Penn State commit Jven Williams opens up about PIAA track & field state championship

Future Penn State offensive lineman Jven Williams showed this past weekend that football isn’t the only sport he should be considered a five-star athlete in. On Friday and Saturday, Williams combined to win two individual state championship titles in track & field, winning both the boys shot put and discus competitions in Pennsylvania’s AA classification.

In the discus, Williams won with a mark of 167 feet Friday afternoon. It wasn’t his best throw of the year – he threw an all-time best of 189 feet, 1 inch at the Penn Relays back in April – but it was enough to get the job done. Williams’ older brother, Rushard, actually won the discus in 2021, which made the achievement all the more special to he and his family. He ended up beating out his future teammate at Penn State, Will Patton. The Shenango prospect will walk-on at PSU to be a long-snapper. 

On Saturday, Williams’ shot put mark of 66 feet, 7.75 inches grabbed the attention of everyone. Not only did he crush the field (second place threw 56 feet, 3.25 inches) but Williams beat a state record that was set back in 2007 by Olympic silver medalist Joe Kovacs. The previous best was 64 feet, 10.75 inches.

“I’m very excited, to say the least,” Williams said. “I definitely could’ve thrown better. The weather threw me off on Friday, but I took that into Saturday with shot put and I was feeling it. Saturday, the crowd was really good for shot put. All eyes were on shot put, so that was really cool being in that environment.”

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Well @williams_jven decided to go out with a bang. New @PIAASports record 66’7 3/4!! top 10 in the country and #1 jr. @wyotf22 @WyoFootball @Wyospartans @PennTrackXC @CentralPARunner @PennStateFball @CoachTrautFB @GarageStrength @nationalthrows @gobigrecruiting pic.twitter.com/5VbJywWBRq

— Steven O'Neil (@CoachSteveONeil) May 28, 2022

Williams’ shot put throw Saturday was actually one of the 10 best throws in the entire country this year for a high school athlete. He said he credits his growth in the sport to his training at Garage Strength in Reading, Pa. That’s the same place running back Nick Singleton trained at before enrolling at Penn State.

“What’s cool about Garage Strength, and Nick Singleton knows this, is that everyone in there is elite at their own thing,” Williams said. “You’ll have Olympic throwers in there teaching you different techniques. Then, you have professional weight lifters in there teaching Olympic lifts. It’s just a great environment to be in. Up there, you’re getting pushed by everyone. It’s hard not to go in there and be competitive.”

Williams said he’s been training with Sam Mattis, a former U.S. National Champion in discus, among many other former throwers at Garage Strength. When you add in some of the personal advances he’s made in weight lifting – Williams is up to 310 pounds in the power clean and 315 pounds in the bench press – he feels better about himself physically than ever before. 

Penn State’s coaches are also excited about his development. However, in recent days, those talks have been all about his accomplishments in track & field. 

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“I’ve been talking to them a lot,” Williams said. “Coach [Phil] Trautwein actually came out to one of my throwing practices not that long ago. So, he kind of got to see a little preview. But this weekend, the whole staff was bombarding me with messages, congratulating me. It was really nice and it meant a lot to me, especially after breaking the record. Everyone has been going crazy, including fans. It’s meant a lot. I appreciate it.”

In addition to Williams, Penn State holds commitments from 11 other players in the Class of 2023. The Nittany Lions rank ninth overall in the On3 Consensus Team Rankings and No. 2 in the Big Ten. With over 40 official visits set for June, the class is only going to grow in the coming weeks. 

“We have a group chat that we all communicate in daily. We’re texting and joking around mainly, but when it comes to recruiting, we put a lot of focus on that, too. Tony Rojas from Virginia, we’re on him really hard. We were on Rodney Gallagher pretty hard, but he ended up going to West Virginia. I would say that Samson Okunlola and Evan Link are two other guys we communicate with a good bit. They’re both big pieces that we’re missing.

“Everyone also has a few guys they talk with themselves because they’re in that area. For example, I know Lamont [Payne] is talking to Ta’Mere [Robinson] at Brashear in Pittsburgh. He has a really good relationship with him.”