Haleigh Sudbeck stepped into the ring with the right mindset and became the Washington state high school hammer champion.
“It would be awesome to win, but I truly don’t need to win,” she told herself before capturing the title. “I just love throwing. It’s something you have to put your whole heart and soul into.”
The 17-year-old from Camas beat 18 other competitors with a toss of 154 feet, 7 inches May 31, at Central Valley High School, in Spokane. Sudbeck said she trained hard all season for the state meet. There was nothing more to think about other than letting that hammer fly.
“By that point in a meet, it’s more muscle memory,” she said. “You don’t want anything to mess you up in your mind.”
Sudbeck had a breakthrough performance when she tossed the hammer 155-9 to win a meet in Centralia May 3. By the next weekend, she was throwing it 150 feet consistently.