Brookfield High School senior Ryan Tetrick is shown with his parents, Patti and David, after he has signed his letter of intent to pursue track and field events at Youngstown State University. Ryan hold the school’s records in throwing events.
When Ryan Tetrick was a sophomore, he threw a shot put 37 feet. When track coach Adam Hughes told him the school record was 47 feet, “I was like, ‘Oh, I can get that. It’s just 10 feet,’” Ryan said.
While Ryan did eventually top the school record – and his own school record several times – he stressed that it was not as easy as he thought it would be.
“Very far from easy,” Ryan said. “Lot of hours in the weight room and in the ring.”
Ryan also owns the school record in the discus throw, and in an indoor throwing exercise called the hammer throw or weight throw.
The better you get at each event, the more technique becomes more important than strength, Ryan said.
“It takes a lot of time,” he said. “It takes a lot of hours every day to repeat and repeat and repeat.”
In high school, a shot put weighs 12 pounds. If you tried to throw it like a baseball, “You’d break your arm,” he said. That’s why the thrower starts by setting the ball on his neck.
In the same vein, you can’t throw the discus, which weighs 1.6 kilograms (3½ pounds), like a Frisbee.
So, he lifts weights and practices his throws five or six days a week.
Ryan’s shot put record is 57 feet, topping Dave Guerino’s previous mark of 47 feet set in 2002. His discus record is 152 feet 1 inch, which broke Tim Wikoff’s record of 132 feet 8 inches set in 1995.
Hughes is particularly impressed with the shot put distance.
“I don’t know how anyone’s gonna break that record,” Hughes said at the May 23 high school sports banquet.
Ryan’s best indoor weight throw distance is 60 feet 11½ inches. As with the shot put, the weight in high school weighs 12 pounds.
Ryan, who trains with coach Logan Culp at Mathews and trainer Stephen Lyons from Springfield, said he has set goals of 60 feet in the shot put and 50 meters (164 feet) in the discus. He said he thrives on competition.
“When someone else PRs, you’ll get the urge to PR,” he said of setting a personal record. “If there’s a meet with low competition, it’s not the same. It’s more of a practice.”
At the time of this writing, Ryan was still competing at the high school level in the shot put, with the goal of being a state champion. He had qualified for the state track meet, set for June 2 and 3 in Columbus, by finishing third at the regional meet May 26 at Norwayne High School.
The new graduate has signed a letter of intent to throw shot put and weight at Youngstown State University, while majoring in exercise science. The weights in each event will jump to 16 pounds, something Ryan said he is not concerned with.
Ryan encouraged younger classmates to throw, and takes at least some credit for the fact that there are a number of throwers at the school, “probably the most throwers we’ve ever had,” he said.
“I think I changed a lot of culture for the field part of track,” said Ryan, who considers himself a mentor to the younger throwers.
“I joke with Hughes, ‘Where’s my money at?’ I’m like a coach for these guys. I don’t mind doing it. It was fun.”
An all-around athlete, Ryan played football throughout high school, ran the 200- and 400-meter relays and long-jumped as a freshman and sophomore, and played basketball and baseball when he was younger.
Ryan also is a member of National Honor Society and said it hasn’t been hard to keep up his studies while he trains for athletics.
“Just put in a little bit of effort, you’ll be alright,” he said.
