That last pitch, that last throw, that last sprint. It’s what all high school athletes look forward to with a mix of hope and dread. But one thing they all want to do is go out with a bang.
Fredericktown’s Ella Bouton did just that.
The Freddie shot put star made the most of her final high school throw – grabbing gold at the Div. IV State Track Championships on June 5 at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
“(It doesn’t feel) real, but it’s pretty good,” Bouton said. “I hit 46 on my last throw. My steps were hitting pretty good, but it usually doesn’t happen that way. I was kind of like, ‘I’ve got nothing else. This is my last throw of high school.’ So, I was like ‘Go for it.’ It just happened to go far enough."
Bouton’s throw of 46-foot was good enough to win the state title by almost three feet and also broke the school record. With the win, she became the second Fredericktown female athlete to win state in the shot put (Julie Algire, 1995).
This was Bouton’s fourth trip to the state championships in the shot put. She placed 12th as a freshman, second as a sophomore and then dropped to sixth as a junior.
“Last year I got sixth. It was kind of a letdown for me, so this year I really wanted to get back up there and hopefully win,” Bouton said.
She got off to a good enough start that her second throw would have won the title. She tossed the pill 42-10.75, 44-3.25 and 43-8.5 in prelims, setting up the title shot. Her final throw made her undeniably the winner, beating runner-up Payton Boyer of Patrick Henry by nearly three feet (43-2).
The FHS graduate and soon to be Michigan State Spartan also took home some hardware in the discus, finishing fifth in the state with a heave of 135-6.
“I threw 135, which is what I typically throw, so it wasn’t a terrible day for me. But I haven’t been throwing great for practice,” Bouton said. “I would have liked to finish higher, but we all kind of finished between 130 and 140 and the winner threw 144 so I wasn’t too far off. I wish I would have done a little bit better, but I can’t go back and change it.”
Bouton was just one of six individuals to grab a spot on the podium at state. Mount Vernon’s Lucy Rush was also a two-time placer, finishing second in the 3,200-meter run and fifth in the 1,600; Fredericktown’s Jenny Alexander was third in the pole vault; Brookelynn Carter of Danville was third in the shot put; Kelsey Hackman of Danville was fourth in the long jump; Mount Vernon’s Khloe Bradley was sixth in the shot put; and East Knox’s Isabelle Bostic was eighth in the 400.
There were also two relay teams – both from East Knox – that finished fourth in the state. The 4x200 team of Ava Faucett, Ellie Clark, Macie Fawcett and Bostic was fourth while the 4x400 team of Faucett, Cloe Tucker, Fawcett and Bostic also placed fourth.
Bostic set a school record in the 400, placing eighth with a time of 58.44. She was also part of those two relay teams that finished fourth, with the 4x200 team also setting a school record in 1:44.11. The 4x400 team finished in 4:00.53 to place fourth.
Rush, a senior at Mount Vernon, broke two school records in making it to the podium twice in Div. II. She ran a 10:37.40 in the 3,200 to finish as runner up and then broke her own school record in the 1,600 with a time of 4:56.53 and finished fifth.
Hackman, a junior at Danville, finished fourth in the long jump in Div. V with a leap of 17-5.25.
“It feels really good (finishing fourth),” Hackman said. “In the beginning, I was really hoping to get to finals and see how it went from there. But I ended up jumping good in the first flight, so that was definitely exciting. I was hoping to do better in the finals, but it is what it is. It got really hot.”
Hackman hit 17-1.75 in her second jump, then nailed the 17-5.25 leap in her final attempt of prelims that put her in a great position to make the podium. She couldn’t quite reach her career best jump (17-8), but it was still good enough to finish fourth in the state.
“I haven’t been in the 17s in a while so I was glad to be back in it at states,” Hackman said.
Hackman had qualified for state in four events, finishing 10th in the 300 hurdles (47.80), 13th in the 100 (12.84) and had a false start in the 100 hurdles.
“I don’t feel like I did as good as I could have, with the false start in the 100 hurdles,” Hackman said. “I was OK with the 100 meter dash because that’s the second fastest time I’ve ran. The 300 hurdles I definitely could have done better. But, it is what it is at that point.
“I’m really excited for that (next year). I want to come back and do even better than I did this week.”
Her Danville teammate, Brookelynn Carter, finished third in the shot put with a school record throw of 41-3.25. She also hit that on her final throw of her sophomore year.
Carter was also a two-event state qualifier, finishing 11th in the discus with a throw of 113-10.
Fredericktown’s Jenny Alexander placed third in the Div. IV pole vault, clearing 12-foot. Mount Vernon’s Khloe Bradley, another sophomore, placed sixth in the Div. II shot put with a throw of 39-4.
There were several other Knox County athletes who participated in the state championships.
Mount Vernon freshman Calvin Heithaus placed ninth in Div. II in the 1,600 run in 4:20.12, while teammate Jamison Oakes was 15th in the 400 (50.13). The girls 4x400 relay team of Juliet Boyd, Savannah Rose, Nadia Nougi and Kinsley Firebaugh placed 16th in a time of 4:14.82, and Kennedy Howard was unable to clear her opening height in the pole vault.
Fredericktown’s Cooper Rine placed 12th in the 110 hurdles in Div. IV with a time of 15.64, and the Freddie 4x200 relay team of Rine, Tanner Estep, Staut Marilo and Blake Sipes finished 15th in 1:32.40.
East Knox’s Weston Bostic finished 11th in the pole vault with a leap of 13-foot. He made it over on his first attempt a 13-0, but failed in three tries at 13-6.
“I was kind of focused on the pressure of being at Jesse Owens and just not really locking in on what I needed to get over the bar,” Bostic said. “This year has been a little rough. Different poles from indoor season to outdoor season really kind of took me a while to get through that. It kind of set me apart and had to refocus on that. Setting the school record at districts (14-0) felt pretty good.”
Also in Div. IV, East Knox’s Cason Faucett just missed qualifying for finals, placing 10th in the 400 at 50.28.
In Div. V, Owen Gronberg of Danville placed 15th in the shot put with a heave of 46-8.5.
