Cherokee's Joey Bond won a gold and a silver in his statemeet debut.
The sophomore busted his PR by about four feet as he outlasted a “serious competition” for the top three spots in the 1A boys shot put.
Three different athletes led the competition at one point during the six attempts.
Bond started his day off with one of five PRs during the competition. His previous best was 46-1.
Bond took the early lead, but Water Valley's Davis took the lead with a 48-11 1/2.
Then Raygon Briseno from Throckmorton threw 49-3 1/2 to take over first.
On his fifth throw, Bond launched the shot 50-1 3/4 and that ended up winning as Davis did not have a last-throw answer like in the discus. Briseno was second while Davis was third.
Bond said the outcome was out of his hands.
“I couldn’t have done that by my power,” Bond said. “The last time I practiced the glide was like three weeks ago. I was working spins all last year, and it just wasn’t working out. By the power of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I’m here today.”
Bond said he didn’t expect anything more of his first state meet than to just perform well.
“I wasn’t going to let anyone get into my head and that competition pushed me and I thank them for it. I am beyond happy. I knew I could medal in the discus, but I didn’t think I could in the shot because there was some serious competition out there.”