Marcus High Senior's Progress In The Discus Includes No. 2 All-Time High School Mark (195-10)

By Mary Albl of DyeStat 

Emma Sralla doesn’t take things too seriously. Her personal social media is highlighted with big smiles and thumbs up. 

“I’m universally pretty goofy, a silly person,” she said with a laugh. 

But there are some things she does hold close to her heart – a round metal disc is one of them. 

“The things I do take seriously, it’s kind of life or death with me,” she said. “Things like school and discus training, those areas of my life people have told me I'm really scary and intimidating.”

Sralla, a senior from Marcus High in Flower Mound, Texas, has been a terrorizing force inside the ring as the top prep discus thrower in the country.

She heads into the Texas State Track and Field Championships this Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, with a US#1 throw of 195 feet, 10 inches (59.70m). She’s less than three feet from the national high school record of 198-9 (60.58m) set in 2012 by Olympian Shelbi Vaughan of Mansfield Legacy TX. 

“She knows when to flip the switch, and she takes pride in what she's doing,” Marcus track and field coach Andy Reinberg said. 

At 6 feet 1, Sralla grew up with hoop dreams. 

“I always thought I would be a college basketball player when I was really young,” she said.

Sralla was born into an athletic family. Her mom, Anna, is Swedish and moved to the U.S. to play collegiate golf. Along the way, she met her husband, Scott, in the U.S.

Emma recalls tagging along with her older brother Karl, who threw for the University of North Texas, when he went to train with his coach. She quickly got into the sport of throwing, too. 

“It kind of blossomed into me working harder and building my own throwing career after him,” Sralla said.

Throughout middle school and a part of freshman year, Sralla was pulling double duty logging minutes on the basketball court and participating in track and field – the jumps and throws. It became too much, so Sralla decided to give up basketball to take throwing seriously.  

“It was a really tricky decision to make, but I knew it was the right thing to do. I knew if I wanted to be the best discus thrower I could, I needed to focus on that primarily,” she said. “It was something in the moment. It was really difficult, but after it happened, I knew instantly it was the right decision.”

Since then, Sralla has dedicated her time to becoming the best thrower possible, training with 1996 and 2000 Olympian Adam Setliff in Celina, Texas in addition to the coaching she receives at Marcus High.

As a sophomore, Sralla was third at the Texas 6A state meet (163-10/49.95m). That summer, she qualified for the European U20 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, where she finished 11th. Reinberg saw a big leap in Sralla that junior year, physically and mentally, as she continued to progress technically.

“A lot of it is a persistence thing,” Sralla said of the discus. “You have to be always working on it and you can never perfect it. And to me, that’s something that makes me a little bit annoyed, but it's good for me to always be working on something, always tweaking things.” 

Last year as a junior, the 2022 outdoor season saw Sralla throw a new personal best of 185 feet (56.38m). She won the 6A state discus title with a throw of 174-3 (53.11m) and finished third in the shot put (44-3.50/13.50m). She capped off her junior season in August with a sensational U20 World Championship discus title in Cali, Colombia, with a mark of 184-2 (56.14m), representing Sweden.  

“Growing up, that would always kind of be a little escape for me, every summer we could always go to Sweden, I would see family I hadn't seen in a while,” Sralla said. “I always grew up with Sweden having a really special place in my heart, and obviously as an athlete, I’m really proud of being Swedish, even if I'm only half Swedish. I love to bring honor and I love for people to be proud of me, and bringing medals home not only for me but my whole country.”

Reinberg says Sralla is a goofball but remains humble and shy at the same time. She isn't resting on her accomplishments. With a world title to defend, and a 200-foot throw on the horizon, she remains motivated to continue her progress. 

“She’s become a technician,” Reinberg said. “The number of reps, and she’s logged in so many hours over and over again. Emma is one of the best. She knows how to balance her life, family, stuff, friendships, discus and is so mature. She treats it (throwing) like it's a profession.” 

Sralla, who will attend Stanford this fall, has made the most of her final prep season.

On April 15 at the Oklahoma Throws Series Meet No. 2 in Ramona, Okla., featuring Canadian standout thrower Julia Tunks, who has committed to UCLA, Sralla launched a personal best throw of 195-10, inching closer to the national record. 

“For me, I always feel like I'm competing against myself, but it was definitely a really fun experience and being able to get a PR is really special,” Sralla said. “But every centimeter from now on, people notice it and I’m getting closer to that national record.”

After the state meet this weekend, Sralla said she’ll jump into training for her overseas portion of the season, where she’ll compete in the Stockholm Diamond League meet in early July and potentially compete in the European Athletics U20 Championships in Jerusalem before heading off to Stanford. 

And when it’s all said and done this weekend, national record or not, that’s not the end goal.

“I think it would be really special, but at the end of the day, I have a really long time to throw far,” Sralla said. “I don’t like to set my goals to break records, but it’s definitely nice when it happens.”