Scoop Smith is confident he’s still the fastest man in the WPIAL, even if the speedy Woodland Hills junior hadn’t had a chance to show everybody lately.
“If they forgot about me, they forgot about me,” Smith said. “I’ll wake them up at Wips.”
Sidelined for a month with a hurt hamstring, Smith gave his opponents an early wakeup call Friday by winning the 100 meters at the Baldwin Invitational in 10.78 seconds. The time was more than a tenth of a second slower than his WPIAL-winning speed from a year ago, but this was Smith’s first invitational meet of the season.
The WPIAL championship is May 14. His top goal this spring is to get there with a healed hamstring.
“I was kind of babying it, just trying to get it back to 100%” Smith said. “I wasn’t rushing it. Today was the perfect day to kind of have my debut. It’s a good track meet – a lot of good sprinters out here – so winning means a lot to me.”
Smith cruised into the finals with a 10.98-second run in the preliminaries, besting all 97 other runners. But barely breaking the 11-second mark had him feeling some doubt about whether his top speed was still there.
But in the six-person final, Smith’s closest competition came from Elizabeth Forward’s Connor Stokes (10.91) and West Mifflin’s Damarius Day (11.01). Both were a step behind.
“I was kind of a little nervous, especially in the prelims when everybody had a bad time,” Smith said. “Seeing my (10.98-second) time was a little nerve-wracking. Like, ‘Am I that slow now?’ Going out there and winning (in the finals) definitely helped my confidence a lot.”
There was rain and an extended lightning delay between the 100-meter prelims and final, forcing Smith and others to sit and wait. A couple of finalists — McKeesport’s Kemon Spell and Seton LaSalle’s Khalil Taylor — opted out. Both are sophomores and Penn State football commits.
Smith stuck it out.
“I kind of laid down and tried to take a little nap,” he said. “When I came back out here, it was a good 30 to 40 minutes of stretching and exercise, trying to loosen up.”
A 5-foot-7, 150-pound multi-sport athlete, Smith earned all-conference honors as a wide receiver in football and was an all-section guard in basketball. But it was his love for football that slowed down Smith’s track season.
He injured his right hamstring competing at a seven-on-seven tournament in Atlanta for team 412 Elite. He skipped some other big track meets this spring — including the Butler Invitational a couple of weeks ago — hoping to avoid a repeat of last season’s frustration.
A year ago, Smith also sustained a hamstring injury during the regular season. He went on to win WPIAL Class 3A titles in the 100 and 200 meters but aggravated the injury at the meet and missed the state championships.
It was a heartbreaking end to his season.
“I definitely thought about (last year) a lot,” Smith said. “Even coming into today, it was something in my head, just thinking, ‘What if I hurt it again? What if I mess up?’ But God got me through it, so I’m excited.”
Smith said he hasn’t tried to change much about his on-track training from a year ago, believing that wasn’t a factor in his injury, but has focused on getting healthier overall.
“It’s just a lot more about taking care of my body,” he said. “Exercising. Icing. Eating the right things. I definitely took account of that. Mind you, I’m still not the best eater. I still eat fast food sometimes, but I’m trying to work on it.”
He hopes that’ll make him run fast.
His personal best in the 100 meters was a 10.62 at the Butler Invitational last spring. He won the WPIAL title in 10.64 seconds and wants to defend that title in 12 days.
“I’ve probably only about a week of track workouts,” he said. “I’m going to keep doing that. Hopefully by the time we get to Wips, I’m going to be a whole different person.”