Coles wins national title
Novan bounces back from loss at state meet with new national No. 1 throw of 78-11.75 in Virginia Beach
Woonsocket senior Logan Coles didn’t have to wait too long to show what happened at Saturday’s R.I. state championship meet was just an aberration.
The Villa Novan entered the weight throw as the No. 1 ranked thrower in the country, but Bishop Hendricken’s John Fay won the state title by over a foot. Coles had to stew on that defeat on the drive down to Virginia Beach, Virginia where he competed at Adidas Indoor Nationals Sunday afternoon.
Coles took out his frustration on a star-studded field, as the Kentucky-bound thrower delivered not only a new personal best, but his throw of 78 feet, 11.75 inches was the best throw in the nation this season to secure the indoor national title.
“The beauty of this whole sport is you get meets that are close together and get to pack a lot of stuff into a short period of time,” Coles said. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to be after winning the national title, but for me it feels pretty good. I’ve been in this position before to win a national title and I’ve come up short, but I got this one.”
It proved to be a banner afternoon at the Virginia Beach Sports Centre because a day after dominating the field to claim the shot put state title, Woonsocket junior Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan
earned All-America honors in a pair of events. Robinson-O’Hagan finished second to his teammate in the weight throw with a toss of 765.50.
While he delivered four throws of at least 74 feet in the weight, things weren’t so simple in the shot put. Robinson-O’Hagan earned a spot in the finals with a throw of just over 56 feet, but his first two throws in the finals weren’t good and he entered his final throw sitting in last place.
“It was just little things going wrong like the ball falling off my hand because I kept turning my head,” Robinson-O’Hagan said. “The atmosphere when I stepped in the circle for my last throw was amazing, the building was shaking for all the throws.”
Robinson-O’Hagan uncorked a throw of 60-6.75 to zoom up to third place to earn a spot on the podium. South Dakota’s Cooper Mack won the title with a throw of 65-0.5 and New Jersey’s Cole Tucker finished second with a toss of 63-3.25.
“The kid is certainly special for us,” Woonsocket coach Marc Piette said. “He was struggling and got bumped down to eighth going into his last throw and then popped out a season’s best. I think that last throw gave him a lot of confidence going into the weight even though his warm-up tosses weren’t great.”
Robinson-O’Hagan, who admits he’s never good in warmups because they don’t count, delivered the best four throws outside of Coles to easily secure second place with a personal-best throw of 766.50.
The day however, belonged to Coles, who responded from a state tournament where his best throw was 73-6 with three throws that obliterated that distance, including the winning throw of 7811.75.
“Once I let it go I knew it was going to go pretty far,” Coles said. “I didn’t know it was going to be a new personal best, but it felt good out of my hand.”
“He had more control pushing the ball and better posture – everything was just better,” Piette said. “He was on today and even two of his fouls were good throws.
This was the type of meet we were looking for all year. We just told him after [Saturday] that everyone has a clunker and it’s about how you bounce back from it. He came down here and proved how good he is.”
Coles and Robinson-O’Hagan continue the indoor season Friday afternoon back at PCTA when they compete in Weightorama. Coles will likely get a chance to lock horns with Fay and the rest of the state’s elite weight throwers.