Quincy boys fight off injury, finding new ways to showcase depth on the track

QUINCY – As the 2024 track season hits the stretch run, teams from across the state find themselves battling injuries and fatigue, and teams here in Branch County are no exception.

The Union City Charger boys find themselves down several key pieces as a handful of runners battle nagging injuries, impacting the sprints and relays.

The Quincy Orioles are not immune to the injury bug, as several members of the team battle the aches and pains of midseason competition. One member of the Quincy Orioles found a unique way to battle an injury as he looks to gain valuable points for his team down in the throwing pits.

Sophomore Ethan Pearson had a solid night in the pits, finishing in 10th place overall in the discus with a throw of 105 feet, 6 inches, not a bad toss for the lefty from Quincy. The thing is, Pearson is not a lefty, Pearson is a righty, but the sophomore was so hungry for competition he taught himself to throw with his off hand.

A torn labrum during the 2023 football season threatened to derail Pearson’s first year on the varsity football team, so the tough as nails Oriole battled through the injury, electing to have surgery this past November. Pearson’s doctor has given him a near clean bill of health; however, Pearson has not been cleared to throw the discus with his injured shoulder, which led to the change.

“I was just tired of healing up and sitting around, so I decided to give it a chance with the left hand,” said Pearson. “It is my brother’s senior year and I just needed to be back out there. The hardest part is just reversing the whole process, spinning a different way, releasing the discus a different way, it is all just flipped.”

You would think that sort of change would have an enormous impact on Pearson’s ability to throw, and it has indeed, as he bettered his freshman year PR (Personal Records) by over 20 feet.

“Everything was just going right that day,” Pearson said. “At the beginning when I first made the change, maybe five out of 10 would land inbounds, but now I am getting it down. I am not sure what happened, just all of a sudden everything started to click.”

As teams like Quincy and Union City battle the injury bug, the depth of each team will be tested, as it was Friday at the Oriole Classic. Thanks to their wealth of depth, the Orioles finished in third place at their home invite with a score of 106 points behind Union City in second with 143 points and Leslie in first with 150.5 points.

Quincy had three winners at their home invite, two in the field events. Quincy’s Corey Turner brought home another win in the pole vault with a vault of 12 feet, 6 inches while teammate Noah Rufenacht won the high jump with a jump of 6-0. Also taking a win was Clayton Benson, who won in the 400-meter dash in 54.09 seconds.

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Also adding to the Quincy third place effort with a top six finish was Cameron Barry, fifth place in the 100 and fourth place in the 200; Noah Pearson, second place in the 400; Rufenacht, fourth place in the 400; the 400 relay team of Turner, Kaleb Handy, Kaden Cutler, and Barry, third place; the 800 relay team of Cutler, Isaiah Staggs, Rufenacht, and Blaik Pierce, third place; the 1,600 relay team of Benson, Micah Groves, Rufenacht, and Pearson, second place; the 3,200 relay team of Max Stetler, Eddie Miller, Nathan Richer, and Coy Wood, fifth place; Ethan Pearson, fourth place in the shot put; Lincoln Sims, fifth place in the shot put; Hayden Peters, fourth place in the discus; Handy, fourth place in the pole vault; and Turner, third place in the long jump.

As you can see, depth is the key for teams like Quincy as the postseason rolls around, oh, and being able to suddenly switch your dominant hand. That helps as well.

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Quincy boys fight off injury, finding new ways to showcase depth on the track