Olton senior, Jack Allcorn concluded his High School Athletic Career at the State Track Meet, which took place at the University of Texas at Austin on May 7th .
The senior competed in the 2A Boy’s Discus competition, where he finished in second place with a throw of 175’4” to bring home the silver medal.
“I just knew I had to get a mark off of the back, and my very first throw was 165’, and that kind of set the tone, because everyone else was throwing in the 150’s,” he explained. “When I threw that 165, I knew there was only one other kid, which was Michael Jitjaeng from Big Sandy, who had thrown that far the entire year.”
He added, “I felt pretty confident in that and after that I was just trying to focus on the little things to get that big throw out there and it didn’t come until the last one, but it came.”
Allcorn competed at the State Track Meet back in 2019, during his sophomore campaign, where he finished seventh with a throw of 142’05”.
“It felt pretty good to be back out in the throwing ring this year,” Allcorn said. “It was a little different, because now that you’re a senior, you’re kind of ahead of everyone else. We had two years of competition and then last year COVID-19 hit, so those underclassmen didn’t really get to practice, so that gave us a step on them coming into this year.”
He added, “It made it that much easier and more fun, because you could just go out there and compete against yourself and not have to worry about anybody else.”
Allcorn talked about how it felt being on the big stage this year versus when he first went to State in 2019, saying, “It was a totally different feeling. I walked in there as a sophomore and all of the nerves are on you because everyone else is a senior and you feel like you’re not even supposed to be there because it is such a big stage.”
He added, “This year, you had the nerves of being there, but they weren’t killing nerves, they weren’t going to break you. You knew what it was like and you could just walk in there and throw just like any normal track meet. that’s what it felt like; I walked into the ring and I didn’t have hardly any nerves at all.”
The senior talked about what he did to get ready for the competition once he got to Austin, saying, “I just stayed away from everything and tried to get my mind right and hung out and had fun.”
Allcorn talked about having the title of State medalist by his name forever, saying, “It’s a pretty cool feeling, to know that the hard work paid off in the end. I knew it would if I kept working and everyone kept pushing me to be better. It is cool to know that you will be in the archives forever and that you were able to go to state and compete. That is the main thing, winning the medal is cool, but just having that experience of having been able to go down there not once but twice; it’s a lot of fun.”
He talked about what he has enjoyed most about throwing, saying, “I enjoy everything about throwing. I like team sports, but an individual sport allows you to really push yourself and set the pace on how much you want to do each day and it is kind of nice to be able to do that. It has taught me a lot about myself, that I can push myself to do better or if I want something, I really have to work for it.”
The senior talked about he got into throwing, saying, “My sister used to be a thrower and one day I went to her coach, Aaron Frick, and was messing around and he told me, ‘hey I think you could be pretty good.’ I told him, ‘I don’t know, I’m kind of a small dude compared to all of these other guys,’ but he said you don’t have to be big, just athletic. I went with it and listened to him and he coached me up and that’s how it went.”
He added, “The last four years have been real big. We would video all of my throws and if you were to watch my first throws from my freshman year to my throws now, it is totally different and you can see the difference even if you don’t know anything about throwing. He is good at finding the little things and working on those and once you get those down he’ll find another little thing and it just keeps going and going, because you can never be perfect at it, there is always something to work on. He was always good at keeping my mind right and helping me understand where the little things are and helping me feel it, so that when I’m in a competition I can feel it in the competition and correct it, so that my next throw can be better.”
Allcorn reflected on what he has enjoyed most about Olton, saying, “I’ve enjoyed a lot of things about being here in Olton. Pretty much every sport, every year has been fun and it’s been fun to watch us progress through the years,” he said. In football we went from 3-7 my freshman year to 8-3 this year. Being able to watch all of the guys around me get better and me get better through them and everyone just feed off of each other; that has been fun to watch. I’ve had pretty much all of the same coaches for the last four years and getting to know them pretty personal and just growing as a teammate and a friend.”
He added, “It was pretty cool to go down to Austin and represent Olton one last time. Last year, we didn’t get to do down there, so I knew I needed to get back this year just for the fact that it is good to go represent your school like that. It was a big thing to get to go back down there and compete and actually medal.”
Allcorn said that that the support he had at the State Meet was crazy.
“I had 30-40 supporters at state this year, it was pretty cool,” he said. “They’ve always been there for me and they’ve always pushed me to be better and they knew that I could do it too, I just have to go do it.”
He added, “When I got down there and knew I was in the second spot, I either had to put the pressure on the Big Sandy kid, or know I got second and after that when I got the medal and got to see my family they were so excited, it was great.”
Allcorn talked about the welcome he got when he returned to Olton, saying, “It was pretty cool and I didn’t really know anything about it,” he said. “I didn’t have a car at the field house, so I asked my coach to drop me off at my house and he was like, ‘ahh I can’t do that.’ and I was like, ‘what do you mean you can’t do that I have to go home.’ but when we got to my house, the fire department and police escorted us into town and we turned down the street by the school and there were people lining the street with signs and cheering.”
He added, “It was awesome. The support from the community and my family has been awesome this year and all of the other years too, but it was nice to feel like everyone was there for you.”