TACOMA — After his first two javelin throw attempts fell well short of his expectations, Jackson Sketchley realized he needed to switch things up.
Competing in the 3A boys javelin finals at the WIAA State Track & Field Championships at Mount Tahoma High School on Saturday, the Shorecrest senior sat in second place behind Lakeside (Seattle)’s Manav Bhatia. After going over film with his coaches, Sketchley realized he needed to go faster in his run-up. He had been starting out slow in the past couple of meets, which he called a “bad habit.” One he needed to break.
He started to do some run-throughs off to the side, working on his timing and form.
“(I was) kind of getting the groove of, like, how it feels to go fast right at the last moment,” Sketchley said. “And I think something clicked.”
On his third attempt, Sketchley powered down the runway and heaved the javelin through the air. Everyone waited in anticipation as the scorers measured the throw, which had definitely gone further than his prior two. The only question was by how much?
“194 feet, eight inches,” the scorer called out.
The fans lining the fences roared. Sketchley clapped and enthusiastically yelled, “Come on!” He set a new personal record, clearing the old one by four feet. More importantly, he put himself into first place by over 13 feet.
No one would come close to touching that mark, and Sketchley was crowned the state champion. After regressing from his sophomore state performance in his junior season, Saturday was all about redemption for Sketchley.
A combination of injuries and overthinking contributed to his slip a year ago, so he focused on changing his mindset and having more fun training with his friends every day. From there, the results came naturally.
“It was pretty hard. I was, like, really upset about that,” Sketchley said. “Coming back to this year, I really wanted to win, so I’m glad I was able to do it today.”
Sketchley was originally a cross country runner, but shin splints steered him off that path. He could throw a football pretty far, so he figured he could translate that into javelin. He gave it a shot, and sure enough, he was throwing further than everyone on the team on his first day.
Shorecrest assistant Mingure Dorjee, who works with Sketchley in the javelin throw, was originally skeptical.
“I started working with him his sophomore year, and like, he was just a scrawny little dude,” Dorjee said. “I was like, ‘There’s no way this kid (wants) to be a javelin thrower,’ but freaking, after that first year, I was like, ‘Dude, this kid’s got an arm.’ And then it just kept going and going.”
Dorjee set the javelin throw school record in 2011, and he returned as a coach in 2019 with the goal of getting someone to beat it. Sketchley was motivated to be the one to do it, and just two months ago, he smashed it by 16 feet. After Saturday, he bumped it up to a 20-foot margin.
“I can finally retire peacefully,” Dorjee said. “I’m so happy for him. He worked his ass off during the summer. We did a whole bunch of workouts during the offseason, and just for all the workouts and all that hard work to pay off for today, it’s just beautiful, man. We got high hopes for this kid.”
Sketchley is attending Montana State in the fall, where he hopes to walk on to the track & field team. He just added a pretty convincing piece to his resume.
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