Ryan Crouser closed out his high school track and field career in a blaze of glory on Saturday during the Summer Open at the Concordia Throws Center in Portland, Ore.
Ryan Crouser
Photo courtesy of Lisa Crouser
The 6-foot-7, 240-pounder and recent
Barlow (Gresham, Ore.) graduate set a national record by firing the discus a spectacular 237 feet, 6 inches to erase the 2009 standard of 236-6 by Mason Finley of Buena Vista (Colo.).
He also threw the shot put 73-5 1/4 for what Jack Shepard of Track & Field News calls the best one-day double ever by a prep thrower.
"It was really good for me," Crouser told MaxPreps. "It's been a really rough season. I've had multiple injuries and a lot of times I thought about quitting. I'm really glad that I persevered. I'm about 90 percent well. It's tough to say, but I missed two months of training."
Crouser thought a big throw could be in the offing.
"I threw 227 feet last week and I was feeling good again," he said. "Today there was a positive wind of about five miles per hour and that kind of helped me out. It added a foot or two."
Asked what he might have accomplished without injuries, Crouser replied, "Based on this, I think I could have been in the 250s, but you've got to play your cards."
Crouser said he is finished with high school meets and will report to the University of Texas on August fifth.
FOUR USA STARS WIN GOLDSt. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) rising senior Arman Hall won the gold medal in the 400-meter dash with a personal-record time of 46.01 seconds during the IAAF World Youth Championships in Lille, France.
Rising senior Jennifer Madu of
Plano East (Plano, Texas) captured the 100-meter dash in 11.57 seconds. Myasia Jacobs of Paramus Catholic (Paramus, N.J.) was on her heels in 11.61.
The 400-meter hurdles gold went to rising senior Nnenya Hailey of
Mount Vernon Presbyterian (Atlanta, Ga.) in 57.93 seconds.
Another rising senior, Trinity Wilson of
St. Mary's (Albany, Calif.), earned gold in the 100-meter hurdles with a blistering time of 13.11 seconds.
