Jun. 1—If Becca Martin has learned anything from track and field’s discus event, it would be the importance of consistency.
Personal records and high finishes have their places, but it’s consistency that can give you a chance to do something special.
“My coach always told me that when you’re consistent, something big is about tohappen,” said Martin, aMadison junior.
That ‘something big’happened at last weekend’s Division I Regional Track and Field Meet at Austintown-Fitch High School.
Amidst the rain, wind,and downright miserabletemperatures which made for what Martin herself called ‘the worst conditions for discus throwing you can imagine,’ she gleaned radiantly.
She placed third on Friday night and punched her ticket for this week’s state track and field meet at Hilliard-Darby High School in Columbus.
After fouling on her firstattempt, Martin, who entered the regional seeded 10th inthe discus, put herself in immediate contention with a throw of 113-06, good for third place in the preliminaries.
She followed that up with a throw of 104-04. From there, she had two tries which fell shy of the century mark. But her final toss was her best yet, traveling 114-00, to lock up her spot for this weekend.
“I’m really excited,” she said. “I didn’t really think I wasgoing to make it, but I beatmy seed by seven places, so I was ecstatic when I found out. My coach kept telling me ‘Anything can happen’ and it did happen.”
The weather conditions were certainly not ideal, but Martin also knew they favored the possibility of that ‘anything’ that her coach talked about.
“I know that I’ve beenworking really hard on being able to perform in bad weather and I knew that some of my competitors would not be able to,” she said. “I thought I could come in and take a spot and I did that.”
Martin became interested in track and field about the time she reached middle school and took an immediate liking to both the shot put and discuss events.
The coronavirus pandemic ripped her sophomore season, but in the absence of being able to compete formally,Martin stayed focused ongetting better.
She’d spend her days in the weight room, getting stronger, and at the track facility, building the type of muscle memory that can only be acquired by doing repetition after repetition of the same thing until there is that consistency.
“I was really sad about it,” Martin said of last year’s season being cancelled. “But, it just made me work a lot harder. I was up at the school for hours every day. I’ve been putting in a lot of work, especially this track season with our new coach and my dad (Mike Martin) helping out. It’s been a lot of work, especially after having the season canceled last year.”
For Emily Daniels,the Blue Streak’sfirst-year girls track and field coach,seeing the effort Martinhas put in makes her accomplishmentextremely gratifying.
“I’m ecstatic for her,” Daniels said. “Becca has been doing this since COVID happened. She never took her days off. She’s been in the gym putting up the weights, she’s been with [volunteer coach Jamie Landis] and her father doing all the technique that she can.
“She’s been putting in the work consistently for over a year now and consistently coming in on the weekends for practice, staying after hours, spending time in the weight room, doing all the things that line up for where she needs to be.”
This weekend will be the second state meet of the year for Martin. She qualified in the shot put during the indoor season.
Her goal for this weekend falls right with what she’s worked on all season — be consistent and have the type of throws that gives ‘anything’ a chance to happen.
“I always lay outwhat I want to achieve before I go down there,” Martin said. “Obviously, I’d like to PR [set a personal record] and with the practices, I’ve had this week, I think that’s going to happen. I feel very confident about that. I’d also like to beat my seed and also try to place. I don’t know if I’m going to, but I’m going to do everything I can to do so.”
Avon senior Molly Radcliffe has the top throw entering state with a 149-05 heave.