‘It feels so rewarding.’ Another day, another win for Glencoe’s Jayda Lee, this time in the girls shot put

“It just feels like that final ‘what you’ve been working for,’ and you feel so accomplished and like, ‘Hey, I came here and did what I needed to do, and all of that hard work paid off.’”

By Dan Brood | Photo by Taylor Balkom

After she received her championship medal following the shot put event, Jayda Lee had a big smile on her face.

With good reason.

Lee, a Glencoe senior, wrapped up an impressive showing at the Oregon 6A Track and Field Showcase with her title-winning performance in the shot put Saturday at Pioneer Memorial Stadium in Oregon City. On Friday at the meet, Lee triumphed in the discus and took fifth place in the high jump.

“It just feels like that final ‘what you’ve been working for,’ and you feel so accomplished and like, ‘Hey, I came here and did what I needed to do, and all of that hard work paid off,’” Lee said. “It feels so rewarding.”

While Lee entered Friday’s discus event as the favorite, that wasn’t the case in Saturday’s shot put competition. And she didn’t get off to a flying start to the event. In her first four attempts, which included a couple of fouls, Lee had a best throw of 38 feet, 6.5 inches, which put her in fourth place.

But things changed, in a good way, with her fifth attempt. Lee unleashed a throw of 41-2.5, which vaulted her all the way to first place.

“I was actually feeling a little off. I wasn’t hitting as consistently as I usually do. But I just got focused and popped the throw. All it takes is one throw,” said Lee, who will throw for Brigham Young University.

“My coach gave me some tips, I said, ‘OK,’ and I told myself what I wanted to focus on, and as I was going through the throw, I was just super focused, and, when it hit, I just got super-good relief and everything felt like it went really well.”

And Lee was certainly happy about that.

“In the discus, I just need to win,” she said. “But in this one, coming in I was ranked second. I wasn’t like, ‘OK, Jayda, you need to win,’ but it was like, ‘OK, let’s go get a PR (personal record), let’s go chase it, let’s go get first,’ so I didn’t have as much expectation. So, this was a little more surprising than the discus was.”

St. Mary’s Academy junior Jewyl Newton finished second in the shot put with a mark of 41-1. West Salem junior Natalie Cunningham was third with a toss of 39-1.5.

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Earlier:

Meet the state’s best throwers

Meet the state’s best jumpers

Meet the state’s best sprinters and hurdlers

Meet the state’s best distance runners