| Darr won both discus (192-0) and shot put titles (62-1.25) to single-handedly lead Frontier to a co-team title. Mens Shot Put | |||||||||
| Rank | Mark | Name | Grade | School | Section | Meet | Date | ||
| 1 | 62'i4.75" | AustiniField | 12 | ArroyoiGrande | SS | CIF-SS Divisional Finals | 05/23/09 | ||
| 2 | 62' 1.25" | Matt Darr | 11 | Frontier | CE | CIF-State Finals | 06/06/09 | ||
| 3 | 61' 7.50" | Kevin Graf | 12 | Agoura | SS | CIF-SS Division 2 Prelims | 05/16/09 | ||
| 4 | 61' 5.5" | Daniel Swarbrick | 12 | Saugus | SS | West Coast Relays | 04/04/09 | ||
| 5 | 60' 10.50" | Caylin Hanptmann | 12 | Beverly Hills | SS | CIF-SS Divisional Finals | 05/23/09 | ||
| 6 | 60' 10.50" | Willy Irwin | 11 | Clovis East | CE | North Area Championships | 05/13/09 | ||
| 7 | 60'.6.25" | Caleb.McCurry | 12 | Northwood | SS | Weekly Duals, 4/19/09 | 04/19/09 | ||
| 8 | 60' 0.50" | Blake Asbill | Carlsbad | SD | Palomar Lg Finals | 05/14/09 | |||
| 9 | 59' 1.75" | Rory Mount | 12 | Dana Hills | SS | CIF-SS Masters Meet | 05/29/09 | ||
| 10 | 59'.1.75" | Jordan.Paea | 12 | Ventura | SS | CIF-SS Masters Meet | 05/29/09 | ||
| 11 | 58' 8.25" | Tyrone Sauls | 10 | Christian | SD | CIF-State Finals | 06/06/09 | ||
| 12 | 58';2" | Joe;Daou | 11 | Santa;Monica | SS | Ocean League Finals | 05/07/09 | ||
| 13 | 58' 0" | Conor Mccullough | 12 | Chaminade | SS | Mission Lg Finals | 05/04/09 | ||
| 14 | 57' 11.25" | Graham Vickers | 12 | Diamond Ranch | SS | CIF-SS Division 3 Prelims | 05/16/09 | ||
| 15 | 57':11" | Cecil:Whiteside | 11 | Newport:Harbor | SS | Asics Surf City Invitati... | 03/28/09 | ||
| 16 | 57' 10.75" | Brandon Greenberg | 11 | Crespi | SS | CIF-SS Masters Meet | 05/29/09 | ||
| 17 | 57' 8" | Nicholas Scarvelis | 10 | Dos Pueblos | SS | CIF-SS Division 2 Prelims | 05/16/09 | ||
| 18 | 57' 6.50" | Jeremy Hines | 11 | Jesuit | SJ | Delta River League Track... | 05/14/09 | ||
| 19 | 57'.6" | Tom.Drachkovitch | 12 | Notre.Dame(SO) | SS | Weekly Duals, 4/26/09 | 04/26/09 | ||
| 20 | 57' 5" | Conner McCullough | 12 | Chaminade | SS | Weekly Duals, 4/19/09 | 04/19/09 | ||
| 21 | 57' 3.50" | Jose Aviles | 11 | La Jolla | SD | Arcadia Invitational | 04/10/09 | ||
| 22 | 56' 3.5" | Jacob Budwig | 11 | Fowler | CE | West Coast Relays | |||
Posts
Darr won the shot put, the discus and a share of the state team title, all by himself. He threw personal records in both events that day, 192 feet in the discus and 62-1.25 in the shot.
ReplyDeleteDarr said his timely performance really started started with preliminaries the day before.
"I only took two throws, and then I was able to shut it down (because he was already qualified for the final)," Darr said. "It's a confidence booster. I knew I was going to open with a solid throw in the finals, and I just built on that and just competed well."
What was unexpected was that Darr's two victories, each worth 10 team points, was enough to vault Frontier into a four-way tie for the boys state title -- even though the Titans didn't have a single other boys competitor.
Darr has been a standout since his days in middle school -- at least if you ask his throwing coach, Dawn Dumble, who met him when he was in her seventh-grade class.
"The first week of school, a girl has an asthma attack," Dumble said. "She had just come from P.E. and didn't have her inhaler. And I recall immediately telling Matt to take her to the office. It was the first week, but I instinctually knew he was more responsible than the other kids. It was crazy."
At the time, Darr was into baseball, but Dumble, a former national champion thrower at UCLA, got him to go out for the track team, too. He took to it, and Dumble began training him regularly.
"But I could only work with him once or twice a week," said Dumble, who had (still has) two small children at home. "So I'd just write up a schedule for him and meet and have him do the drills on his own. It takes a special type of kid for that to work."
Dumble and Darr have kept that system in place throughout Darr's high school career, and he's continued to get better and better, reaching the state meet in the shot put as a sophomore. Another roadblock to his success presented itself this year, though.
Darr's future lies in football, where recruiting services rank him one of the nation's best punters. That means this year was full of recruiting e-mails, text messages, call and visits.
"I didn't get on the (football) radar until January or February," Darr said. "At the time, I was full-bore on track, looking to do good things. But all the attention was on recruiting. It was definitely a challenge trying to balance it out.
"There were days where I'd check my e-mail and have six different e-mails from six different schools. Then the whole time at (track) practice, I'd be thinking about how I was going to respond to the e-mails."
Finally, five days before the state meet, Darr verbally committed to USC. That wiped away a bunch of distractions.
"Then I got to focusing on state," Darr said. "I spent days with Dawn throwing, and said I'm going to stop and focus on track. And it paid off."