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THROW OUT THE RECORDS
Dustin Brode’s all-time record and Ali Tolich’s two state titles highlight the day
By Joe Scalzo
COLUMBUS
The bearded teenager with the Batman voice and the chess club brain stepped into the shot put circle for his final throw of Saturday’s opening flight at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium with the nose-breathing fury of a bull entering the ring.
With the shot resting on his white-chalked neck, he steadied himself, spun and — with a quieter grunt than you might expect — released the looooooooooongest throw in the 103-year history of Ohio high school track and field.
Move over Jimmie Pacifico. Dustin Brode now stands alone.
“I just threw one out there, didn’t watch it and it was not much of a scream,” said the Canfield senior. “Just a little grunt, I think that’s what it was. It was pretty weak.”
Then?
“Afterward, I gave it a good scream,” he said. “I was pretty pumped after that.”
Brode’s throw went 71 feet, 71/2 inches — setting an all-division, all-meet, all-time record in Ohio. Needless to say, it also erased any doubt about whether the Harvard University recruit would repeat as the Division I state shot put champion.
Until then, Brode had shared the all-time record with Pacifico, a Vandalia Butler graduate who threw 71-61/4 in 2007.
“We had the record tied, so we knew his name was going to be there” said his throwing coach, Nick Wagner. “But to get it alone ... words can’t describe how awesome that is.”
Head shot put official Jim Fox, the former Boardman High athletic director, had to verify the distance with a special steel tape measure because the normal one is too stretchy.
“He looked at the tape measure and gave me the thumbs up,” said Brode’s father, Gary. “That’s when I knew.”
Brode also finished second in the discus while Fitch junior Ali Tolich swept the Division I girls throwing events to cap an unbelievable weekend for Mahoning Valley throwers. Area athletes won five state throwing titles — including all three girls discus titles — and added two runner-up finishes out of 12 total events.
“That’s just an anomaly,” said Brode, using the type of words that help explain why he’s headed to the country’s most prestigious school. “The odds of that happening are just astronomical.”
Tolich, who placed second in the discus and fourth in the shot put last year, entered as the favorite in both events on Saturday. But, she said, that added no more pressure than what she already put on herself.
“I just had the expectation that I wanted to come here and do what everyone expected me to do and what I expected myself to do,” she said. “I came down here to win two and I did just that.”
Tolich actually won the discus (her first event) on her first attempt, uncorking a 154-7 throw that pretty much ended the suspense.
“I was ready to throw all day,” said Tolich, who won Division I indoor titles in the shot put and weight throw in March. “I just wanted to get out here and do what I know how to do.
“It definitely feels good to be on the top of the podium.”
This weekend’s haul capped a wonderful career for Brode, who also won state indoor titles in the shot put and weight throw in March just a week after claiming an indoor national title in the shot put.
But the notoriously self-critical Brode was dissatisfied with all of those titles and spent the spring chasing Ohio history, finally catching up to it on the final day of his high school career.
“I think this will be the first meet all year that he’ll be happy,” said Wagner, laughing.
Well, not completely.
“I’m like 70 percent happy,” he said, grinning. “There was a throw out there, like 73-74, that would have been nice to have.”
The national record is 77 feet, set in 1979 by future San Francisco 49ers lineman Michael Carter. When asked if he was chasing Carter, Brode chuckled and said, “My goal is not that high. I just want to be the second-best ever. That’s like a 76. And I’ve got all summer to do it.
“My eyes are always looking forward. That’s who I am, I guess.”