Flowers takes first at state

Steven Flowers bested his own shot-put record by nearly two feet to earn the state championship Friday in Cheney, where Raider athletes competed in the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association State Track and Field Tournament at Eastern Washington University.

Flowers put the shot a distance of 51 feet, 8.75 inches Friday. His previous record was 49 feet, 10.5 inches, which he said he had thrown at the beginning of the season.

"It was on Steven's fifth throw that he got his feet underneath, along with a quick delivery, and launched a PR throw," Head Coach Lori Adkins said. "Although leading the competition, this moved him solidly away from the finalists. His sixth and final throw was even greater, sealing the deal."

"I didn't surprise myself at all," Flowers said. "I knew I could do it, and so did my coach. I just couldn't put all of the technique together until then."

It may well have surprised his competition, however. Flowers' best effort earlier in the day had been a 47-9 throw, an inch farther than the toss that earned him second place at the state meet a year ago.

"It's awesome to be able to leave on top," Flowers continued. "Being a state champ is something every athlete wants to do."

Josh Flowers threw the shot a distance of 41 feet, 2.5 inches, enough to place 12th in the event.

"Josh will be back," Adkins said. "He had a monster throw early on in the competition but scratched. We'll get that one in the books next season!"

Steven Flowers also placed 13th in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.75 seconds, and eighth in the discus, throwing it 126 feet, six inches.

"Starting the competition seeded as 13th of 16 athletes, no one had Steven on their radar," Adkins said about Flowers in the discus event. "Then he threw a nice [personal record] on his second toss. This moved him to the finals round, where he held onto eighth place and another trip to the medal stand. It was like a little icing on the cake."

"It is amazing to wrap up your high school career with a PR throw and a state championship on your last put," Adkins said about Flowers.

The 4x100 relay team, which included Flowers, Devon Hobrecht, Traey Clark, and Kyle Edmo, experienced a weird situation at their event in which the backup starter fired his gun, and farther down the track officials interpreted that as a disqualification of LR, and LR's athletes left the track. The race was restarted, but LR's athletes weren't all able to be rounded up in time.