»RELATED: Saturday’s high school scoreboard
»RELATED: Saturday’s high school roundup
“It’s great. We have a lot of competition at our school,” Spencer said. “I just want to beat him. … I’m a sophomore and he’s a junior so there’s a chance I can get him by the end of high school.”
Spencer has topped Riedinger in the discus with a personal best of 167-8 to Riedinger’s 164-2. Those are the top two throws entering Tuesday’s first day of action in the CBC championships. Spencer’s best in the shot – which is contested on Friday – is 53-5. Riedinger and Spencer are the top two seeds in the shot, too.
“He’s a good thrower and I think he’s PR’d in (in the shot) about every meet this year,” Riedinger said. “He’s doing really good this year. We help each other a lot so it’s nice having him at meets with me. We’re really good friends.”
And don’t forget about fellow teammate Blake Jamison, a junior who last season at the CBC meet finished second in the discus and third in the shot. He’s been throwing the discus 155 feet and the shot 50 feet this season, adding more competition to practices. His numbers would place him as the No. 3 seed in both events at the CBC meet. But schools are limited to two athletes per event at invitationals and league meets.
“It stinks that only two athletes can compete in invitationals,” Northwestern coach Brian Stevenson said. “All three throwers are constantly competing against each other. It makes practices awesome and really helps all the athletes improve.”
Riedinger has set meet records in the shot at the Clark County championships, Milton-Union Bulldog Invitational and Northeastern Invitational this season. He also won the shot at the Wayne Invitational, while Spencer won the discus against Division I competition.
Both throwers – who went 1-2 at the Clark County championships with Riedinger winning both – credit Stevenson with their success. Stevenson coached both in junior high and has stayed with them into high school. Stevenson also coaches them in football and monitors their weight room progress.
“He really knows what he’s doing. He reads up on it. He watches videos,” Riedinger said. “He just knows his stuff and coaches it very well. He expects the best from me.”
Added Spencer: “I’ve talked to other schools and they say they don’t have a lot of coaching. I think the reason we throw as far as we do is because we do have a coach.”
Riedinger qualified for the Division II state meet last season and finished third in the discus (157-10) and struggled in the shot to finish 10th (50-11.2). He’s looking to go back this year and have some company.
“In shot I didn’t do very well at state but I got a little more experience so I should do better this year. I shouldn’t be as nervous because I’ve been there,” Riedinger said. “I get a lot of competition from Korbin. That helps me out a lot.”
The CBC meet starts Tuesday with field event finals in the girls high jump and shot put and boys long jump, discus and pole vault. The boys and girls 3,200 relay is also contested on Tuesday with all other running events as preliminaries. The meet concludes Friday with field event finals in the girls long jump, discus and pole vault and boys high jump and shot. All running events are finals on Friday (excluding the 3,200 relays).
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