PENDLETON — In the state’s oldest track and field invitational, Pendleton Heights Andrew Harvey has the newest records.
The Arabian senior thrower, on his final attempt, set a school and meet record with a throw of 55-feet, 1.5 inches in the shot put. He had earlier taken the top spot in the discus with a meet-record heave of 171-feet, 10.25 inches.
The Arabians placed third as a team in the Pendleton Heights Boys Track and Field Invitational, in its 64th year. The event began in 1954. There have only been three years when it did not take place, 2020 because of the pandemic and 1957 and 1995 because of weather.
Mt. Vernon, which won the last event in 2019, won with 176.33 points. Frankton was second with 107. Pendleton Heights scored 90 points.
Other team scores were: Roncalli 85.5, Yorktown 76.5, New Palestine 62.33, Liberty Christian 14 and Lapel 5.33.
“It was nice. It was the last throw, and I was behind and I’d scratched the whole meet,” Harvey said of his newest record in the shot put. “It’s nice to get that throw record and a meet record and a new PR, but it’s still not exactly where I want to be. I still feel like I can throw a lot farther than that. It’s just something as the year goes on I hope I can just keep throwing better and better.”
It’s been a record-setting year for the Eastern Illinois University-bound thrower, who is making up for lost time from not having a 2020 season.
Harvey had set meet records in both shot and discus the previous week at the Madison County Championships, an event the Arabians won for the third straight time.
He threw 54-feet, 5.75 inches in the shot and 179-feet, 30-inches in the discus.
At the Pendleton Heights Invitational, the previous shot put record was 52-feet, 11.5 inches set in 2009 by Yorktown’s Daniel Blanton. The old discus mark was 154-feet, 8-inches, set in 1992 by Anderson Highland’s Jeff Chapman.
Harvey said becoming one of the state’s elite high school throwers has come by doing more than just the allotted practice time after school.
“It’s just going out on the weekends and putting in extra work and doing extra work in practice,” Harvey said. “I watch videos and study some of the bigger guys in the world and the best throwers in the world and just watch the small little things they do. I think that’s what has really helped me.”
If he can improve on what he calls “the little things” he said he thinks he will see bigger numbers in both events.
He’s had a few scratches in both events and he’s been working on trying to eliminate those.
He has also been working on his release points.
He added that he is hopeful as the weather heats up, his numbers will go up, too.
The Arabian senior was the sectional champion in the discus and runner-up in the shot put as a sophomore. He said he hopes to win both of those and get a team title this season. He was fourth in the regional in both events in 2019, just missing out (needing a top 3 finish) qualifying for the state meet.
He’d like to keep improving those numbers and be in contention for podium finishes at the state meet, he said.
“He’s been crushing it every meet,” Pendleton Heights coach Bill Coggins said of Harvey. “He’s a hard worker and he deserves all the good things that are coming to him. He’s a great kid. He works hard and has a great attitude.
“He’s been re-writing the throwing record books in pretty much every meet we’ve gone to. It’s pretty amazing to see what he’s doing.”
Along with the strong performance from Harvey at the home invite, Pendleton Heights Avry Carpenter was second in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:34.35.
