While there might not be much
track going on in New York State, there is plenty of history to pore
through. In our time off, we are looking to revisit all of the State
Records for the Outdoor Season. Who these athletes were, where their
marks came from, and where are they now. We're
releasing "Snapshots Of A State Record," where you can learn what it
takes, to put your mark on history. Tune in!
We are now looking at the records in a few events that are not at the outdoor States meet but definitely need to be highlighted. We look here at a record from back in 2013. Enjoy!
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Rudy Winkler of Averill Park was getting set to head off for his freshman year at Cornell University in July of 2013 when he decided to make a stop off at a low-key meet (meaning that its results never got posted for MileSplit or were added to Rudy's MS profile) called the West Point Army Strong Hammer Meet. To that point Winkler had collected three straight indoor Nationals titles in the weight throw, and the previous month had added a second NBON hammer throw title to the one had won in 2011 and the USATF Juniors title in 2012. Winkler finished 2nd at States in the discus in his sophomore year, but
he had put aside both the discus and shot put starting in 2012. The two things he lacked were the national and NY state records in the HT, though he had approached them in June with a 254-9.75 toss at the Chicagoland invite and then a 251-7.75 throw at NBON. Everything came together for him at the West Point HT meet as he was able to let fly with a toss of 260-5 on July 2, 2013 to break the national mark of 260-0 set in 2008 by Conor McCullough of Chaminade Prep CA. Before entering Cornell, Winkler would travel to the IAAF World Youth Games in Donetsk, Ukraine to throw with the best young guys in the world. While at Cornell, he won the HT at the US Olympic Trials in 2016, and he and McCullough represented the US at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Before Winkler's throw at the West Point meet, the state record was held by Walter Henning of St. Anthony's. At his school's host invitational on May 6, 2007, Henning not only set the state and national mark of 255-11 in the hammer throw but also set the still-existing state record in the shot put. Note that at West Point Winkler also set kind of an unofficial national record for the international level junior hammer of 249-0 to surpass McCullough by one inch. The junior hammer weighs 6.0 kg. while the standard hammer for high school weighs 5.5kg. The hammer for open events such as the Olympics weighs 7.26 kg.
Rudy Winkler interview from 2013 NBON three weeks before national and state record.