Allgayer, Oghagbon bring gold to Mercersburg
The emotions that flooded through Mercersburg Academy's Gabriel Allgayer were obvious on Saturday morning.
After crossing the finish line of the 3,200 at the Jack Roddick Shippensburg University High School Invitational, Allgayer immediately burst into tears, hugging his coaches and families. He crushed the competition, winning the race by nearly 14 seconds, and his time of 9:25.74 will go down in the Blue Storm record books.
"I worked for this for three years, ever since I started track in 10th grade," Allgayer said. "I knew that this might be the only chance I would have. When I came around the turn and saw I had 15 seconds left, I knew I could do it and I just felt relief. All the pain just went away, and I could finish it off."
Teammate and fellow success story Isiuwa Oghagbon said, "Gabriel came over to the shot (afterward), and I was so happy to see him. I know when I broke a school record, I was so pumped and everyone around me was so happy. He had that same smile on his face."
Oghagbon had a lot to smile about as well. Despite competing on Friday night and operating on limited rest, Oghagbon won the shot put with a heave of 36-6.75 and later placed third in the discus with a throw of 115-6.
"I went straight to bed after the meet last night and had to wake up at the crack of dawn," Oghagbon said. "Everything was moving so fast today, but I felt normal competing out there."
The slightest of errors, Oghagbon said, can be the difference between a big throw and a bad one. When the meet-winning put left her hands, she knew exactly what she had done.
"If you move too fast, you will foul. If you open up too early, your throw will be shorter," Oghagbon said. "That winning throw felt really good."
With Oghagbon's recent success - she won silver in both events at last week's Tim Cook Invitational - and Allgayer's domination on the track, the pair are certainly starting to put Mercersburg on the map.
"We're just trying to add our names to our school, and trying to do our best for our school," Oghagbon said. "People sometimes ask me where is Mercersburg? They've never heard of it before, but now we have two kids that have broken school records."
And that's just this season.