Gebhardt sets new Wallkill Valley javelin record

Hamburg — Like father, like son.

Three decades after his father set a state sectional record for the javelin throw, Wallkill Valley Regional High School senior and lifelong Ogdensburg resident Ryan Gebhardt broke a school record set in 1992 on Wednesday, April 15, with a throw of 182 feet and 3 inches.

The throw not only bested the previous record of 179 feet and 10 inches by more than 2 feet, it qualified Gebhardt for the New Balance Nationals Elite Competition.

“It takes a throw of over 180 feet to qualify,” Gebhardt said of his accomplishment.

Unsure if he will be able to attend the Greensboro, N.C., competition as it falls on his June 19 graduation day, Gebhard, nonetheless, has his eye on loftier goals for the season.

“I hope to get a throw of over 190 feet, maybe 200 feet,” he says of the remainder of the season, which runs through the beginning of June.

A 200-foot throw would beat his father Fred Gebhardt’s state sectional record of 198 feet and 6 inches, which he set as a junior at Jefferson Township High School in the 1983 season. Ryan Gebhardt points out that the feat is now more difficult to accomplish, as the older-style javelins were designed to fly flatter and farther than the current models.

“The center of gravity is farther up now,” Gebhardt said. “The javelin gets down a lot faster.”

If he is able to hit his goal for the season, Ryan hopes to receive an athletic scholarship to the Division I University of Rhode Island, where he will begin studying physics this fall on an academic scholarship.

Gebhardt says his love of physics has a lot to do with his success with the javelin.

“It’s 80 or 90 percent technique and only about 10 percent strength,” Ryan says. “I enjoy figuring out how the javelin actually flies through the air. It’s all physics related.”

With the Gebhardt lineage as javelin throwers, he has no shortage of help learning the technique, either. Between his dad and older brother, Nick, who serves as volunteer throws coach for Wallkill Valley, help is never far away.

“He’s definitely head and shoulders above anyone in our area,” said Nick Gebhardt, a javelin thrower who graduated from Wallkill Valley in 2010.

With 24 throwers invited to the national competition, Nick Gebhardt said he would expect his brother to be in the top 15, should he be able to compete.

“It’s a little bit of a mix” of good and bad coaching his little brother, Nick Gebhardt said.

“Sometimes he’s able to pick things up more clearly and other times we end up as brothers butting heads,” he said.

However, both Gebhardt brothers agreed it is more good than bad.