West Linn junior Hayden Williams-Downing entered the 2024 OSAA Track and Field State Championships with a personal best mark of 165 feet, 7 inches in the javelin throw on Friday, May 17, nearly 18 feet farther than the state’s second-best mark.
So when she brought home the 6A title at Hayward Field on Friday with a throw of 141 feet, 7 inches, Williams-Downing was naturally a bit disappointed, but still proud of her championship-level progress.
“Obviously I really wanted to throw farther than that,” Williams-Downing said. “I think I can hit 170, and that’s a goal I have. I really want to hit that, so throwing more than 20 feet below my PR was a little bit hard, but I did win, so I’m trying to stay happy about it.”
Williams-Downing squeezed past Roosevelt’s Havana Alonso for the title, hoisting her 141-foot throw on her third attempt to best Alonso’s mark of 139-01.
But in the heat of the moment, the West Linn junior said she was only worried about herself.
“I wasn’t trying to think about it too much because anyone could come out and thrown a big one and beat me,” Williams-Downing said. “I wasn’t trying to think too hard about that.”
Perhaps, in part, because she hasn’t needed to “think too hard” about her competition much this season. Williams-Downing recorded a personal best throw of 162-9 in the first high school meet of the year back on March 13 and hasn’t faced much of a challenge since. Until Friday, that is.
The junior was genuinely threatened by Alonso, who also recorded her best throw of the day on her third attempt, but Williams-Downing proved too dominant. Her third-worst mark of the season was still good for the 6A title.
“I think I knew I was gonna win. I was feeling confident today,” Williams-Downing said. “I believed that I could PR today and throw far, but that just didn’t really happen.”
In terms of “throwing far,” Williams-Downing, while disappointed, was still crowned the state’s best on Friday,
In other words, being the state’s best isn’t necessarily good enough for the Lions’ stud thrower. She would rather simply be her best.
In terms of what has unlocked these lofty expectations, Williams-Downing credits a long history in the javelin alongside her countless hours spent training with the Super Throwers Track Club, which she joined as a freshman at West Linn.
“They have some really good coaches: Scott Skipper and Mike Hieb, the Wilsonville coach,” Williams-Downing said of her club. “Those are the two guys I mainly work with, and they both threw when they were younger so they have a lot of knowledge and you can tell they really care about their athletes. It’s just a really good program.”
Despite her specialized program, Williams-Downing is such an outstanding athlete that she usually can’t solely focus on the javelin.
She also qualified for the state meet in the 400 meters, but refrained from competing due to the race taking place prior to the javelin on Friday. Still, the junior will run a leg for the Lions’ 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams on Saturday.
During the high school season, Williams-Downing says she can only afford to spend one or two days per week working on her throws due to her responsibilities elsewhere on the track.
As a result, the Lion is excited to hone in and focus on her specialty this offseason.
“High school track season is over after this, so I can stop really focusing on running,” Williams-Downing said. “I obviously still want to be quick, so I’ll work on it a little bit, but I can really focus on throwing, because right now I’m only throwing once or twice a week. Now I can really start focusing on that and try to get some more lifting in.”
With a state title already under her belt, Williams-Downing is still thinking about how she can continue to ascend.
In other words, the 170-foot threshold is in grave danger.
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