{"id":2737,"date":"2023-05-23T10:18:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T14:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=2737"},"modified":"2023-05-23T10:18:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T14:18:48","slug":"gerber-has-sights-set-on-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/23\/gerber-has-sights-set-on-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerber has sights set on state"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DANE FUELLING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Athletes from all over northeast Indiana will converge on Carroll High School\u2019s athletic facilities tonight to take their best shot at punching their ticket to the IHSAA State Finals at Indiana University. For Heritage junior Maya Gerber, Tuesday\u2019s meet is an opportunity to showcase her skills and proclaim herself as one of the best throwers in her class in Indiana.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maya Gerber attempts one of her throws in the discus last Tuesday at the New Haven Sectional. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gerber has not gotten to the elite level without hard work and determination, along with overcoming a bit of fear about expanding her repertoire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can honestly say that she was a little intimidated last year about adding discus,\u201d says Heritage coach Jason Habisch. \u201cAs a freshman she didn\u2019t throw it, but as a junior she has made huge strides forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The junior qualified directly for the discus at Tuesday\u2019s regional with a second-place finish and she received a callback for the shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gerber did not have her best throw in the shot but still got a callback for Regional.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gerber downplayed her performance in the shot put, telling WZBD\u2019s Randy Hisner last Tuesday: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t my best, but we are planning to bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If she can find the distance she recorded at the Patriot Relays earlier this season (40-08), Gerber is likely one of the top ten throwers in the state and could threaten to put the Patriots on the scoreboard at the state meet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the discus at New Haven for sectional, Gerber abandoned her traditional spin throw after two poor attempts and went with a standing throw instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Switching to a standing throw made all the difference for Gerber as she set a PR at the New Haven Sectional last Tuesday. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaya is a very dynamic and powerful athlete which shows even more in the shot put,\u201d says Habisch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gerber was third at the ACAC meet this year in the discus, throwing 116-03 and finishing behind Lauren Reiff of Bluffton and Gabi Bilbrey of Jay County. She won the shot put, however, with a throw of 39-02, which put her comfortably ahead of both Reiff and Bilbrey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gerber has also gone head-to-head with New Haven\u2019s Makenna Dommer. In late April, Dommer won the discus over Gerber by 12 feet, but Gerber got her Bulldog rival by three feet in the shot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maya set her PR in the sectional meet, climbing all the way to 118-01 to finish second behind Dommer, who was just 19 inches better.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking at last year\u2019s discus results at the IHSAA State Finals, only 12 girls exceeded Gerber\u2019s mark of 118 feet from sectional, showing just how good Gerber has been over the past two months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaya works very hard and shows up every day with the intent of getting better,\u201d says her coach, \u201cand that\u2019s all I can ask of any athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether she qualifies for the state meet in the shot put or discus, both or none, the season has already been a success for the Heritage junior.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gerber stands on the podium after taking second in the discus at New Haven. She hopes to find her way on the state podium in two weeks. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe is a joy to coach and part of a great crew of throwers here at Heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANE FUELLING WZBD.com Athletes from all over northeast Indiana will converge on Carroll High School\u2019s athletic facilities tonight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15,51,26,39],"class_list":["post-2737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured","tag-heritage","tag-sports","tag-track"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/8I7A9542.jpeg?fit=2196%2C2470&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}