May 18, 2007 By Jim Downey 5 min read

WHITEHALL – Zane and Shane finished strong Thursday at the WPIAL Class AAA Boys Track & Field Championships at Baldwin High School, with their closing pushes resulting in silver medals and automatic berths into next week’s state finals. Laurel Highlands’ Zane Breakiron hit his best mark in the javelin on his final throw while Belle Vernon’s Shane Curran turned his 400 into a 100-meter dash for second place. Those two will join Connellsville’s Scott Jones and Rodney Richter in the PIAA Championships hosted by Shippensburg University on Friday-Saturday, May 25-26.

Breakiron was seeded third entering the competition with a throw of 175-11 in the southern qualifier and sat third after the preliminary round of three throws with a top effort of 177-10. The junior then nailed a personal best by nearly four inches when he threw 181-4 on the last of his six throws for the day.

“I knew I was going to qualify (as he prepared for his final throw). I psyched myself up,” Breakiron said of his mental approach to his final throw. “My arm was killing me. I was at the Metro Throwing Camp last weekend.”

All this was done with a borrowed javelin because Breakiron broke the tip of his preferred javelin in Wednesday’s practice.

“The Latrobe coach let me use one of his spears. I want to thank him,” said Breakiron.

With the 181-foot plateau reached, Breakiron now has his sights higher for the state meet.

“I’m hoping for 200 (feet) at states. I’m thrilled to go. I want to go out and do my thing,” said Breakiron.

Curran, much to the chagrin of his coaches, overcame a poor start in the first 150 meters to blaze past everyone except Kiski Area’s Stefan Lunberg in the fast heat of the 400. Curran finished in 50.75 seconds, just .13 seconds behind Lunberg.

The approach has worked for Curran up to now, so he didn’t want to change things mid-stream.

“I came out too slow,” said Curran. “I don’t want to change it now. At 250 meters, I told myself it’s time to go.

“I knew I had a lot of ground to make up. I felt like it was 100-yard dash.”

Curran, like any athlete of his stature, wasn’t displeased with silver but sure wanted to go home with gold.

“We’re excited to go to states, but you don’t want to be second. You want to be first,” said Curran. “I need to work on the first 100 (meters). It’s the states. I have nothing to lose.

“We never expected to go to states (in the 400) at the beginning of the season. We want to place at states. I can run a 49, definitely.”

Jones earned an automatic berth with his bronze medal finish, but was pleased to do so in state-qualifying time of 15.1 seconds. As with so many others, the senior realized this was his final go-around.

“I have more confidence to do better,” Jones said of the difference from his sophomore to senior season. “I’m more motivated than I’ve ever been.”

Jones won a second medal when he finished eighth in the long jump with a top leap of 20-10. He fouled twice in the final three jumps.

“I did feel confident (after medalling in the hurdles),” said Jones. “I’m really disappointed I scratched that many times. I feel good leaving here with two medals.”

Richter was also a two-time medal winner, finishing fifth in both the discus and shot put. Although only the top four automatically qualify, Richter topped the state-qualifying distance in both events for his first trip to the state meet. Hempfield’s Wes Banks won both events.

His first throw in the discus was 136 feet, and his second attempt was 139-7. The sophomore unloaded on his third throw, heaving the discus 153-6 to best the state-qualifying mark. He threw 148-7 and 143-5 in the finals.

“A lot of weight was lifted off my shoulders,” Richter said of his qualifying throw. “I’m satisfied because I qualified.”

The rain delayed the throwing events, so the shot put ended up being the final throwing event going. Richter shrugged off the delay on the damp, cool day, and threw 53-9½ on his second attempt in the second flight prelims for a spot in the finals as well as the state meet.

“I was excited,” Richter said of the shot put. “I was pumped up (after the discus).”

Uniontown’s Darius Reeves was a bit disappointed with his day after finishing seventh in the 110 high hurdles in 16.49 seconds and not advancing out of the triple jump prelims. Running out of lane eight in the hurdles finals caused some problems for him.

“The fence in on the side (in lane eight),” explained Reeves, who is used to running in the middle lanes. “In lane eight or one, you can’t see on either the right side or left. It really has an effect on me.

“I just didn’t have a good day in the triple jump. Not as an excuse, but the weather really had an effect on me. When we got on the track, it bothered me.”

Reeves, a junior, learned some lessons from his first trip to the district meet.

“This is the first year I ran in the high hurdles,” said Reeves. “I learned that I really need to practice seven days a week, not five. I checked the times on the Internet and maybe I was little over confident.”

Albert Gallatin’s Nate Turner wasn’t going to compete in the high jump because of a tender knee, but the senior finished seventh after jumping 5-11. Turner qualified for the state finals as a freshman. The Mustangs’ Zack Girod won his first WPIAL medal by finishing seventh in the shot put with a throw of 49-6.