Just three years after joining sport, Middle Township’s John Wright put in the work to become a state discus champion

Posted: June 14th 2026

Middle Township's John Wright won the state Group II discus championship this spring.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

John Wright grew up playing a lot of different sports.

Track and field was not one of them before he reached high school.

“I did baseball (in the spring) but I kind of got tired of it,” Wright recalled. “So I thought about track. One of my friends told me about the throwing events and I thought that would be good for me, since I don’t really like running. I tried the discus and fell in love with it.”

In just his third season after trying the sport for the first time, Wright emerged as a South Jersey and state Group II champion in the discus throw this spring, finishing first in the event at both meets recently.

Wright threw the discus 164 feet, 9 inches at the state Group II championship meet to finish first by a relatively comfortable margin of more than five feet. Collin Werner of Holmdel was second at 159-6.

“I had some nervousness but I was also really calm and confident that I could win,” Wright said. “I had a good couple practices in the days before the meet. I typically throw less at practice than I do at a meet, but when I have good practices I know I’m going to throw well at the next meet. So when I got to states I was really calm. I really thought I could win it.”

Wright was nowhere near a state contender when he began in the sport as a freshman. 

“I was terrible,” he said with a laugh.

But even though he didn’t initially show talent, Wright became hooked on the sport. That led to him putting in the work to get better.

“(Former teammate) Troy Billiris really helped me get into it,” Wright said. “I would stay after practice and keep working at it. Practice would be over around 4 o’clock but then I’d stay until 6:30, 7 o’clock. I kept throwing, throwing, throwing until my parents made me come home.”

The hard work paid off.

“I ended my freshman year throwing about 100 feet, so when I came into my sophomore year I was at around 100 feet but then I got it up to around 120 feet pretty fast,” Wright recalled. “But then by the time the year ended I was up to 139 feet. That’s a pretty big increase for discus, 40 feet in one year.”

He placed third in the sectional meet in the event last season as a sophomore, qualifying for the state championships.

Unlike many of the state’s top throwers in field events, Wright is not the typical size. He stands only about 5 feet, 10 inches, while many of the other top throwers are 6-2 and taller. But Wright does have one physical advantage.

“My arms are really long for my height,” he said. “By the end of my sophomore year, when I was hitting good distances, I realized I had longer arms. I’m lucky with that. So rather than worry about these big guys I had to go against, I focused on the things that I had and worried about what I could control.”

Wright ended up going undefeated in the event for the entirety of his junior season through the state meet. 

He won the South Jersey championship by a wide margin, his throw of 161-1 beating the field by about 18 feet.

His throws in both the sectional and state meets set new personal records each time. He then set another personal record with a toss of 166 feet in an eighth-place effort at the Meet of Champions.

Middle head coach Matt Wolf credited Wright’s hard work, along with excellent coaching from throws coaches Ed Bradway and Kevin Hebron, in helping Wright develop.

“John’s fortunate to have great coaching, because Ed and Kevin are great, and Ed has developed a number of top kids through the years,” Wolf said. “But it takes the kid to put the work in, and John has put those hours in by staying after practice and doing those things.

“His sophomore year, he did a lot of work on his technique and got better with it. We told him that to take the next step he’d have to get stronger and he did. He got himself in the weight room and lifted. So then when you combine the technique with the added strength, that’s why he was able to do some really special things this year and he still has a year to go.”

Wright now has his sights set on the school record in the discus, which is 185-11 set by John Mooers, who won the state title in the event as a senior in 2014. He’d also like to repeat as a sectional and state champion and compete for first place at the Meet of Champions

“When I got to the Meet of Champions, I didn’t really know what to think,” said Wright, an honors student who plans to study engineering and compete in the discus at the college level when he is finished at Middle. “I just wanted to (set a personal record), that’s it. I knew the guys at the top would throw a lot farther than me, because I was only seeded sixth. But I didn’t care. I just wanted to P.R. But next year for my senior year, I really want to win it.”