Dakotah Keys, of Sweet Home, placed second in the boys intermediate javelin at the USATF Junior Olympics held last week at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md.
Keys threw a best of 173-8 Thursday, which was well below the 182-5 he threw at the Oregon state meet in late June. His second-place finish came in a field of 41 competitors. Matt Kosecki of Houston Track Club threw 180-3 to win.
Keys also placed ninth in the decathlon, despite having a poor first day Tuesday. He said he was well over 2 feet short of his average in the long jump and about seven inches below his normal high jump height.
Keys scored 4991 in the decathlon in a field of 20, well below the 5040 points he scored at the Junior Olympics regionals in Salem a few weeks ago. This was his fifth decathlon. The winner Thursday was Gray Horn of Waynesfield, Ohio, who scored 6587 points.
“I don’t know what the problem was,” Keys said of his first day.
This was the first national-level competition for the 14-year-old, who competed in his first decathlon four months ago during spring break at Sweet Home High School. He took up the javelin seriously two months ago.
“It was a learning experience for us because we just learned about this process,” his mother Lila Tami Danforth said, who pointed out that Keys’ javelin effort came the day after he completed the two-day, 10-event decathlon. Danforth has been her son’s main coach during his preparation for the Junior Olympics.
“He’s real excited about doing this next year,” she added, noting that Keys was one of the youngest competitors in the age class, in which most athletes are 15 or 16.
In the decathlon, Keys placed first in the javelin with a throw of 154-3, second in the 1500 with a personal best of 4:44, and PR’d in the pole vault (10-6) and 400 (56.56) as well.
Danforth said one problem on the first day of the decathlon was that the athletes were on the field from 8 a.m. to around 7 p.m., with no opportunity to talk to coaches or adults.
Keys said some of the competitors were trying to play head games with him and others, talking to them while they were trying to compete and making it difficult to concentrate.
“I think that’s where the nerves came in,” Danforth said. “When you have athletes who are good, but not necesarily sportsmanlike, trying to distract him, an adult or coach wasn’t there to help Dakotah deal with that.”
Still, she said, it was a great experience for him.
“He’s young in his age group and next year he will be on top of his game,” Danforth said. “He’s ninth in the nation, and he’ll only move up, which is pretty incredible.”
Meanwhile, with school a month away, Keys said he plans to run with other Sweet Home High School athletes in the Portland to Coast high school competition of the Hood to Coast Relay later next month.
Then he plans to play soccer and run cross-country in the fall.
Danforth thanked individuals in the community who helped Keys and her get to the meet.
“I really appreciate the comunity stepping up to plate to help us get there,” she said. “They helped Dakotah get there. They get a piece of that silver also.”