District 1 Championships: Souderton’s Deaviz among Reporter-Area athletes to shine in field
CALN >> Coach Mike Feliciani was persistent.
“He would run me down in the hallways,” Maria Deaviz recalls with a smile, “begging me to come out for the team so I finally came out. I came a long way.
“At first, throwing was just for fun but then it got serious.”
Feliciani saw some tremendous shot-putting potential in Deaviz, and on Friday afternoon at rainy, windy Coatesville High, the Souderton Area sophomore may have even exceeded that potential, capturing the District 1-3A title with a throw of 39 feet, 6 inches — in her very first year of varsity competition.
“It feels pretty good,” Deaviz said. “I threw one shot in seventh grade. I did it for fun. (Coach Feliciani), who is also one of my teachers, has been wanting me to come out ever since.
“I like competition — it makes me throw better.”
North Penn’s Natalie Kwortnik (long jump) and Dock’s Alex Martin (shot put) also captured gold on Day One of districts, with Day Two scheduled for Saturday morning, back at Coatesville.
Deaviz, who, quite impressively, swept the throws last week at SOL Continental’s, launched the shot 39-6 on her second toss of the finals.
“Fast and smooth,” Deaviz said happily, describing her best throw of the day.
That put her past tough competition that included Darby Morgan of Coatesville (38-2.25) and Jordan Brown of Strath Haven (38-1.5).
Now Deaviz gets ready for Shipp.
“States is something else. I gotta work harder every day, train harder,” the sophomore said. “This summer, I’m planning to train harder and come back as a junior.”
Kwortnik all in >> Natalie Kwortnik was ready and prepared to get off a good one.
“I definitely worked on my technique the past week and just wanted to go for it,” the North Penn junior said.
Leaping 19 feet, 4 inches, Kwortnik topped all comers in the 3A Long Jump, including another local standout, defending champion Madison Langley Walker of Upper Dublin (19-2.25).
Kwortnik went from fifth place a year ago, with a mark of 17-9.75, to the gold in 2018.
“We’ve had a new jumps coach (former NP standout Kayla Charles). She’s come along and definitely helped with my form and stuff,” said Kwortnik, also a key piece of the sprint team. “I kind of just wanted to press this year and go for it.”
Twice as nice >> Dock’s Alex Martin defended his shot put title in Class 2A, throwing 52-6, a good eight inches further than his winning mark of a year ago (44-2).
“Two weeks ago I was having trouble with my spin with both discus and shot,” the senior said. “I had kind of a breakthrough this past week at BAL’s so I wanted to keep everything the same speed and then I started seeing the better results.”
It was a wet day at Coatesville, but Martin feared worse.
“The weather was so much better than I thought it was gonna be,” he said with a smile. “I thought we were gonna get two and a half inches of rain and we ended up not getting much at all. The circle was pretty dry.”
And Martin was performing at a high level the whole morning — he had five throws over 50 feet.
“I’m really excited for Shipp because we weren’t able to get there for our normal invite this year so I’m excited to throw there again,” said the senior. “My goal is to get first in discus and we’ll see what happens in shot.”
Back to Shipp >> For the third straight year, Methacton’s Pat Maloney punched his ticket to states in the discus, earning bronze with a 156-2.
“I wasn’t really happy with my performance today but I got it done, did what I had to do,” the senior said. “It’s my third time going (to PIAA’s) and I’ve progressively gotten better. Really my goal is to place, just get top eight, get a good throw in.”
It will also be a nice preview of sorts for Maloney, who will be competing on the college level for Shippensburg University next year.
Record setter >> The Dock boys, who got a district-record run in the 200 prelims (21.07) from Austin Kratz on Friday, are poised to win their second AA team title in three years and third in the last seven.
Kratz replaced the previous 200 record of 21.3, which was set by Roger Johnson of Darby Township way back in 1981.
Tie goes to the jumper >> There was a three-way tie for third in the 3A Boys High Jump, as Plymouth-Whitemarsh’s Tristan Jones, Wissahickon’s Ahmir Johnson and Pennridge’s Vincent Polignano all cleared 6-1.
Also from the area, Central Bucks West’s Sam Ronald captured a bronze in the girls pole vault, getting over 11 feet, and Dock’s Praise Zoegar was third in the AA Boys Triple Jump with a leap of 40-5.5.
