By JOHN ANDERSON (photos and video by Ella Green and Samuel Robinson)
Arguably the most exciting sports finishes of the 2025-2026 high school sports season took place in less than one minute.
By a student-athlete who dazzled crowds for under a minute during his whole career.
Jack Davis, a senior at Wellsville, would ignite the crowd at football games after the coin flip — by doing his own flip, with a heavy helmet on his head. A simple slant pattern turned into a sprint to the endzone. In basketball, he came off the bench and his motor for one minute would drive opponents to call a time out to slow down this real-life Tasmanian devil.
Jack’s whole career has been not just injecting excitement into his team with his actions, but cheering on his teammates in all sports, despite the fact he was rooting for people who started over him or were the first option on pass plays. He went to other games in other sports with that same enthusiasm.
While track and field is an individual sport first and team sport second, Jack would push those ahead of him to be better. He was proud Xavier Scott stood above him on the podium. He was proud Colton Fleming from Bath stood ahead of him. Colton is so well-liked and respected, Xavier was even giving him advice to help him win a state title in the 400 hurdles.
And Jack was all for it. Even though Jack was in that same event for sectionals.
The track season went well for Jack, he won the 400 hurdles at Spring Day with a time of 59.21 and he won the Hornell Invitational at 58.32. But Colton had won sectionals the year before at 57.21 and that was a time Jack could not reach.
During the Section V Track and Field Championships, Jack had his typical podium moment in the 110 meter hurdles. He looked up and saw Colton and Xavier ahead of him.
But something else became obvious. Jack had always enjoyed the spotlight in his career as the behind the scenes guy doing what he could to help his team win, but never the person who was counted on to be No. 1.
And as the meet went on, the year-long goal of winning a Section V championship for the Wellsville Lions track and field team started to slip away. This team wanted to break that 10-year drought.
Dean Giopulos has coached track and field at Wellsville for 42 years. He has won six sectional titles. He knows how to win, he knows how to lose. And he’s seen titles on paper blow away in the wind when other teams step up and put in personal bests to earn a team title. That was happening in the Sectional finals this year.
“We got out ahead, but Bath’s distance crew was extremely strong. They caught up to us in the steeplechase which made the meet close again. The kids started to show a little bit of a doubt,” Giopulos said.
It was time for the 400 Intermediate Hurdles.
A place Jack Davis is expected to pick up some points for Wellsville, but not enough for the lead, as he would take second.
“He’s been so close to winning a sectional championship. He has Xavier ahead of him in the 110 high hurdles, he had a kid from Bath ahead of him every time in the 400 hurdles, so he had to play second fiddle during his career,” Giopulos said. “Jack Davis would have the school record in the 110 highs if not for Xavier.”
Jack Davis stepped up for the 400 Intermediate hurdles. Mr. Second Place.
His Wellsville teammates knew he wanted to win a Section V title for the team.
But they also knew for once, he wanted to be No. 1. They were unsure if he could do it. They watched close, but not too close in case he lost.
Meanwhile, as the runners prepared for the race, Giopulos stopped and folded his arms and smiled. He quietly said to no one in particular, “Jack Davis is the heartbeat of what our team is.”
The gun went off and the race started. However, this race was going to be determined back in Wellsville on the same football field Jack dazzled crowds each fall.
Anyone who has run track knows Coach Giopulos will practice the “lean” on the turf at the end of the year. The athlete runs on the soccer-football field and the coach picks a yard marker on the turf that will be the make-shift finish line. When you hit that mark, you have to lean forward.
“I’ll pick the 30-yard line, they throw both arms back and lean at the 30, so the chest comes naturally forward because the torso crosses first,” Giopulos said. “And there is a timing element, you want to start the lean about a yard before the finish line.”
Why the turf?
“When you are leaning forward really hard, you are testing your balance and you can fall. So it’s done on turf to be safer,” Giopulos added.
All that practice and all the hard work was not paying off in the first 30 seconds of this sectional championship event. Jack was 10 meters behind the leader and on his way to second place.
Suddenly, in the last two hurdles, Jack Davis gained ground. The two runners were now almost neck-and neck.
To win, Jack would have to shave almost two seconds off his time. That’s an eternity in track and field.
But there they were with 25 meters to go and Jack pulled ahead to a fraction of a second before his opponent took the lead with yards to go. Jack saw the finish line. The track surface was now the turf and the finish line was the 30-yard-line. With one yard to go, his opponent dove. Jack leaned. The same lean he did leading up to this moment on the turf in practice.
It was literally a photo-finish. Because of the dive, it appeared Colton had won.
The times were displayed and it was a tie, both runners had finished at 57.21, a new personal best for Jack. At all sectional meets — and in Wellsville — there is a photo system.
The judges looked at the photos under the tent. Meanwhile, Ella Green, a junior on the girls team, looked at her viewfinder of her camera. She clicked through each image of the last yard. So did the judges.
The time of 57.202 was determined for Jack Davis, 1/1000th of a second faster than his opponent.
“And he was perfect. You can see in Ella Green’s photos in the last yard he was perfect,” Giopolous said. “His work and his lean got him the sectional title. And it was so well-deserved, that kid pours everything into everything he does.”
The team standings didn’t have to be updated. The athletes on the Wellsville track and field team erupted in celebration. Momentum had shifted.
“When Jack won that, it just ignited everybody. It was such a competitive race. It was a combination of the kids knowing how bad Jack wanted to win a sectional title,” Giopulos said. “Jack is friends with the kid he beat. His first instinct after he found out he won was to help his friend up. And then Jack got swarmed. Kids came from everywhere. (Assistant coach and a past Section V hurdle champion) Johnny Valentine picked him up and carried him around like a rag doll. It was a sight to see.”
(Story continues after video by Samuel Robinson for the Wellsville Sun on the win by Jack Davis)
It was also 4-point swing and gave the Wellsville Lions a lead they would not give up.
The team won a title, Jack won a title and to celebrate, he went home and slept so he could drive to Livonia the next day to cheer on his classmates winning a Section V baseball title. When the game ended and the team was going to Tom Wahl’s to celebrate, Jack beat them there to celebrate their accomplishments some more. Most of the players had no idea just 18 hours earlier, Jack pulled off one of the greatest performances of the Section V season.
Last week, Jack was in Albany with his football coach, Tim Keenan, to pick up his Positive Athlete award. It’s a nationwide program that celebrates high character, high school student-athletes and coaches who have overcome difficult circumstances, given back to their schools and communities in a significant way, or just have an infectious positive attitude that makes everyone around them a better person.
Jack Davis made everyone better on and off the field.
And he also lost a nickname. He’ll never be considered Mr. Second Place.
A look at Ella Green’s photo-finish shots and other moments from the title:
Other photos:
