Daniel finishes 6th at State

By Zach Ford Special Contributor

Three-sport athlete Courtney Daniel has been an essential part of the track and field team the past two years. On May 12, the sophomore competed at the State Championship in the shot put at the University of Texas-Austin.

She took sixth place after throwing a personal record of 40-7.75.

“I could hear my family cheering and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, how great is this?’” Daniel said. “I went over to coach [Sean] Bright and he had the biggest smile on his face. They announced 40 feet 7 ¾ inch and I was like, ‘I just PR’d at State!’

“Then I got to watch some of the best throwers in the state and I was like, ‘This is so motivating. I am going to be there. I’m going to keep working. I got it and I can do it.’”

During the year, she battled through injuries to become a firsttime state qualifier.

During warm-ups of a soccer game in February, Daniel hyperextended her right elbow of her throwing arm. She was out for the first half of the track season.

“My first meet back, I threw 32 feet,” Daniel said. “I hadn’t thrown 32 feet since seventh grade, so it was kind of troubling to find that all this work I’ve been putting into something and now I have to restart basically – which luckily, I didn’t totally have to, but it was definitely a big stressor.”

This setback didn’t hold her back for long. She came back with intense determination. She threw 37 feet, 7 inches at District and 38 feet, 11 inches at Area, winning first place at both meets.

Following multiple personal records, Daniel’s chance to qualify for State seemed to be just out of her grasp during the Region meet.

“I threw the first day and I got third,” Daniel said. “In order to qualify, you had to be in the top two. So for lack of better words, I was kind of devastated, not in a good mood, and not happy about it. It just felt like all the work you put into it was just kind of stripped away.”

Daniel used this disappointment to fuel her during day two. It ended up coming down to the final throw.

“It’s either now or never,” Daniel said. “I had to get over a 40 foot throw to go [to State]. I just started getting hyped up and threw. My final throw was a PR of 40 feet, six inches.”

She is one of only two sophomores competing at the State meet in the shot put. Daniel said a key component will be making sure she is mentally strong.

“A lot of it just comes down to my mentality and making sure I’m not spreading myself too thin,” said Daniel, who is also a two-year varsity member of the soccer and golf teams. “A lot of times what will happen is I want to do so well, I’ll work and work and work until I have absolutely no energy left. And then I’ll get to the things that I was working for and I have nothing left to give.”

A: “I practice three times a week [with Don Arnold at Arnold’s Aviators.] Most of the time I just go for like two or three hours and work. He’s an amazing coach. I also try to do some abs stuff at home just for work.”

Q: Describe your record-breaking jump?

A: “That meet was absolutely awful at first. (But) my jumps just started getting increasingly better. I cleared 11 feet. And that’s when I was like, ‘OK, I’m still kind of in this’ and that’s when I knew I was top three.

“I took one attempt to 11 feet, 3 inches and I had crazy hip height over it, but I came down on it and I was like ‘OK, this is a possibility.’ I was on a new pole, so I was really scared. But then I went up on my next one and I cleared it 11 feet, 3 inches, so I was super duper happy. Then I was really stressed because everyone was like, ‘Are you gonna break it?’ and I was like ‘I don’t know.’ But then I went into my 11 feet, 6 inch jump even better than my 11-3 jump and it just felt good. It was crazy. In the video you can hear everyone screaming in the background.”