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It may not have been his longest throw, but it was at the best possible time for Don Wright.
Capping a stellar career as a thrower for Centralia High School, his toss of 165-feet, eight inches at the single class Illinois High School Association finals placed second at the 1970 state meet his senior year.
It was the culmination to a strong season for Wright who continually progressed throughout his years at CHS while qualifying three times for state and now enters the Centralia Sports Hall of Fame in the Veterans category.
As a freshman at Centralia High in 1967, he erased a mark set by his brother, Steve, with a winning throw of 130-9 in the discus at the South 7 Conference's freshman-sophomore meet.
As a sophomore, he splashed on to the scene. In the first varsity meet of the year at Evers Field, he turned in a toss of 147-4 to beat out Duane Klosterman's previous record of 142-0 1/2 set in 1952.
A few days later at the Alton Relays, he had a 145-9 1/2 throw and after a 151-6 1/4 heave in a dual meet at home versus Belleville West, Wright went even farther at the Mineral Area Invitational in Carbondale with a 152-11 hurl for another new CHS record.
At the South 7 Conference frosh-soph meet, he shattered his own record by 22 feet with a 152-6 throw before winning the varsity competition with a heave of 148-6.
At the District meet, his 152-9 took top honors as he won out over Alan Crews of DuQuoin who had thrown 157-0 1/2 to win at the Orphan Relays while Wright was second at 154-2 1/2.
His junior year saw him again break own mark in the second meet of the season with a 161-6 1/2 throw in a meet at Flora and he followed that with a second place finish at the Alton Relays and the Mineral Area meet and a win in a three-team meet at Evers Field with throws consistently in the 156-foot range.
Back home for the Orphan Relays, Wright had a record-breaking toss of 162-3 as the host team won the title over Alton in a classic battle.
Even when not breaking CHS marks, he was setting conference one and won the South 7 with a throw of 160 feet for a new league mark.
He repeated as District champion as one of nine Orphans to qualify for state and entered his senior season as one of the top throwers in the state.
At the Alton Relays, he threw 160-6 to claim honors but a week later, Wright wrote his name into the CHS record books and it would stay there for over a half-century.
In a triangular meet with Salem and Mount Vernon at Evers Field, Wright heaved the discus 168-10 3/4 to better his record he set the previous season.
While that was unquestionably a highlight, there was more to come that year. At the Orphan Relays, he threw a 161-11 1/2 but was edged out by Belleville West's Tom Stock, a future Olympian. Wright also repeated as South 7 champion with an effort of 155-6 1/2.
In the final regular season meet prior, he threw 167-1 and carried that over into the District meet where his toss of 165-2 shattered a mark of 162-0 1/2 that was set by John Bauer of Benton 20 years earlier.
While there were five throwers seeded ahead of him at state, Wright nearly beat them all in taking second place. It was the highest finish ever by a CHS discus thrower.
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