Allgood in the throws

RATHDRUM — You could have excused Avione Allgood if she didn’t quite have it on Friday.

Recovering from surgeries to both her right shoulder and elbow are one thing.

Finishing basic training in the U.S. Army a little over a month ago, that’s another.

But when the dust settled, it was Allgood in the women’s javelin at the fifth Iron Wood Throws Classic at the Iron Wood Throws Center.

Allgood won the event with a throw of 175 feet, 10 inches.

“I’ve been training for track for about a month now,” Allgood said. “And it showed today. My warmups today were a lot better than my competition. It was a nice wind, but I should have thrown better. It happens, and I’ll get better from it.”

Allgood belongs to the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, that allows those with Olympic hopes to compete while serving the country.

“They allow me to compete with my coach (Steve Lemke), who is at the University of Florida right now,” Allgood said.

It was only after Allgood’s surgeries where she didn’t believe she’d be able to compete again.

“I had surgery on my shoulder and UCL surgery on my right side,” Allgood said. “The doctors told me that I might not be able to compete anymore. Last year, it was a struggle to make it back. But this year, I’m feeling good and anxious to see what I can do.”

The men’s and women’s events were for those college age and older. The boys and girls events were for high schoolers.

Skylar Ciccolini, who won the girls javelin here in 2017, won again on Friday with a throw of 170 feet, breaking her own meet record set two years ago (164-10).

“The first few weeks of my high school season started out really well,” said Ciccolini, a Lewistown, Pa., native who has signed with Missouri. “Then I started to have back pains, so I really had to cut back on my training. My PR (184-2) came at a really weird time because I was hurting the most when I threw it.”

Taylor Ciccolini, Skylar’s younger sister, finished fourth in the event.

“At this point, I’m pretty used to competing against her actually,” Skylar Ciccolini said. “I really love having her on the runway with me. She pushes me to do better, which she might not think, but she does.”

For Sam Hankins, a junior from Manhattan, Kan., it was all or nothing in the boys javelin. He scratched three times, but threw for meet records in two of his three throws that counted, including the winning throw of 224 feet, 6 inches. The previous record was held by Liam Christensen (214 feet, 4 inches) in 2017.

“I just wanted to come out and compete,” Hankins said. “Ty Hampton (of North Bend, Ore., the top-ranked boy in the U.S. in the event, who finished second on Friday) is an amazing thrower, and I’ve got the highest respect for him. I knew I was going to lay it all out on the track and threw a big one. And I was happy with that.”

Known for her speed in the ring in the women’s discus, Whitney Ashley made a little bit of a change to help with that.

It worked out well on Friday, as she won the event with a throw of 203 feet, 8 inches.

“I switched coaches about eight months ago, so I’m in the midwest at the University of Kansas now with coach Andy Kokhanovsky,” Ashley said. “Right now, it’s learning a lot of different movements and trying to repeat what I do in training into competition. Today, I think it was about 50 percent there.”

Ashley beat three-time U.S. champion and two-time Olympian Gia Lewis-Smallwood by a foot for the women’s title.

“I’ve been competing against Gia for six years now,” Ashley said. “Facing off with her brings out the best in me. I just know there’s no flipping around, and she can come out of nowhere a lot of the time and steal a competition. I just tried to worry about myself and not other people.”

Ashley credits the work with Kokhanovsky for the change.

“I used to be really, really wild in the ring,” Ashley said. “My coach has been trying to settle me down and not do a lot of movements. I’ve always been a bit of a speed demon in the ring, so I’ve been trying to do less movements and hope for the best.”

The U.S. track and field championships are July 25-28 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.

It’s a date that Brian Williams — who threw at Ole Miss and who won the men’s discus with a throw of 198 feet, 11 inches — has been locked into.

“I was really excited to hear about this meet and come out here,” Williams said. “But I’ve just been focused on the U.S. championships and being successful there. I just wanted to see if I could hold up technically from the trip. I was moving decently, but didn’t have the power I’m used to having.”

Other champions from Friday were Shelby Frank of Grand Forks, N.D. (girls discus, 169 feet, 1 inch) and Tanner Duffin of Atlanta (boys discus 200 feet, 5 inches).

The meet concludes today with the women’s hammer throw starting at 2 p.m., followed by the shot put.

GIRLS JAVELIN — 1, Skylar Ciccolini, 170 feet, 0 inches. 2, Sydney Juszczyk, 158-5. 3, Katelyn Fairchild, 150-9. 4, Taylor Ciccolini, 145-9. 5, Tanya Simora, 129-11.

WOMEN’S JAVELIN — 1, Avione Allgood, 175-10. 2, Bethany Drake, 171-1. 3, Maggie Malone, 170-9. 4, Katie Reichert, 161-0. 5, Nike Ouellette, 158-8.

BOYS JAVELIN — 1, Sam Hankins, 224-6. 2, Ty Hampton, 215-3. 3, Zechariah Blake, 202-3. 4, Joe Nizich, 198-11.

MEN’S JAVELIN — no competitors.

GIRLS DISCUS — 1, Shelby Frank, 169-1. 2, Gretchen Hoekstre, 160-9. 3, Faith Bender, 143-1.

WOMEN’S DISCUS — 1, Whitney Ashley, 203-8. 2, Gia Lewis-Smallwood, 202-8. 3, Alex Collatz-Sellens, 194-0. 4, Micaela Hazlewood, 183-10. 5, Summer Pierson, 183-2. 6, Rachel Dincoff, 181-8. 7, Alex Morgan, 180-6. 8, Yuangyan Yin, 174-8. 9, Sarah Thornton, 172-10.

BOYS DISCUS — 1, Tanner Duffin, 200-5. 2, Jordan Johnson, 199-11. 3, Jacob Lemmon, 195-4. 4, Daniel Viveros, 180-4. 5, Zechariah Blake, 174-2.

MEN’S DISCUS — 1, Brian Williams, 198-11. 2, Shen Tan, 188-11. 3, Abuduaini Tuergong, 188-2. 4, Jason Harrell, 187-6. 5, Jake Knight, 182-9. 6, Nuermaimanti Tulake, 178-4. 7, Zidong Wei, 176-8.