Ashley Kenney’s breaking records

Ashley Kenney is a quiet, unassuming high school junior who smiles easily and listens intently.

But when she steps into the ring to throw the shot put or discus for the West Valley Eagles track team, she explodes. Well, actually, it’s the shot and discus that explode off Kenney’s hand. The thrower stays cool, calm and collected throughout the throw.

“I tried getting angry and making myself mad before I throw and that just doesn’t work for me,” Kenney said. “It works much better for me to be calm and think about what I’m going to do. I’ll pray and then go throw. I just try to center myself and then compete.”

And compete Kenney does.

The junior already owns the West Valley record in the discus, breaking Shannon Groh’s mark with a throw of 144-feet, 6 inches, breaking her own personal best mark by a full 10 feet.

“As soon as she did that, she called Shannon to talk to her,” girls track coach Rick Kuhl said. “Shannon had been working with her last year and they got to know each other pretty well.”

Kenney’s mark in the discus is the second-best thus far this season in the state. Only Elisa Bryant of Class 4A Inglemoor, has thrown farther (150-3). Her nearest Class 2A competition trails by almost a full 10 feet. Sehome’s Brittany Todhunter has thrown 134-8, Washington’s Vanessa Garris 134-4 and Pullman’s Anna Albrecht 133-3.

“I think Ashley has another big jump (in distance) in her,” said Howard Dolphin, West Valley’s state Hall of Fame throwing coach. “In the discus, especially, you will see throwers make huge gains like that, and I think she could easily reach 150 before it’s all over this season and probably throw in the 160s as a senior.”

At Monday’s workout Kenney was regularly launching 140-foot throws under Dolphin’s watchful eye – distances that are surprising coming from someone with such a relaxed, easy throwing motion.

Kenney’s footwork is like a dancer’s across the throwing ring, her body in perfect position for launch.

“She does everything right and she works so very hard to get better,” Dolphin said.

Kenney is not an imposing physical specimen, but that’s not necessary for throwing the discus, Dolphin said.

“You don’t have to be huge and strong to throw the discus well,” he said. “She has good, quick feet and great arm extension.

“But the most important thing about Ashley is that she listens. When you tell her something, she does it. I have throwers that I’ve been talking to for three years who still can’t do what you tell them to do in order to improve.”

Kenney has spent countless hours working on the minutia of her event.

“I put in a lot of work getting my grip just right so that the discus would fly properly,” she said. “Last year it wobbled on me. This year I wanted to make sure I got the most out of every throw. I still have to work on that regularly to make sure I’m doing it properly.”

Kenney threw a personal best of 117 feet as a sophomore and started her junior season by bettering that mark by more than six feet in her first meet. Since then she has broken her personal record four times in the discus and twice more in the shot put.

“I love track and I worked on it over the winter,” Kenney said. “I did a lot of shadow work, where you throw without the discus. I would do that about 10 times every day, just to keep my form.”

Kenney’s shot put mark, 38-4, is among the state’s top 10, however Class 2A is the most competitive in the state. Four throwers have better marks. Pullman’s Anna Albrecht’s owns the state-best mark at 42-9½.

In addition to doubling in the shot and discus, Kenney also threw the javelin in dual meets for the Eagles.

“I don’t throw the javelin all that well,” she said. “But we needed someone to do it in dual meets to get all the points we can. I don’t know that I scored a single point for us in the event, but I tried.”

“That tells you the kind of kid she is,” long-time coach Jim McLachlan said. “She’s a great kid and totally unselfish. We asked her to help out the team and she was right there.”

Kenney goes head-to-head with Albrecht at this week’s Great Northern League track meet at Eastern Washington University, leading up to next week’s State Class 2A championship meet at Mount Tahoma High School.