He already been dubbed by his coach as the best shot putter he ever had on the team at his age. He has also qualified for tomorrow's MIAA All State Track and Field meet at Fitchburg State University as a Sophomore.
In every sense of the word, St. John's Prep shot putter and Gloucester resident Evan Dombrowski has burst onto the state shot put scene this school year in a big way.
"He's still young but he already has the ability to be dominant," St. John's Prep head track coach Ray Carey said. "He's the best Sophomore I've ever coached and I've been coaching for over 30 years."
Dombrowski has peeked at the right time as his throw of 52'3" was good for a third place finish at last weekends Class A State Championship meet. The Sophomore chipped in six of the Prep's 29 points at last week's Class A meet, good for a ninth place finish.
Dombrowski's throw last weekend was his second best mark, just two inches off of his personal best throw of 52'5" which was set at the Haverhill Invitational in April. The throw was good enough to move the Eagles Sophomore from sixth, where he was seeded coming into the event, to the top three. At this weekend's All State meet the 5'11" 275 pound Dombrowski, who is also an offensive and defensive tackle on the St. John's Prep football team, enters as the No. 8 seed, but given his performance at the Class A meet there is a very real possibility that he could move up the ranks.
"I had been struggling a little bit before the (Class A meet) and my coach told me he would be happy if I through 50 feet," Dombrowski said. "But I wanted to improve and I came close. Qualifying for the all states was a bit of a surprise but I'm happy to be apart of such a strong field."
The Gloucester native's substantial improvements came on the heels of a change in technique heading into his Sophomore season. Dombrowski switched from the glide technique, the most common technique in the high school ranks where the thrower literally glides across the circle and the technique used by Dombrowski during his freshman season, to the rotary technique, a more advanced, higher risk technique but one with much greater reward where the thrower spins a couple of times before releasing the shot put.
"Basically there's more potential for you to throw further with the rotary technique," Dombrowski said.
Carey says that while the technique can be unpredictable at times, it can be a real weapon when one has the technique down.
"Sometimes the rotary technique can be unpredictable," Carey said. "But Evan has worked really hard to get it down and he has gotten the results he wants. He puts in so much time in the weight room and working on his technique, he's earned his spot."
Over the course of the winter and spring track seasons Dombrowski has shown steady improvement. Those improvements really showed in the Catholic Conference meet last month. Dombrowski and teammate David Roy, a Melrose native, have had a bit of a friendly competition going all year and the Gloucester native had been playing catch up with his teammate all season long. But at the Catholic Conference meet, a meet that pits the best the Catholic Conference has to offer, Dombrowski put forth one of his best performances of the year winning the meet and being crowned a first team All Catholic Conference, one of the deepest conferences in the entire state.
"I had been competing with David all year," Dombrowski said. "It's a good thing for both of us, we really push each other and we both want to put in the work to improve. I ended up beating him on my last throw of the day to get the win, it was my first win of the year and it felt great."
Dombrowski is hoping that he has one more big performance left in him this spring, and he's hoping it comes while competing with the state's best.
