Ewen Goes Out in Style With Near National Record Shot Put

Maggie Ewen posed by the electronic scoreboard that flashes
the distance of each throw.  Inexplicably when this shot
was taken with an iPad Ewen's winning throw
distance was displayed on the screen, but not
here in the finished photo. The wonders of
modern technology.

Maggie Ewen's start to her last Minnesota State High School League Championship was almost comical, while her finish had the crowd around the shot put ring clapping and cheering her on as she once again rewrote the record book for girls throwing in Minnesota.  She had hoped to break both her State discus and shot put meet records, but she fell short in the discus.

Her first throw in that event wobbled like a wounded duck and crashed to the turf well short of what she intended.  "I've been practicing snapping my wrist in the shot," she said.  "And I snapped my wrist on the first throw(like I was throwing the shot)."  Snapping the wrist sent the disc down, not up and out as intended.  Ewen just shook it off and launched her next throw 167' 1" to seal her fourth straight discus title, but fell short of breaking her own State Meet record of 171'9". Maggie is more likely to laugh off or forget a bad throw rather than let it bother her, she says, as "it's in the past."  Ewen just identifies what went wrong and tries not to repeat that mistake.

She made no such mistake in the shot the next day, as again on her second throw she popped a winner that fell to earth after flying 54'8.5," breaking former Lakeville and Gopher standout Liz Podominick's Minnesota all-time recordin the shot by over three feet and narrowly missing the US record currently held by Olympian Michelle Carter.  (Coincidentally Podominick was not to far away as her record was being broken.  She was in Illinois for the ChicagoLand Throwers Challenge, an event that brings in many of the top younger throwers as well as US Olympians for a unique weekend of competition and clinics.)  

When asked what was different between the two days, Ewen said that she had no idea.  Some days everything clicks, on others it doesn't, she added. Ewen's relaxed, take-it-as-it-comes attitude keeps everything at an even keel.  She is the opposite of the narrowly focused competitors who block out everything around them during competition.  For example, on her last throw in the discus, she heard the PA announcer at the track read off the name of the contestants in the boys 300 hurdles, which included St. Francis teammate Jonathan Santiago.  She strolled into the ring and launched another 160 foot throw, then headed directly over to the outer fence of the discus throwing area to watch the 300 hurdles finish.

"I like to know what's going on around me," said Ewen.  She can often be seen laughing and conversing with the other throwers in the on-deck area as the competition is in progress.  While family and friends could be heard urging her on from outside the fence during the discus, they were gathered by the fence nearly as far away from the throwing circle as where her winning throw landed.  

The shot put area at Hamline's Klas Field offers a more intimate setting.  The spectators are relatively close to the athletes and on Saturday they were into what they were watching, especially after Ewen's record-setting second throw.  In the audience was Maggie's best friend, parents, grandparents(who came up from their home in Southern Illinois as they do as often as they can to watch her compete) and a crowd that was into the event.

Ewen didn't disappoint them.