Time warp with me back to last Sunday, because I want to give these athletes the recognition before I get to the ludicrisity of today. That’s a new word; you should try it.
Thomas Blaszka keeps his superb season rolling. The day before he extended his nationally ranked school record in the weight throw, but at UNH he heaved the shot 52′-0.50″. That’s. Far. Since shot put goes back beyond the 1981 metric track conversion, we’re talking like 55+ years of Astros shot put history (uh, wow, i didn’t think about that until I typed it). No one has thrown over 50 ft since 1987 (and we had TWO in 1978!). It’s weird to talk about Thomas by talking about Ryan Mihalko, but hold on. Ryan was arguably the best athlete the school has ever seen. Nationally competitive in javelin, massive throws records indoor and out, toss in an 11.3 100m and a 6-2 high jump. And he played football for the NCAA champion Notre Dame team. All of this is to say that in 55+ years, it takes *that guy* to be better in shot than what Thomas accomplished. That is an absurd amount of history that Thomas has surpassed.
Over in the girls high jump, Abby Stienecker has done herself one inch better, pushing her personal best high jump to 5′-3.00″. That breaks her out of two ties: she is now all alone as the No. 3 high jumper in program history and she now holds the junior record all to herself. Keep in mind she is also pushing up the Top 10 lists in both the hurdles and the 300m. Grab your popcorn.
Michael Duarte jumped up into the boys high jump list, moving out of a massive tie to hold sophomore No. 3 to his own at 5′-11″.
Some recognition for Gabby Bedard in the 3000m: although not yet a PR on her commendable career, that 10:40.39 does check in as No. 83 on the US list that day and gets her to No. 3 on the senior list.
