One Day Apart
Wednesday evening, I received an email from Steve Wade, Brentwood Academy's throwing coach, informing me that Mensi Stiff rebroke the state records she set a couple weeks prior at Great 8 with throws of 50-7.5 in shotput and 160-0 on the nose in discus. Due to the embargo, these results likely would not hit my dashboard until Saturday at the earliest.
Thursday evening I decided to drop in the on the Section 3 AAA Championships at Green Hill High School. When I arrived I went to the track (naturally) first to see what events were underway and interview some of the winners. While there, I get this notification on twitter:
By the time I got back to where the throws were taking place they had just resumed as the certification process delayed the competition by some time but here was the record setting throw on Reghan Grimes' second attempt.
Grimes' best coming into the meet was 148-5 thrown a couple weeks earlier at Great Eight. After the competition we caught up with her before she continued to the shot put competition and she elaborated on how she felt like this kind of performance had been in her for a while now.
It's impossible to put into perspective what we're witnessing in the girl's throwing events right now. Both of Angie Barker's records were set in 1984 and in the same competitive season we have two throwers break her discus record by almost five feet each, one also breaks the shot put record on a weekly basis, and another shot putter, Louisa Bohner is just 13 inches from the 1984 record as well. This really sets the table for some big drama at the state meet. Mensi will throw on the 25th with a clear target in mind, Grimes will have an opportunity to answer back on the 26th, and we all have the privilege to witness history.