Daily double
Beth-Center’s DeHoet wins state titles in 100, 200-meter dashes
SHIPPENSBURG — Deakyn DeHoet has been sprinting since his time in youth baseball and football.
Despite using his speed to run away from tacklers on the gridiron and leg out base hits and steals on the diamond, DeHoet didn’t believe his ability to run fast would result in anything other than touchdowns and runs scored.
The Jefferson-Morgan senior, who competes in track & field for Beth-Center as part of a co-op, joined the Bulldogs last year to stay in shape for football while he continued his baseball career with the Rockets.
After winning several meets, including invitationals against top-level sprinters around the WPIAL, DeHoet started to believe he could make a name for himself in not only the district but the state.
DeHoet earned a fifth-place medal in the 100-meter dash last season to get his feet wet in the PIAA Individual Track & Field Championships, but his focus was on going for gold this year.
DeHoet realized his dream of becoming a state champion Saturday morning when he breezed through the cold and rain to win the 100 in boys Class 2A inside Seth Grove Stadium on the campus of Shippensburg University.
DeHoet added a cherry to top off his sundae in the afternoon when he bested the field in the 200. He sprinted to gold in the 100 with a time of 10.51 and won the 200 in 21.29 to score 20 team points and tie Oley Valley for ninth place in the team standings. DeHoet broke his PR (personal record) in both events.
“I never thought I would have the opportunity to run track until last year,” DeHoet said. “I figured it wouldn’t happen with the situation of not having a track & field team at Jefferson-Morgan, but Beth-Center has been great. They have welcomed me in.
“I just hope what I have accomplished can help put my school and Beth-Center on the map a little bit more when it comes to sports.”
DeHoet is not only the fastest high schooler in Class 2A, but in all of the state as his time beat Blue Mountain’s Chase Guers’ winning time of 10.61 in Class 3A. DeHoet’s time in the 200 tied the mark Class 3A winner, Matthew Gregory, of Owen J. Roberts set in his victory.
The PennWest California commit for football, who could possibly join the Vulcans’ track & field squad, is believed to be the first sprinter from Greene County to win a state championship. He joined Peter Zaharoff (1965) and Walter White (1968) as the third state champion to represent Beth-Center. Zaharoff and White won their state titles in the pole vault.
“It’s been an awesome couple of days,” DeHoet said. “I’m on cloud nine right now.”
DeHoet sprinted away from Palisades’ Lincoln Cook (10.87) and Notre Dame Green Pond’s Alex Clark (10.88) in the 100. He also defeated defending state champion Vincent Feliciano in the preliminary round and final. Feliciano finished fifth in the event with a time of 10.96.
“I knew I had to bring it in the preliminary round of the 100 because the defending state champion was in my heat,” DeHoet said. “It was big to know that I was going to be in the fourth lane. Not just for positioning but also for my confidence in having the best time going into the final.”
DeHoet was the second seed to Brookeville’s Hayden Freeman in the 100 and 200 entering the preliminaries on Friday, but DeHoet got the better of the fellow senior in both races.
DeHoet and Freeman tied for the best time in the 200 after the preliminaries, but Freeman was awarded the fourth lane in Saturday’s final for the top finisher in the preliminary round, while DeHoet was stationed in lane five.
Freeman, who didn’t qualify for the final in the 100, was second in the 200 in 21.69.
“I didn’t give it my all in the prelims of the 200,” DeHoet said. “I was probably going 75% the whole way, and I still ran a 22 flat. That gave me the confidence to know that I can give more for a faster time.”
DeHoet will compete in the New Balance Nationals June 18-21 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia before getting to work on the gridiron. He was flattered by all the well wishers who reached out to him the past week, but he had much simpler plans for Saturday evening.
“I am going home and going to sleep,” DeHoet said.