BOOM! It was a shot heard by many. That was Adelaide Aquilla’s first put of 64-5¼ (19.64).
It was a PR by more than 20 inches, a meet record by over a foot and to top it all off, a Collegiate Record.
With a previous PR of 19.12 (62-8¾), the defending champ bypassed 63-foot territory entirely in reaching the 64-foot realm only touched previously by a collegian with Raven Saunders’ indoor 19.56 (64-2¼) in ’17.
It even had a special taste of revenge for the Ohio State senior. The mark gave her victory over the only collegian she had lost to all year, Jorinde van Klinken of Arizona State. That came at the NCAA Indoor, when Aquilla uncharacteristically was under 18m at 17.95 (58-10¾).
How did the big day happen? Chalk it up to nervousness.
“Before the meet, I normally don’t get nervous,” Aquilla explained. “But I was nervous for no reason. One of my teammates talked me down a little bit. He was like, ‘You got it, use this nervousness,’ and I did just that.”
Aquilla had four marks that would have won, as van Klinken’s best was 18.58 (60-11½) and 3rd went to Nebraska frosh Axelina Johansson at 18.06m (59-3).
Aquilla was pointing toward this rematch with van Klinken.
“We have definitely been thinking about this since Birmingham,” she said in referencing the indoor loss. “We thought about how we did our lifting cycle going into it, and just refined everything and pushed it back 2–3 days, just to make sure we’re really hitting our peak for this moment.”
“To come out with this record and win under my name it’s just a great feeling, but it’s been on the top of my mind since Birmingham.”
Aquilla, who made the Olympic team last year, was also shocked that she’s now in the U.S. all-time Top 10 (=No. 9).
“That’s insane. I didn’t know that — that’s so cool,” she said. “It’s very surreal to process. When I came into this, I was not expecting to do anything near this and to come out — it is just awesome. It just shows all of my hard work pays off and that I can come back from a little disappointment in Birmingham and make it right again.”
WOMEN’S SHOT RESULTS
(June 09)
1. Adelaide Aquilla (OhSt) 64-5¼ (19.64) MR, CR (old CR 64-2¼/19.56i Raven Saunders [Ms] ’17) (=9, x A)
(64-5¼, 61-3½ [x, =9 NCAA], 59-4¾, 58-3¼, 62-6½ [x, 5 NCAA], 61-3) (19.64, 18.68, 18.10, 17.76, 19.06, 18.67);
2. Jorinde van Klinken’ (AzSt-Neth) 60-11½ (18.58) (8, x NCAA)
(60-½, 57-11, 59-5¾, 60-11½, 60-8¾, f) (18.30, 17.65, 18.13, 18.58, 18.51, f);
3. ***Axelina Johansson’ (Nb-Swe) 59-3 (18.06)
(57-6¼, 59-3, 57-7¾, f, 56-10¼, f) (17.53, 18.06, 17.57, f, 17.33, f);
4. ***Maria Deaviz’ (Va-Bra) 58-11½ (17.97) PR
(58-11½, 56-1¼, 58-11¼, f, 57-7¾, 58-9¼) (17.97, 17.10, 17.96, f, 17.57, 17.91);
5. **Jaida Ross (Or) 58-6 (17.83) PR
(55-7¾, 55-10¼, 58-6, 53-4½, 56-7¼, 56-5¼) (16.96, 17.02, 17.83, 16.27, 17.25, 17.20);
6. Divine Oladipo’ (Vand-GB) 58-2½ (17.74)
(58-2½, f, 54-5¼, 54-9¼, 55-5, 53-11¾) (17.74, f, 16.59, 16.69, 16.89, 16.45);
7. A’Veun Moore-Jones (SnIl) 57-10¼ (17.63) PR
(57-2¼, 56-9½, f, f, f, 57-10¼) (17.43, 17.31, f, f, f, 17.63);
8. Annina Brandenburg’ (ACU-Ger) 56-9¼ (17.30) PR
(55-1, 55-3, 56-9¼, 56-5¾, 55-2, f) (16.79, 16.84, 17.30, 17.21, 16.81, f);
9. *Payden Montana (Ok) 56-6¾ (17.24); 10. *Ana Da Silva’ (Ga-Bra) 56-2¾ (17.14); 11. **Marilyn Nwora (Tx) 56-0 (17.07); 12. Latavia Maines (Tn) 55-7¾ (16.96); 13. ***Miné De Klerk’ (Or-SA) 55-4¼ (16.87); 14. *Josie Schaefer (Wi) 55-1½ (16.80); 15. *Erna Gunnarsdottir’ (Rice-Ice) 54-6¾ (16.63); 16. *Madison Pollard (In) 54-6¾ (16.63); 17. ***Jayden Ulrich (In) 54-6½ (16.62); 18. *Zaresha Neal (BG) 54-6 (16.61); 19. **Mallory Kauffman (PennSt) 54-1 (16.48); 20. **Thea Jensen’ (Fl-Den) 53-9¼ (16.39); 21. *Abby Moore (Ok) 53-5¾ (16.30); 22. *Jasmine Mitchell (Ms) 53-3¾ (16.25); 23. Alyssa Wilson (TxSt) 52-9¼ (16.08); 24. Debbie Ajagbe (Mia) 49-6¼ (15.09).
(best-ever mark-for-NCAA-place: 5–10)