Barrington’s Scott Sloan, a 16-year-old junior at the Wheeler School, won gold in the javelin at the recent USATF New England Youth Spring Invitational in Wenham, Mass., with a personal best throw of 50.3 meters (165 feet). 

Two weeks later, Sloan placed second in the Rising Stars division at the New Balance Nationals in Philadelphia. His best throw for the meet measured 52.47 meters (172 feet, 2 inches).

Sloan, a 6-foot-4-inch three-season athlete, took up the javelin this spring while recovering from foot surgery. He won his first few meets, and his family then reached out to fellow Barrington resident and former Olympian Sean Furey, an engineer at Raytheon who also runs Furey Athletics in Barrington. 

Furey, a three-time U.S. national javelin champion who turned his Barrington garage into a state-of-the-art javelin gym, holds a weekly training session which Sloan joined in late April.  

Since working with Furey, Sloan has been named to the Rhode Island Independent Schools all-state team and achieved all-NEPSAC in javelin. (Wheeler School no longer competes in the Rhode Island Interscholastic League — the Warriors now compete in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Counsel.)

The silver and bronze medals for javelin at the recent USATF New England Youth Spring Invitational also went to other Furey Athletics students, who drive to Barrington each week from the Boston area.