Saunders unseats Carter in girls shot put
By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor
Raven Saunders celebrated her new U.S. high school record in the shot put with a well-deserved hot fudge sundae and then said she's ready to get back to work.
The senior from Burke, S.C., smashed Michelle Carter's 2003 shot put record by nearly two feet on Saturday, with 56 feet, 8.25 inches at the Taco Bell Classic in Columbia, S.C.
Michelle Carter. American record holder and Olympic silver medalist.
"It feels really good," Saunders said in a text message to DyeStat. "I think now having both records (indoor and outdoor) that were held by Michelle gives me a better insight into what I have to come if I keep working hard."
Saunders showed what she was capble of last month in New York City when she crushed the indoor record in similar fashion. She launched 56-7.50 at New Balance Nationals Indoor.
A month later, outdoors, Saunders has gone a little bit farther and there are still more than three months until her presumed peak at the World Junior Championships in Eugene, Ore.
"The outdoor record was a lot easier," Saunders said. "I wasn't pressing as hard for it as I was indoors."
Now, it seems as though there is simply no limit to what Saunders can do.
"The way my training is going anything is possible," she said. "But first I want to hit 57 or 58 sometime soon. The future will tell."
Saunders and her newly adopted spin technique are a force to be reckoned with.
And because it's basically the same bit of footwork, Saunders PR'd in the discus on Saturday too, with 159-11.