IronWood Throws Classic brings out big talent on ‘field of dreams’
RATHDRUM – Britney Henry’s start as a hammer thrower was as modest as can be, so she appreciated just how grand both the competition and the facilities were at the second IronWood Throws Classic.
“It’s funny – when I first began we had a throwing ring next to a church on the north side,” recalled the Lewis and Clark High School graduate. “I think they had to tear it down for the (North Spokane) freeway. I worked with a coach named Arnie Tyler, and my parents would drive me across the city to throw.”
That was 14 years ago – and no Spokane high school girl has yet thrown beyond her best of 166 feet, 10 inches.
On Saturday, she was nearly 45 feet better – 221-0 – and added to the young legacy at Bart Templeman’s acreage for throwers on the Rathdrum Prairie.
“It really is a field of dreams,” said Henry, herself both a former camper and coach at the IronWood Throws Camp that Templeman began. “What a wonderful thing for our sport.”
There were some wonders Saturday, with high schoolers competing alongside pros in front of an appreciative audience of a couple hundred.
– And not just pros, but Olympians – and gold medalists. Stephanie Brown Trafton, the discus champion eight years ago in Beijing, continued her quest to make her fourth Olympic team with a last-throw blast of 202-5.
– Young lions? What about Pennsylvania prep Jordan Geist, just a junior, pushing his national shot put best to 74-4 1/2? Or Ferris graduate Kirk Unland following up last week’s state title with a 210-7 victory in the high school hammer?
“It was great throwing with all these guys,” Unland said. “It kind of got to me at the beginning. I had to take a deep breath and remember to enjoy it.”
– Upsets? Try Darien Moore, a former NAIA champion at little Concordia of Portland. In a field that included 2012 Olympian Ryan Whiting, 70-footer Jordan Clarke and four other throwers ahead of him on the 2016 U.S. list, Moore got off a personal best of 66-8 1/2 to beat Whiting by a slim centimeter and take the $1,000 first prize.
“I’m very surprised,” said Moore, who lives in Bakersfield but throws under the IronWood club banner with long-distance instruction from camp – and meet – director Jared Rome. “I wanted to PR but no way did I think I was going to beat them.
“The heat is on now with the (Olympic) trials coming up. Everybody’s moving up each week.”
Another thrower shooting for his fourth Olympics, A.G. Kruger, hit a small speed bump on Saturday, coming up two feet short of former NCAA champ Conor McCullough (237-9) in the hammer.
And Mason Finley closed out the day a PR 215-4 victory in the discus over a stacked field that included five of this year’s top eight throwers. He broke the 2014 meet record of 202-7 that belonged to Idaho grad Russ Winger.
But the big moments didn’t always happen in the ring.
Trafton shared some important time with 12-year-old Blayre Jeffs, a budding thrower from Spirit Lake who is already 6 feet tall “and reminds me of me, because I was 6 feet at that age.”
In fact, Jeffs got to try on Trafton’s gold medal, which she’d brought along to show a young nephew who lives in Spokane.
“I’m happy to share it with friends and family – with the world, really,” Trafton said. “Especially out here. We’re lucky to have this great facility and fans who care.”