Indoor ThrowDown
Michael Gabriel - Greenwich
The Indoor ThrowDown combines the best marks from the shot put and weight throw from the winter season. The question in the ITD always is whether shot-favoring guys like state champ John Surdej and Mark Przybocki can put up enough points in their specialty to overcome a small tilt in the scoring setup for the results of weight throwers whose leading lights were Michael Gabriel and Andrew Palermo. In the middle were guys like Batavia's Anthony Ray and Averill Park's James Cocca who were both among the top 6 in the two events.
As it was for the girls, the WT had more punching power because for most
guys the shot just doesn't go as far as the weight throw. Only two of
the ITD guys threw the shot further than the WT, and just four got more
points from the shot. But the contest was still very close with a
four-way battle at the top and a separation of 69 points. Gabriel wound
up top and got the gold ring with 2009 points off a 5th best toss in the shot put and a 70-6
throw in the WT in the Section 2 State Qualifier on the road to the
state title.
Anthony Ray - BataviaSilver went to the guy who totaled the second most total meters after Gabriel, as Anthony Ray combined his NY #2 shot put of 57-7 and NY #5 best 66-2.5 in the WT to score 1981. Andrew Palermo's big WT toss at NBN earned him a top 1113 score en route to a 1965 total to take the bronze ring. James Cocca had the NY 4th best throw in the shot put and 6th best in the WT to take 4th place at 1940.
Andrew Palermo - Spencerport
There was a little more separation after the first four spots, as Lancaster's Andy Pietrantoni used the NY #6 shot throw to propel him to 5th place at 1845. Kevin Cetin finished a little further back at 1804 to take the 6th spot.
The top six guys in the ITD were the ones who threw at least 50 feet in the shot put and 60 feet in the weight throw. Although the weight throw was the bigger key to a top score, you still needed a strong shot put throw to finish high. Seven guys who threw the WT over 60 feet still finished below 1800 because their shot put marks were under 50 feet. Burke Catholic's Joseph Benedetto had the biggest skew with an NY #3 weight throw that was almost 30 feet further than his shot put, 69-8.75 to 39-9.5. On the flip side, John Surdej threw 6-4.5 further in the shot put.
Andy Pietrantoni - Lancaster