We are now into the the Snapshots for some outdoor events that are not part of state championship but are ones we definitely want to highlight. We look here at a record from way back in 2017. Enjoy!
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So your favorite T&F event is a spin-and-toss hammer throw activity that your state still hasn't added to its outdoor championship, and your senior season is winding down on your chances to bust a certain 200-foot barrier that you have your eye on. What do you do? For Shenendehowa's Jillian Shippee, the answer was an unusual one: instead of going to NY States, go to the New England Championship in Providence RI on June 7, 2017, where they do actually have the HT added on. Shippee already owned the NY state record of 196-2 from a throw at the NY Relays at Icahn Stadium in April. She was the reigning New Balance Outdoor Nationals champ in the HT, and had swept the States shot put and weight throw titles indoors. But being so close to the 200' mark was tantalizing, so she passed on the outdoor States meet and headed to NEC for another shot at a big toss even though as a guest she was ineligible to win the title. On a cold wet day, Shippee let loose with a throw of 201-4 that shattered her own record by more than five feet and was US #5 all-time. A week later she was off to NBON in Greensboro NC to defend her HT title with a 192-10 mark that was more than 11 feet further than her best 2016 mark there. Shippee could almost have stayed down there since she became a University of North Carolina Tarheel and in 2019 won the ACC outdoor title with a throw of 224-3.
Shippee broke her own HT record with the 201-4 throw, but her earlier big one at the NY Relays snapped the previous record of 192-8 by Lancaster's Melissa Kurzdorfer at the Hartford Public meet on May 8th, 2010. On that same day, Kurzdorfer also set the state record in the shot put that would be broken by Alexis Daniels in 2016.
Jill Shippee interview after NBNO championship in 2016
