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Sunday, April 29, 2007

State record, maybe national record?

At yesterday's Eastwood Relays in rural Pemberville OH, a new state record was set. It might be a national record, but I don't know if anyone keeps track of these things. I'm having login problems at the T&FN message boards, so I'm having a hard time asking for help.

Around here it's fairly common to do two- or three-athlete team totals in field event competition. Tiny Woodmore High School (enrollment approx. 390) set a new state record in the three-girl discus throw "relay": 408 feet, 8 inches. This is a huge improvement and significant on a national level.

How did this tiny school do it? Well, their best thrower is Emily Pendleton. As a 17-year-old, she was last year's USA Junior champion and beat a significant number of college freshmen to do it. She even has a profile at the IAAF website. Her sister Erin was fourth at the Ohio Division III championships last year. Their father coaches the throwers at Woodmore, and even poured his own concrete circle in their backyard.

If anyone can confirm or deny the existence of national records in team field even competition, please let us know.

1 comment:

Dave Cox said...

If this indeed is confirmed to be a national record, it is even more amazing, considering two incidents that followed right on the heels of Emily's throw of 174'11".

The meet director was nowhere to be found and the discus event was halted for upwards of 20 to 25 minutes. When he finally reached the throwing ring and confirmed the throw to be legal, the very next person to throw was her sister Erin.

Since the event was stopped for so long, they gave the throwers another warm-up session of some practice throws. Erin was first to go in this re-start of the event.

On her first throw, she goes PR with a throw that flew over 153'. The day was looking HUGE any way you measure it.

The final thrower to represent Woodmore fed off the wave of excitement (I don't know her name) and she releases a throw of over 100--shattering her PR and the national record...only to walk forward out of the ring (caught up in the emotion) for a "foul".

Her next couple throws were a weak effort of barely 60-65 feet, as she was choking.

On her last throw, she achieves a distance of over 80', for the combined 3 person relay record. Had she not stepped out of the front of the ring to admire her first throw, this record would be 20 feet further.