Parsons, Quinn pack one-two punch for Panthers

When Jason Paling took over this season as the boys track coach at Nashua High School South, there were a lot of things he was hoping would happen to help the Panthers rebound from a down year.

But there was also something he knew he could count on, two throwers, actually – Ian Parsons and Colin Quinn.

The two seniors had both qualified in the shot put for the Class L indoor and outdoor championship meets in 2010. And much like a year ago, both have worked off each other to improve this season and get back to the Division I meet.

“They did it last year and they’re going to do it again this year,” Paling said. “They’re very competitive. Depending on who is throwing at what time, the other one likes to feed off the throws of the other guy.”

That push from each other comes every day at practice, as the two attempt to see who can hit higher on the wall.

“The way we set up our shot, the wall we hit is about 45 (feet) and change,” Parsons said. “About halfway up the wall is 55. We kind of judge it from there. He hits the wall and I go after him and hit the wall a little higher and then he throws and hits the wall a little higher.”

Parsons finds that having that steady competition each practice helps him stay focused. At times, if the meet he’s at doesn’t have a strong field, Parsons has found that his performance suffers.

“Usually when there is someone competing with me, I throw a little harder,” he said. “With more people throwing further distances, it motivates me more to throw further to show that I’m a contender.”

A year ago, Parsons threw the shot 45-0 in the indoor championship meet to finish third, and Quinn was a few feet behind at 42-8 ½ for a seventh-place finish. During the outdoor championship meet, Parsons was third again at 49-0, while Quinn took fifth at 44-2 ½.

Up until a few weeks ago, Quinn had the better throw this season, reaching 48-10 ½. But Parsons topped that at the Dartmouth Relays, throwing 50-3 ½. Only Exeter’s Ben Keach (51-9) has a better throw in Division I this season.

“I think Colin has worked hard to get to where Ian was last year,” Paling said. “Last year, he was sixth or seventh in the shot – and he’s a really good javelin thrower. I think now, with what he accomplished last year, he wanted to broaden his track experience and he set a goal for himself to be where Ian is. It’s coming true. I think Ian realizes, with Colin pushing him, he wants to get to winning the (Division I) title.”

Quinn won the Class L javelin title a year ago, and went into the indoor season wanting to improve in the shot put for himself, but to also make Parsons better.

“I want to push him to do well because shot put is his main event,” Quinn said. “I want to see him do well, but (for me) to do well would be really cool. This is the first year I’ve started to do well in the shot put. I try to approach it like I would the javelin in competition. It’s different because you don’t have to run up and it’s more of an explosion, which I have to work on.”

Although he was able to pull out a win in the javelin last spring, Quinn felt he could have done better, but was lacking a teammate who could challenge him in that event. Maybe this spring, he’ll have one.

“I’m going to do more javelin this year,” Parsons said. “You keep focus more with one event (during indoor track), but in a sense, it gets monotonous. That’s when having the discus or the javelin can be something to break up the monotony.”

The Panthers have two meets left before the Division I championship at 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 6 at Dartmouth College.