CLARION, Pa. (EYT/D9) — To combat her runaway nerves, Brenna Armstrong found a quiet place near the throwing pit at the SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio.
“There was this road behind there and I just did a whole bunch of drills real quick to kind of calm myself down,” said Armstrong, who will be a junior at Clarion Area High School in the fall. “I focused. I put a mindset on that I know what I can do. I just have to go out there and do it.”
(Pictured above, Clarion’s Brenna Armstrong is all smiles after placing second in the discus and third in the shot put at the USATF National Outdoor Championships/submitted photo)
With that big ball of butterflies in her stomach quashed, Armstrong went out and threw 113 feet, 11 inches in the discus in the 15-16 age division to place second at the USATF National Outdoor Championships on June 30.
Throwing for the Swift Arrow Track Club, which is located in Slippery Rock, Armstrong also placed third in the shot put with an effort of 32-1.
“I was very happy,” Armstrong said.
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She had reason to smile.
Armstrong, 16, had a difficult sophomore year.
In September as a member of the Clarion volleyball team, she landed awkwardly on the foot of a teammate and felt the ACL in her right knee pop.
Armstrong immediately knew it was a serious injury and a MRI confirmed it. She had torn her ACL and meniscus and underwent surgery in October.
Her volleyball campaign was done — and her track and field season at North Clarion as part of the co-op was in serious jeopardy.
“I was pretty sad about that, but it definitely made me work harder,” said Armstrong, who tackled her rehab aggressively and with conviction. “It was pretty tough, not just physically, but mentally. I had to keep in the mindset of keep pushing.”
Her goal was to get back for the track and field season. She succeeded — sort of.
Armstrong was cleared in April, but wasn’t permitted to throw the discus. She did throw the shot put and placed second at the District 9 championships at 36 feet — good enough to qualify for the PIAA Track and Field Championships.
In Shippensburg, Armstrong was 16th with a throw of 34-¼.
Her surgeon, though, only gave her the green light to spin in the throwing circle two weeks before the national championships in Ohio.
It was certainly a challenging timetable for Armstrong, who threw the discus from a standing position during her freshman season.
Spinning was still relatively new to her.
That’s what made her performance at SPIRE all the more impressive.
“I definitely think it’s a huge stepping stone for me, especially since I wasn’t able to throw this year and only doing a standing throw my freshman year,” Armstrong said. “I definitely think that I have a lot more distance in me, especially with being able to do drills. I’m just going to drill, drill, drill.”
Armstrong thinks she is just scratching the surface on what she can do.
She’ll have plenty of opportunities to test herself this summer.
Armstrong has already qualified in her age group in the discus for the AAU Track and Field Junior Olympics in Des Moines, Iowa, in early August.
This weekend she will compete again at the USATF Region 2 Championships in Cortland, N.Y., for a chance to qualify for the USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in late July.
Armstrong figures she will have to improve upon her throw of 113-11 in the discus to make it to Oregon.
Challenge accepted.
“I want to hit 120 if it’s even possible,” she said. “I want to be in the 120 to 130 range.”
Armstrong is singularly focused.
She made the difficult decision recently to give up volleyball to focus on her track and field career.
Armstrong is already dedicating most of her free time to throwing.
“My practices are two hours, two times a week and then most of the other days I’m in the gym,” Armstrong said.
“It feels really good,” Armstrong added about her success already this summer. “Track has really fueled me to push myself in rehab. It feels like everything is finally coming together.”
Clarion Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
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