Canfield’s Hallof proud of close call

Prior to this season Canfield’s Andrew Hallof had never thrown the discus more than 170 feet. In this year’s state final, he threw 189-2, one inch away from a gold medal after Reynoldsburg’s Mark Gooden threw 189-3.

“It was an inch short, but I’m not upset at all about this season,” Hallof said. “I’m very blessed and very humbled to be number two.”

Success this season meant Hallof needed to condition more rigorously in the offseason and having to say goodbye to basketball.

“We came to the conclusion that I just wasn’t big enough or strong enough [to throw farther than 170 feet],” Hallof said. “So I went down to Youngstown to Ironman Warehouse and I put on a lot of weight that helped me a lot. My first meet I came out and threw 172-4 so that was a big accomplishment right off the bat.”

Hallof eventually got up to 189 before suffering a sprained ankle at a meet involving Lakeview and Lakeside that pushed him back down to 170. Hallof said it was more of a mental struggle than a physical one to get back to peak form.

“It’s like 98-percent mental,” Hallof said. “The injury is there but as soon as you just forget about it completely it’s gone. That’s the hard part is getting it out of your head and being like, ‘All right. Let’s go.’”

Improvements came again throughout the second half of the season, leading up to the state final.

“I told [Gooden] at the very beginning, ‘One of us is going to be on top of that podium and one of us is going to be right below him.’”

Unfortunately for Hallof, it was him right below Gooden.

But Hallof, donning his white Youngstown State hat wherever he goes, is excited to get college under way at YSU, where he’ll major in biomedical engineering.

“I’m very proud of where I grew up,” Hallof said. “I’m very proud of everything YSU has to offer. I believe it’s a very underrated school.”

Transitioning from Canfield to YSU shouldn’t be much of an issue.

“YSU’s head coach, his brother is my head coach [at Canfield] so it’s like transferring from one to the other.”

— Charles Grove, The Vindicator