Reigning World champion Andersen surpasses 2019 facility record achieved by Price with final throw of 258-2 (78.69m); Winkler celebrates engagement with win at 251-8 (76.70m) 

By David Woods for DyeStat

Photo by Ava Kitzi

DES MOINES, Iowa – Fiction must be believable to be published. There are no such limits on non-fiction.

So don’t close the book on Brooke Andersen, whose evolution as a hammer thrower sounds make-believe: soccer player to world champion  . . . in the hammer throw.

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Andersen said she does not reflect on it except for messages popping up on her phone now and then.

 “Remember back on this day, like, college six years ago,” she said. “I feel like it was a long time ago.”

She beat an international field to win the elite invitational hammer Thursday at the 113th Drake Relays. On her final attempt, Andersen threw 258 feet, 2 inches (78.69m), breaking the Drake Stadium record of 256-8 (78.24m) set in 2019 by another world champion, DeAnna Price.

Andersen nearly equaled her world-leading PB of 261-10 (79.80m) from a week ago at Charlottesville, Va. (Price and three-time Olympic champion Anita Wlodarczyk are the only 80-foot throwers of all time.)

An abridged version of Andersen’s story:

The soccer player was persuaded to try discus and shot put at Rancho Buena Vista CA, and was an Avocado West League discus champion. Seriously, the Avocado League. Northern Arizona offered a $1,000 partial scholarship and put Andersen on a weightlifting program. She twice finished second in the NCAA Championships, and kept a post-collegiate career going by working at Chipotle and a GNC nutrition store. She made the world team in 2019 (finishing 20th in Doha), and then all the way to the top of the podium three years later.

Now sponsored by Nike, she has improved 102 feet since picking up a hammer a decade ago.

Supervising Andersen’s ascension has been coach Nathan Ott. He has been at Northern Arizona, Kansas State, Grand Canyon and now Penn State, where Andersen is a volunteer assistant.

“This win validates all the belief and trust in herself as well as in me and the training plan,” Ott said at last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Ore.

Two days after her triumph, Andersen donated her singlet and bib for inclusion in the Museum of World Athletics.

Andersen, 27, said it has been a blessing to have Ott as a coach and to be in the sport this long. Her growing weight-room numbers give her “more horsepower,” she said, as does improving technique.

She felt better than expected in Des Moines, and that contributed to three fouls. Her two other measured throws were 254-5 (77.59m) and 248-3 (75.67m).

“I was getting excited and getting ahead of it, so I kept pulling it,” Andersen said. “So I think in the future, I need to work on when my body feels good, just relax.”

Maggie Ewen finished second with a fifth-round 237-9 (72.47m). Janeah Stewart, sixth through three rounds, climbed to third with a last-round 234-11 (71.60m).

Ewen, 28, who won NCAA titles in shot put, discus and hammer at Arizona State (not all in the same year), last made a World team in the hammer in 2017.

In the shot, she was fourth at Worlds in 2019, first in the Diamond League final in 2021 and fifth at Indoor Worlds in 2022. She was third in the special indoor shot Wednesday at the Drake Relays.

“The more I do, the better off I am,” Ewen said. “I’m a big over-thinker. When I have more things to think about, it’s a good thing. For me, I like to be busy.”

Newly engaged Winkler wins men’s hammer

Rudy Winkler said he is in a better place, and he did not mean first place.

That is where he finished in the men’s invitational hammer, hitting 251-8 (76.70m) on his final attempt.

He and girlfriend Olivia Foster recently became engaged, so it has been a “crazy week and a half,” he acknowledged.

A crazy few years in the hammer, too. He broke Lance Deal’s 25-year-old American record at the Olympic Trials with what became the No. 2 mark in the world for 2021, and was then seventh at Tokyo.  He was sixth at the 2022 Worlds.

“In 2020 and 2021, I had great seasons, and I was just having fun with it,” Winkler said. “And I’m trying to get back to a place where I’m happy throwing for the sake of throwing and not worrying about those far throws. I know if I do that, the far throws will come.

“And I think I’m in that place right now. Last year, if I threw 76 (meters) in a meet, I would have been devastated. This year, this was a lot of fun. I’m really glad I came and threw here.”

Dutch thrower Denzel Comenentia, the 2018 NCAA champion at Georgia, was second at 244-11 (74.67m) and Sean Donnelly third at 244-6 (74.53m).

In fifth was NCAA indoor weight champion Isaiah Rogers of Kennesaw State. He supplied himself an early present – PB of 234-2 (71.39m) – one day before his 25th birthday.

“This was great mental practice for anything,” said Rogers, who is at his third college after TCU and Virginia Tech. “Coming out here, feeling comfortable, feeling confident, knowing that the training is going to work.

“As you keep going through the weeks, technique is going to get better, and you’re going to start dropping bombs, baby. So can’t wait for it.”

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.