His meet: Meinders wins shot put title

DES MOINES -- Caleb Meinders knew Drake Relays wasn't his meet and that the Class 1A state meet was his for the taking.
He was right, throwing 55 feet, 3 inches on his very last throw to win on Thursday, May 18.
"It feels great to be a state champion," Meinders said. "It's what I've been looking forward to. I've been dreaming about it."
Meinders said the difference was the outside factors.
"The environment and the atmosphere," Meinders said. "Throwing and being here with my teammate Nathan, it was awesome. Getting out, getting throwing and he PR'ed by four feet. Crazy."
For a while, both Meinders and Karsjens were 1-2 in the event before Dawson Ellingson of Hudson passed Karsjens.
"That's shot put for you," Meinders said. "Anything can happen."
As for Karsjens, he used a little gospel inspiration to get his PR of 54-4, 'How Great Thou Art.' He said it gets his mind in focus and gets him going.
"I was listening to music to keep my mind straight," Karsjens said. "There are some things you've got to fine tune. It's always good with Kong (Meinders' nickname), one thing he does right, one thing I do right and we've got to combine it. That's what happens, one of us gets a personal best.
"Hopefully, we can do the same thing (in the discus Friday). Hopefully, Kong gets into the finals (of the discus) and help out the team."