but was generally overshadowed by state qualifying teammate Tristan Connor. The win was anything but a surprise for Mahon. This is exactly the kind of performance he knew he was capable of.

His final time of 2 minutes, 0.89 seconds set a personal best in the open 800.

“This definitely boosts my confidence,” Mahon said. “I knew I could win. I just had to show everybody else that I could. This is a big step moving forward. It’s a hell of a lot of fun winning a race like that.”

A week ago Mahon ran nearly 2 seconds slower at the Tim Cook Invitational than he did Saturday. He felt it was, at least in part, because he came out too strong in the opening 200 meters. He had run a 25-second split and didn’t want to be nearly that fast against a good field Saturday. So when the bunching up of runners in the first 50 meters left Mahon in the middle of the pack, it was a spot he was comfortable in.

He made his move at that 200-meter mark and pulled ahead of Knoebel and ran a sub-1 minute opening 400 meters. He maintained that pace over the first 200 meters of the second lap and then ran on pure guts to hold off Magyar and Koconis over the final 100 meters to earn the win.

“I could feel Knoebel coming (after the first 400),” Mahon said. “From there, it was all about my wrestling background. Just keep moving and don’t stop. I could feel him fade away and I wasn’t done.”

Mahon’s win was far more stressful than Taylor’s three wins. Combined, he won the two hurdles events by more than 2 seconds, which is an eternity. He won the triple jump by 5 1/4 inches over Caputo. The only loss on Taylor’s record all day was the 1,600 relay team’s third-place finish.

The returning state medalist in the high hurdles ran like it yesterday. The hurdles acted as nothing more than a minimal nuisance in 410 meters worth of sprinting. His 14.56 in the 110 hurdles and his 39.66 in the 300 hurdles were both meet records.

“I feel very good considering it’s early in the season and I still have time to progress and get stronger,” Taylor said. “Hopefully I can strengthen my endurance a little bit, but I’m OK with how things went.”

Caputo walked away from the high jump happy to have won the event, but dissatisfied with his best jump of 6 feet. The conditions weren’t exactly ideal for quality jumps, but he persevered through plant areas which has some standing water.

The returning state sixth-place finisher was the lone jumper in the boys field to clear the 6-foot mark.

“It was kind of nice to know everyone was going through the same thing and it wasn’t just me,” Caputo said. “Every run up (to the pit) the water is the only thing you worry about because you don’t want to slip and you don’t want to scratch. But you also don’t want to miss that height. So you really have to go for it and hope you don’t fall. You have to put it out of your mind.”

BOYS RESULTS

3,200 relay: 1, Lewisburg (Calvin Bailey, Elijah Adams, Peter Lantz, James Koconis), 8:14.61*; 2, Shikellamy (Eric Dixon, Jason Griffin, Paul Snyder, Logan Strouse), 8:15.51; 3, Central Columbia (Jacob Busch, Zander Bradley, Joshua Broadt, Tyler Davies), 8:15.60; 4, Warrior Run (Tyrese Hazzoum, Damein Moser, Alex Hazzoum, Addison Magyar), 8:31.04; 5, Shamokin (Dennis Cole, Ethan Tharp, Cliff Zheng, Conner Anascavage), 8:31.92; 6, Williamsport (Gavin Furey, Logan Hall, Henry Lyon, Owen Mahon), 8:38.95.

110 hurdles: 1, Allen Taylor, Williamsport, 14.56*; 2, Kameron Schreffler, Lewisburg, 15.41; 3, Marshall Buggy, Shamokin, 15.53; 4, Zach Bedell, Lewisburg, 15.82; 5, Ethan Williams, Williamsport, 16.08; 6, Jake Rose, Southern Columbia, 16.45.

100: 1, Julian Fleming, Southern Columbia, 11.18; 2, Eric Zimmerman, Mifflinburg, 11.26; 3, Peyton Persing, Danville, 11.32; 4, Luke Tilford, Shikellamy, 11.45; 5, Joe Folk, Shikellamy, 11.46; 6, Hunter Coulter, Bloomsburg, 11.58.

1,600: 1, Ethan Knoebel, Southern Columbia, 4:30.60; 2, Logan Strouse, Shikellamy, 4:31.18; 3, Joshua Broadt, Central Columbia, 4:41.68; 4, Peyton Jones, Elk Lake, 4:43.22; 5, Eli Zakarian, Danville, 4:44.50; 6, Andrew Adams, Warrior Run, 4:46.09.

400 relay: 1, Central Columbia (Zander Bradley, Jack Schechterly, Jared Verse, Eli Morrison), 44.73; 2, Lewisburg (Alex Sabo, Darren Baidoo, Jack Dieffenderfer, Dylan Farronato), 45.0; 3, Southern Columbia (Gavin Garcia, Julian Fleming, Jake Rose, Jake Davis), 45.42; 4, Milton (Owen Keister, Qamar Yasin-Bradley, Antonio Pearson, Chris Aviles), 45.8; 5, Bloomsburg, 45.83; 6, Williamsport (Maxwell Goode, Ry’Meer Brown, Nelson Macdonald, Ayden Bradley), 45.94.

400: 1, Zander Bradley, Central Columbia, 51.18; 2, Ethan Klees, Danville, 51.60; 3, Andrew Rooney, Mount Carmel, 51.80; 4, Braden Cott, Montoursville, 52.43; 5, Dylan Devlin, Central Columbia, 52.90; 6, Austin Long, Hughesville, 52.98.

300 hurdles: 1, Allen Taylor, Williamsport, 39.66*; 2, Zach Bedell, Lewisburg, 40.83; 3, Marshall Buggy, Shamokin, 41.18; 4, Kenley Caputo, Milton, 41.86; 5, Gray Catherman, Selinsgrove, 41.87; 6, Kameron Schreffler, Lewisburg, 43.18.

800: 1, Owen Mahon, Williamsport, 2:00.89; 2, James Koconis, Lewisburg, 2:01.55; 3, Addison Magyar, Warrior Run, 2:01.59; 4, Ethan Knoebel, Southern Columbia, 2:04.18; 5, Jason Griffin, Shiellamy, 2:04.82; 6, Peter Lantz, Lewisburg, 2:05.05.

200: 1, Eric Zimmerman, Mifflinburg, 22.72; 2, Ethan Klees, Danville, 23.02; 3, Luke Tilford, Shikellamy, 23.40; 4, Julian Fleming, Southern, 23.52; 5, Peyton Persing, Danville, 23.57; 6, Zach Risser, Tulpehocken, 24.08.

3,200: 1, Krystof Lapotsky, Mount Carmel, 9:38.05; 2, Henry Lyon, Williamsport, 9:39.69; 3, Jacob Hess, Lewisburg, 9:41.88; 4, James Zola, Danville, 9:53.57; 5, Ryan Bahr, Hughesville, 10:01.33; 6, Peyton Jones, Elk Lake, 10:03.53.

1,600 relay: 1, Central Columbia (Jared Verse, Zander Bradley, Jack Schechterly, Dylan Devlin), 3:26.51; 2, Lewisburg (Kames Koconis, Jack Dieffenderfer, Dylan Farronato, Zach Bedell), 3:32.64; 3, Williamsport (Patrick Gerrity, Owen Mahon, Allen Taylor, Treyvon Eiswerth), 3:34.53; 4, Shikellamy (Jermez Herring, Jason Griffin, Joe Folk, Logan Strouse), 3:36.03; 5, Southern Columbia, 3:37.52; 6, Danville, 3:39.43.

Shot put: 1, Josh Gose, Lewisburg, 52-8; 2, Troy Donlan, Southern Columbia, 49-4; 3, Michael Tiffin, Lewisburg, 46-4 1/2; 4, Brian Hornberger, Shamokin, 46-0 1/2; 5, Cameron Klinger, Midd-West, 45-5; 6, William McGinley, Bloomsburg, 44-7.

Discus: 1, William McGinley, Bloomsburg, 133-6; 2, Michael Jones, Williamsport, 129-5; 3, Isaac Smith, Danville, 126-2; 4, Troy Donlan, Southern Columbia, 124-2; 5, Mitchell Kauffman, Greenwood, 123-11; 6, Jack Watkins, Warrior Run, 123-0.

Javelin: 1, Ryan Brouse, Danville, 169-3; 2, Nate Crowl, Southern Columbia, 161-9; 3, Dylan Farronato, Lewisburg, 157-0; 4, Isaac Smith, Danville, 156-0; 5, Nathan Minnier, Shikellamy, 147-2; 6, Michael Antonyuk, Mifflinburg, 147-0.

Long jump: 1, Julian Fleming, Southern Columbia, 23-3 3/4*; 2, Zach Stopper, Loyalsock, 21-4 3/4; 3, Maxwell Goode, Williamsport, 20-1; 4, Billy Delbaugh, Shamokin, 19-7; 5, Antonio Pearson, Milton, 19-7; 6, Jonathan Garula, Susquenita, 19-6 1/2.

Triple jump: 1, Allen Taylor, Williamsport, 44-2; 2, Dom Caputo, Montoursville, 43-8 3/4; 3, Thor Britton, Selinsgrove, 41-6 1/4; 4, Osiris Hemphill, Bloomsburg, 41-1 3/4; 5, Darren Baidoo, Lewisburg, 41-0; 6, Billy Delbaugh, Shamokin, 40-10 1/2.

High jump: 1, Dom Caputo, Montoursville, 6-0; 2, Zahki Nettles, Shikellamy, 5-10; 3, Jordan Hollenbach, Shikellamy, 5-8; 4, Dillon Young, Montoursville, 5-8; t-5, Thor Britton, Selinsgrove, 5-6; t-5, Justis Brady, Warrior Run, 5-6.

Pole vault: 1, Mason Brubaker, Shikellamy, 14-0; 2, Brant Long, Milton, 13-6; 3, Colton Forrer, Susquenita, 12-6; 4, Nate Burke, Central Columbia, 12-6; 5, Gabe Waltman, Central Columbia, 12-0; 6, Cameron Crowder, Shikellamy, 12-0.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today