By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
AMITY, Ore.– Amity’s Jaxon Howard’s first hammer throw of the day was a dominant one. Not just he PR’d, he cleared the furthest point of the Hammer Throw area by roughly three feet on Thursday afternoon. A PR Throw of 188-feet-7-inches.
“It was a pretty good throw. Usually, i find out I throw a lot of my best throws towards the start of the competition,” said Howard.
Howard has been addressing that strong start, tailing off towards the back-end of his series of throws by increasing his workload and throwing more to work on that endurance to keep that consistency with his throws. Working on a 12-pound Hammer, the high school weight, while college is 16 pounds, Howard has been working on his consistency with his throws to start strong and finish strong.
“We’ve been working on 20 throws with the 12-pound, I’m trying to keep that same consistency throughout them during the workout to be more consistent during competition,” described Howard on his throws. “Keeping consistent during competition is something I’ve been working on.”
The Hammer Throw has been Howard’s go-to event. But in Oregon, it’s not a High School event, so the reps that Howard gets in it is during the Summer Club season. He’s been dominant in the event over the summer,winning the Amity Throws event on June 14 and the USATF Oregon Association Junior Olympic Championships on June 26 in Eugene. Both throws were over 170 feet, respectively.
And though the Hammer is his best event, he’s using the success there towards other throwing events like Discus and Shot Put. This past year, he finished 13th in the 3A State Meet in the Discus, as he hopes to become more of a well-rounded athlete going into his senior season this next Spring.
“Hammer isn’t a High School event, so that was my first time going to Hayward for State. It was a pretty hard fight in Discus. My Hammer is my best event, but I do work pretty hard in getting that Discus, and that Shot up there,” Howard. “I like to use it as motivation, like if I can do that in Hammer, then I can do better in the Discus. I just got to use it for motivation.”
Howard was one of roughly a dozen athletes competing at the Amity Throws Meet #1 on Thursday at Amity High School. Central’s Anna Cole was one of two or three female athletes competing at the Hammer throw on this day.
Coming from a strong Track and Field family, with older brother Samuel and sister Sara both competing for the Panthers. Both went on to compete collegiately, Samuel at Western Oregon University, while Sara went to Oregon, both left a lasting impression on the incoming Central junior going into this next school year.
“I’ve learned a lot from them, like how to compete. They’re really supportive, Samuel is my coach, along with my dad (James Cole). They’ve helped me a lot,” starts Cole.
“I’m trying to break Sara’s records that she has at the school. Discus, I’m really close to that one. I think three feet away from that record? And then Hammer. She has the javelin record. She has them all,” Cole laughs.
As a sophomore, Cole finished fourth in the Discus with a throw of 116-feet-5-inches before hopping into the Summer Work like on Thursday. These extra reps are giving the Panther thrower confidence that some big throws are coming her way soon.
(This Summer) has been pretty big, I’ve seen a lot of improvement, and I’m still waiting for it. I’m really close to getting some really big throws,” said Cole. “It’s very technical, but it’s very mental. Mental toughness. Competitions and pressure all that.just learn how to handle that better.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
