On the strength of Darr, Titans claim state championship
| Saturday, Jun 06 2009 11:05 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jun 06 2009 11:13 PM
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Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Matt Darr of Frontier High releases the shot put in the finals of the CIF 2009 State Championships. He won the event.
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Matt Darr of Frontier High in mid spin before he launches the disc in the finals of the CIF 2009 State Championships. He won the event.
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Matt Darr of Frontier High launches the disc in the finals of the CIF 2009 State Championships. He won the event.
CLOVIS -- A week ago, Frontier's Matt Darr was unsure on college, unsure on football and, most pressingly, unsure on how he would perform at the CIF State Track and Field Championships at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Saturday night, things have never looked so clear: Darr is a double state champion in the shot put and discus.
"I don't even know how to say it," Darr said. "With recruiting and all the football stuff, it's been kind of a grind to focus on track. But this week has been 100 percent track, visualizing the throws every night. For it to pay off like it did is just amazing."
As if that weren't enough, get this: Darr has single-handedly given young Frontier its first state team championship. The Titans tallied 20 points from Darr's two wins, and though they didn't have another boys athlete competing, that total was good enough to tie L.A.-Cathedral, Clovis East and Riverside-La Sierra.
It was the first team track and field title for a Kern County team since Bakersfield's boys did it in 2002 and just the third local boys team ever (Bakersfield won it in 1992 also).
"I had checked team rankings, and I thought maybe we'd be in the top three if Matt won both, but it was a longshot," Frontier coach David Gaeta said. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think that would tie us for first with (three) other schools."
Six days after he verbally committed to punt for USC's football team, Darr showed his talents go way beyond kicking. He threw personal records in both the discus (192-0) and shot put (62-1.25) to win both as a junior.
Darr is the latest in a long line of Kern County throwers to win the state title. Local boys have now won 15 state throwing titles, the same total as the girls after Anna Jelmini doubled for Shafter on Saturday.
"I've been throwing with Anna since she was in eighth grade and I was seventh grade," Darr said. "To share a state title with her on the same day, it's like a dream come true."
Darr's discus mark bettered his previous PR by some three and a half feet, came on his third throw and allowed him to lead wire-to-wire. Clovis East's Willy Irwin was second at 188-8.
"When I first released (the 192-0), I thought it was going to go out of sector," Darr said. "It kind of curved back. I knew it was far, but I didn't know it was going to be 190s."
In the shot put, things were trickier. Darr trailed Arroyo Grande's Austin Field after one throw, and to pass Field's 61-5.5, he would need another PR.
On his second throw, Darr launched it, and before the mark was even measured, he pumped both fists and left the ring. That mark held up through all six throws, with Field fouling on a final attempt that would have come close.
"At the beginning of the year, my goal was just to get to state," Darr said. "Then I started getting some long throws towards the end of the year, and everything starting coming together."
Darr said he's not sure if he'll throw again next year or focus instead on football, where his college scholarship and perhaps career await. But if this is the end of his throwing career, it's not a bad way to go out: Two personal records, two individual state championships and a team state championship won all by himself.
"It's an unbelivable moment," Gaeta said. "We just had the one athlete. This is what kids can do for a school, for a program, for themselves."
