By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Calista Reynolds and Mark Hillsamer didn’t advance automatically out of the Group IV state track and field championships.
Fortunately, the Montgomery High School seniors were able to extend their seasons by doing well enough to earn wild-card entries into the Meet of Champions. It’s the first trip to the MOC for both.
“I was pretty happy because I’ve been more consistent this season, but I was a little disappointed,” said Hillsamer, who finished seventh in the boys javelin with a throw of 172-feet-9 to fall one spot shy of the final automatic qualifying spot. “I’m really excited for the chance to push myself and hopefully PR.”
The top six finishers in each event advance automatically to the MOC, and then the next six best finishers from across all groups receive wild cards.
“It’s a lot farther than I expected to be,” said Reynolds, who cleared 10-feet for 10th in the girls pole vault. “I never considered myself a top tier pole vaulter.”
While Reynolds was the lone Cougar girl to advance to the MOC, Hillsamer joins four other MHS qualifiers on the boys side. Patrick Warren took second in the long jump at 23-¼. Vlad Castillo Jr. was third in the discus and fourth in the shot put. The Montgomery 4×100 of Warren, Tyler Young, Jabari Clemons and Michael Simonson was fifth. It was Castillo who figured out quickly that Hillsamer’s throw was good enough to advance, and Castillo has helped Hillsamer reach new levels this year.
“Vlad has really pushed me as my training partner in our lifts together,” Hillsamer said. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement in my strength along with my form.
“I’ve been more consistent this season,” he said. “I was pretty nervous.”
Hillsamer has saved his best for last. He was more successful down the stretch of the year than any other spring.
“This will be my first time going to Meet of Champs,” he said. “That was my first time being able to compete at groups.”
Hillsamer only started throwing the javelin as a sophomore. He tried it out for fun. Three years later, he’s in the biggest meet in New Jersey.
“I’ve been really happy with the season so far this year,” Hillsamer said. “Of course, I was nervous, but I was confident with the amount of work I’ve put into it so far.”
Hillsamer achieved his best throw on his third throw of the day. He had hit one throw at 170 feet and he topped it with the throw that would send him to the MOC.
“I’m just going out to have a good time and hopefully PR,” said Hillsamer, who will continue his career next year at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.
Reynolds is looking into continuing her career at Northeastern University, where she plans to study engineering. She has enjoyed steady progress through her career, and it enabled to earn a trip to the MOC.
“I think I’ve improved a lot this season,” she said. “My new personal record is a foot above my previous one. It’s the same rate as last spring. It’s hard to keep the same rate of improvement the higher up you go.”
Reynolds started jumping as a freshman. It was a bit of a rough start, but Reynolds stuck with it and found an event in which she could help the Cougar girls team.
“I originally had done the sprints and hurdles,” she said. “I wasn’t that good at it since I’d only done it in middle school. They invited a lot of people to try pole vault so I gave that a shot.
“It is slower than other things to pick up. I’ve done the jumps and pole vault is the hardest because it’s a strange combination of techniques. The first day I did it, got blisters on my hands, but it went up from there.”
Now Reynolds helps the new and up-and-coming vaulters at Montgomery. She is the veteran and she’s better suited to help after four years of competing. She made enough improvements this year to advance her farthest.
“We’ve done more lifting in the weight room as a team,” Reynolds said. “And I go to some sessions at Vertical Assault. After going there a while, I figured out how to see the problems in my own jumping instead of relying exclusively on other people to watch. I can diagnose the problems.”
Reynolds came into this year’s state meets more confident in her abilities to advance. And when she sized up the field she was going against, she felt good about her chances. Even after placing 10th, she was positive.
“I wasn’t that upset about it,” Reynolds said of missing an automatic berth. “I was optimistic about it knowing what they had done in past years and how they’d taken wild cards.”
Reynolds went into Wednesday looking to represent Montgomery well, and to be able to finish off a high school career that took her to the top meet by the end.
“I’m really hoping to get 10-foot-6,” Reynolds said. “I’ve just been a little off from it the past couple weeks. And the opening height is 10-feet so it’d be nice to go higher than that.”
