NEW YORK — Tri-Valley freshman throwing phenom Kane Poje visited Icahn Stadium on June 15-16 to compete in the USATF New York Junior Olympics Track & Field Championships.

It is a long process to make it to the Junior Olympics, which begins with placing in the top-8 at a local USATF Association Junior Olympic Championship to advance to Regional Champs. There are 53 USATF Associations in the United States.

From there, the athletes compete at the Regional level, where they will need to finish in the top-5 to advance to the USATF Junior Olympics in Texas. New York is part of Region 1, and there are 15 different regions across the country. The Regional Championships will be held in the second weekend in July, July 12-14.

After that, the USATF Junior Olympics will take place in E.B. Cushing Stadium (EBCS), Bryan-College Station in Texas (Texas A&M Stadium) from July 22-28.

Competing in the Boys 15-16 division, 15-year-old Poje finished first in all three of his events: Shot Put, Discus and Hammer Throw.

“We’re excited that he is excited about throwing,” TV Coach Tyler Eckhoff said. “It is going to be quite the ride for the next three years!”

With a Shot Put throw of 12.85m, Poje was nearly two meters ahead of second place.

In the Discus, Poje launched a first-place 36.91m, more than three meters farther than second place.

Finally, in the Hammer Throw, Poje’s first-place throw went for 48.76 meters. It was nearly six meters farther than the second place finisher.

In the process of finishing first in all three events, Poje also re-set the Tri-Valley freshman record for the Hammer Throw. 

Kane’s Hammer Throw of 160 feet is the USA No. 1 freshman boys mark, and the second freshman mark in the country is almost 20 feet behind.

“He has pretty much smashed every freshman record that we have in throws, and it’s pretty impressive,” Coach Tyler Eckhoff said. “He isn’t just breaking the school records but he is shattering them. We have had outstanding success at Tri-Valley with the Hammer Throw historically, and Kane has thrown significantly further at this point in his career, so there are some exciting things to come.”