The usual soft cushion of the sad had become hardened by the rain and turned into mush and harder than normal. It threw some jumpers off, including Tevin Williams of Williamsport.

“The rain made the sand hard and mushy and it messed with my head,” Williams said. “I didn’t really like landing in it. When I was in the air, I kind of froze and it messed with a lot of my landings.”

Regardless, however, Williams refocused and it resulted in a podium trip and a nice silver medal. Williams hit a jump of 24 feet, 3 1/2 inches to take second at the state meet in Class AAA competition, behind only Meadville’s Tymir Phillips, who leapt the same distance to take gold.

Williams was a two-time state medalist on Saturday as he took bronze in the Class AAA 400 in the afternoon.

CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Williamsport's Tevin Williams competes in the Class AAA long jump. He took silver in the event.

“It means so much. All the hard work is paying off,” Williams said of taking silver in the long jump, the highest finish this year for a Millionaire. “This basically being my first year of long jumping and trusting my coaches, being able to step on that podium? All props to them. It’s been great.”

Williams jumped 24-3 1/2 on his second jump. It’d be his lone leap in the 24-foot range. He opened jumping 22-4 1/4 and then jumped 22-2 3/4 on his third attempt. His fourth jump was 22-9 1/4 and his fifth was 22-9. Williams closed the event strong, however, hitting 23-1 1/2 on his sixth and final jump.

“My other jumps, not so much (happy with), but the jump that got me second place? Yeah, I was really happy with it,” Williams said. “It was a PR and got me second place, so yeah.”

Hitting a PR is always good, doing it at states to result in a silver medal makes it a little nicer too.

“All the blood sweat and tears I put into this and all the hard work, late nights, early mornings (paid off),” Williams said. “Just working on my techniques and stuff. Seeing it payoff is amazing.”

CHRIS MANNING/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Williamsport's Tevin Williams runs in the boys Class AAA 400 in which he ended up taking bronze.

Williams noted the competition helped push him as well. 

Chance Keithan of Red Lion jumped 23-2 to take bronze, Phoenixville Area’s Matt Ribeiro jumped 23-1 1/4 for fourth and Bensalem’s Frank Bediako cleared 22-11 for fifth.

“Yeah, it low key did,” Williams said of being pushed. “The weather didn’t really help as much, but the competition made it equal out. So I’d say yeah.”

Williams was Williamsport’s lone individual competitor on the boys side on Saturday in Class AAA. A day prior, Williamsport’s Alex Takach ran an 11.04 in the Class AAA boys 100 preliminaries and didn’t advance to Saturday’s finals.

Williamsport’s Kye Diakite missed qualifying for Saturday’s finals in the 110 hurdles in Class AAA as he ran a 15.60 in qualifying.

JON GERARDI/Sun-Gazette Williamsport's Tevin Williams poses with his third-place medal in the Class AAA 400. He took two top-3 finishes.

In the 400, Williams stood near the top by taking third in 48.49. He was behind only James Mahoney of La Salle College (47.74) and Father Judge’s Anthony McClatchy (48.33).

“I’m really happy,” Williams said of two podium finishes. “It’s great to be here and being able to medal against great competition.”

“I had high expectations (coming in). Knew I was going to medal in both of the events that I feel I dominate in,” Williams added. “Being able to step on the podium in top 3 in both events, it feels really good.”

Williams is just a sophomore and was glad to reach high on the podium, especially given the other runners near him in adjacent lanes.

“The competition pushed me really well,” Williams said. “Made me push harder on my back stretch, which is what I lack on usually. They made me finish my race stronger than I usually do. It’s a good thing to be proud of.”