BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
At first, it wasn’t something he took as seriously as the other sports he competed in, but in the end, Keystone Heights High School senior Caleb Moncrief wound up being a standout in it as well as he earned a medal for a seventh-place finish in the discus at the May 12 Class 2A Track and Field Finals at the University of Florida’s James G. Pressley Stadium at Percy Beard Track.
“I wasn’t even expecting to get here, really, at the beginning of this year, so I’m really glad with how it ended,” Moncrief said.
Moncrief’s best throw covered 142 feet, 4 inches. It wasn’t near the personal record of 149-8 he threw in winning the Region 1 championship, but if Moncrief was disappointed in any way, he didn’t show it.
“I just came in with the goal of getting a medal of any kind,” he said. “That’s what I came out with. I’m happy with it.”
Medals are awarded for top-eight finishes.
Qualifying for state alone is a major accomplishment, but it’s even more so for someone who was just kind of devoting what time he could to throwing the discus when he wasn’t working out as part of the school’s weightlifting team.
“I started it 10th-grade year,” Moncrief said. “We got in three meets. Then it shut down (because of COVID-19). I came back in 11th grade, and it was really just kind of something I did for fun. I didn’t really practice because after weightlifting, I only went out for like 10 minutes every couple of days. I started liking it more last year and got into it this year.”
Moncrief qualified for state in two events. He competed in the shot put, finishing 12th with a distance of 46-1.25.
“I really wasn’t expecting (to qualify in) shot,” he said.
Moncrief now prepares to graduate, capping an incredible year for him in athletics. He was a member of the football team, which had a historic season, going 10-2 and winning the program’s first-ever playoff game. He was a member of the weightlifting team, which won its second straight state championship, earning individual medals in the process for a second-place finish in the traditional event (bench press and clean and jerk) and a third-place finish in the snatch. Moncrief competed in the 238-pound class.
Now, he can add a state medal in track and field to his accomplishments.
“It was a really great year,” he said.
