‘All that mattered was that last throw.’ PSU football commit Spencer Elliott of Summit leaves Hayward Field a champion

“I knew it was the last time I was ever going to be throwing a shot put, the last time stepping out on this field. … It was go time.”

By René Ferrán 

EUGENE — Spencer Elliott almost spat out the words as he described the first five rounds of Friday’s Class 5A boys shot put competition. 

“I mean, my first five should not have even been a question of like, ‘Is it a good throw or a bad throw?’” he said. “It was not a good day for me by any means.” 

The Summit senior and future Portland State defensive lineman had one final throw to salvage an event in which he had thrown six feet farther than anyone else in the field this season.

As he walked into the ring, “I knew it was the last time I was ever going to be throwing a shot put, the last time stepping out on this field, ever stepping into a ring,” he recalled. 

“It was go time.” 

It was, he acknowledged, “not even my best throw by any technical means,” but with an explosion of sound and fury, he put the shot 52 feet, 9¼ inches — a personal best by two inches and good enough to make him an OSAA state champion at Hayward Field.

“It was everything I felt in my body, all the energy I felt, I put it all out there,” he said. “All that mattered was that last throw.”

Elliott’s victory also erased the memory of a year ago, when he arrived at Hayward Field a district champion and top qualifier but didn’t advance to the final.

“I have a curse here of some sort,” he said. “It was a little mental block. A lot of nerves, definitely. Football is my thing. When the pressure’s on in football, I’ve done it so many times, the pressure doesn’t matter.

“But when I was out here, the nerves kind of got to me a little bit. It took just the guts of it. I didn’t need the form. I just needed to push it out of myself.”