Taft High hasn’t seen a top thrower in the valley in quite a while, especially someone as young as a sophomore. Ilan Katz won both the shot put and the discus at Taft’s first invitational of the year. He threw 139’2 feet in the discus and he threw a 47’2.5 feet in the shot put. Katz qualified for the area meet in the first league meet of the season, which is quite impressive considering that most athletes don’t qualify until usually the last few months. Ilan mentioned that he was one of the top sophomores in the state as well. “I’m 7th in the state for shot put and 10th in the state for discus.” Based on recent records, we haven’t had a thrower ranked in the state by this grade in a very long time. Ilan also explained he isn’t satisfied with where he is at right now: “By the end of the year, I want to be throwing 150 feet for discus and 50 feet for shot put.” We are excited for Ilan’s future with the Wildcats and what he is going to accomplish by the time he is a senior.