Forney Area Throws Club

BLT had a great showing up in Oklahoma today. Brooke double PR’d with 154’10” in hammer and 157’10” in discus. Lily PR’d in discus with her 134’6” and Thaddeus also PR’d in discus with his 163’11”.

The best way to deal with a disappointing early end to your track season is to own it, dismiss it, and get right back to work. Brooke has been steady working on her hammer skills and today had three throws 17 ft further than her previous PR. This was only her second time competing in this new event and she was able to do it in front of her two new college coaches and the three future teammates. Despite being super nervous and fouling her warm ups, plus a pair of deep throws to start the comp, she settled down and established a new baseline going forward.

FAT Club caught a local summer meet today and Lily improved her personal best out to 130’6”. Thaddeus had a solid showing with his second best throw this season going 156’6”, 46 days after his last track meet. I found the picture from this meet last year, and it looks like Thaddeus has grown a fair amount!

Congratulations Brooklyn for earning AOTY!

Brooke and Lily competed under FAT Club association today, catching a local “summer meet” as they stay on the grind for a few more weeks post high school season. Brooke started things off with a 143’ toss in her division (second best throw of 141’9” uploaded from prelims), followed by Lily and her 117’10” effort.

Lily competed down in Waco today in the 6A Region Meet. Only the top 2 move on to State and two of the top girls weren’t in action. It was really interesting to see who would step up. Lily had done well this week in the weight room and throws practices and we were all really anxious to see if she’d finish her season on a high note. Warms ups looked great, especially when she went deep on a 138’ throw. Getting that in the competition would prove to be a little more difficult. She still did get a little PR when she tossed the discus 129’10”. Brooke was one of the top girls not competing due to her being sick the previous meet, but it didn’t stop her from being a great teammate/sister and showing immense support for Lily by being her go to on this trip. The school was so kind to have Brooke be Lily’s hotel companion for the two nights they spent away leading up to this competition.

Bittersweet doesn’t cover the range of emotions from today. Lily battled in unfavorable wind conditions and came out on top with a discus throw of 121’1” to win by 7’! Brooklyn, who has been sick in bed for 4+ days, tried her damndest to get a legal throw in the top 4 range to move on to the Region meet. She saved what little energy she had by not doing any general or throw specific warm ups. After seeing that her half throws wouldn’t be enough, she tried full throws. She even sent a couple of them deep, but just right of the sector line. When it was all said and done, her best mark was short of the minimum, and her varsity track season came to an abrupt end. There were plenty of athletes and parents and coaches that got teary eyed for Brooke today, but no one more than her biggest fan and sister Lily.

Brooklyn snagged the top discus mark today to become four time District champion. She also bettered the field in shot put for her first ever District championship win in that event, having been passed on the second to last throw last year. She will sit out the Area meet in order to prioritize discus, which allows Lily to move on in shot as her best mark was tied for 4th, and she moved down to 5th based on second best efforts. Similarly, Lily tied for the second best discus throw today, but tie breaker rules moved her down to third in final standings.

Texas Relays

Sometimes all it takes is one throw, and sometimes all you get is one throw. Brooke was in serious jeopardy of not making finals after her first two throws took poor flight. But with her improved mental resilience this season, she stayed in it and did enough to move into 5th place and get three more throws when she tossed the discus out to 140’9”. The last three rounds saw some movement amongst the top three, but Brooke’s attempts were for naught as she finished no better than that third round, finals clinching throw. Her spirits are still up as she has had great practices as of late, and knows it’s only a matter of time.

Today’s Metro Meet of Champions was the final MS meet of the season. From the 18 teams participating, the top 8 athletes from each event got in. Last year Thaddeus won by 5”. Today it was 12’. He warmed up really well, but looked sloppy during his first three throws. The 4th and final throw didn’t look tons better, but it took him from around 4th place to the clear winner.

He’s going to keep up the throws practices in order to catch some summer meets and end the MS experience at the IMG/Under Armour Nationals meet in Florida.