Friendly Competition
Training partners Washington, Miller share shot put podium on Day 1
Perkiomen Valley’s Ronde Washington and Boyertown’s Jayden Miller have pushed each other almost every day for the past three years.
The results showed Friday at Coatesville when the two offseason training partners stood next to each other on the podium at the District 1 Track and Field Championships.
Washington stood at the top with a gold around his neck and Miller stood to his right with a bronze.
“Personally, I think it’s great because you have somebody who’s your friend but also who you can compete with,” Washington said of competing with Miller. “That’s a nice friendly competition and helps you want to do better.”
“I love it,” Miller said. “I train with Ronde everyday and nothing’s better than coming out here and pushing each other to do better. It’s honestly my favorite thing.”
Spring-Ford senior high jumper Nene Mokunchu joined Washington as a gold winner on Day 1 of districts. Methacton senior Addison Gormley followed her in the event with a bronze finish.
Owen J. Roberts freshman Gianna Leimeister earned a silver medal in the javelin, and Methacton senior Coco Dunham claimed a bronze medal in the long jump to round out the PAC’s top three finishers on Day 1.
The PAC’s shot put medalists — Washington and Miller — first connected at a throwing clinic at Millersville. The two PAC standouts have trained in the offseasons together since they were sophomores, most recently at Garage Strength in Fleetwood.
“Everyday is almost like a competition, whether it’s in the weight room or in the circle,” Washington said. “We just leave it all there.”
Miller finished fifth (51-7¾) at districts as a junior in 2021, while Washington just missed the podium with a ninth-place finish (47-11).
Washington, coming off a meet record throw of 60-6 at the PAC Championships last week, couldn’t replicate his throw Friday. But his 58-2 on his second attempt was more than two feet further than the second place throw from Haverford’s Michael Powel (56-0).
“I just took my experiences from last year, all those times where I came close to being on the podium, just took that, bottled it up,” Washington said. “I had a little chip on my shoulder, trained hard, worked hard and just left everything in the weight
room and circle so I could come out on top.”
Miller improved on last year’s place and finish with a bronze medal throw of 55-04.50
“I was kind of all over the place, I suffered a little tendinitis in my wrist, but it was nice to get out there and drop a bomb,” Miller said. “I did better
than last year, so that was awesome.”
Miller finished 19th at the PIAA championships last season when he was one of just five nonseniors in the event. Next week, he will be joined at Shippensburg by his friend and training partner Washington.
selves a chance to tie. A shot from out in front deflected off a stick and OJR passed it back out from behind the cage for another try. But Butler won a battle for a loose ball with 10 seconds left and held onto it to wrap up the win.
“We’re very proud of our girls,” said Roberts coach David Schlesinger. “Especially when we were down 5-2 and rallied and made it a game. After that sixth goal, we played very well on the draw and had a great opportunity to tie it.”
The Wildcats had completed an undefeated regular season with a 7-3 win over Garnet Valley. But the Jaguars were encouraged by the fact that they had not allowed any more goals after trailing 7-0 at the half.
“We played them two weeks ago and the weather could not have been more different,” said Dooley. “They had a great attack, but I think we just stepped up in a confidence way. We knew we could hold them and we played solid defense.”
“We definitely changed our defense from last time,” said Kane. “We went to practice and worked hard and figured out their game plan.”
Gabbi Koury scored for the Wildcats just over two minutes into the match, but Kane scored twice and Sophie Kingsborough notched her first of two within a six-minute span midway through the half. Kalli Mullen brought Roberts to within 3-2 with 8:50 remaining in the half and that’s the way it stayed until the break.
Maddie Shoemaker scored eight minutes into the second half for the Jaguars and Kingsborough scored again to make it 5-2. But Vogelman scored twice in less than a minute, assisted both times by Koury, for a 5-4 score. Then Kane gave the visitors their 6-4 advantage and the Jaguars hung on, despite drawing a yellow card with 1:57 to go.
“You see something like that happening,” Dooley said concerning the Roberts late rally. “I’m proud of my girls. They stepped up.”
Butler made seven saves, six of them in the second half, and came up with numerous key groundballs. OJR’s Korrigan Sweeney also played well in goal with four saves in the first half and five in the game.
“Both goalies were outstanding,” said Schlesinger. “That’s what high-level playoff lacrosse looks like.”
“I can’t give enough credit to Mak Butler,” said Kane. “When we needed her to have our backs, she was right there for us. It’s pretty exciting. We really knew we had to be patient. They are a really talented team. But we possessed the ball, the way Garnet Valley plays.”
Schlesinger was disappointed that his team was once again not able to get past a quarterfinal opponent.
“We’ve got to learn to get over this hump,” he said. “This is the third year we’ve lost in this round. We’ll learn from our mistakes and keep getting better.”