There’s an old track and field saying that pertains to throwing the discus; “It only takes one throw!” Greene County junior thrower Alex Rasmussen exceeded that by quite a bit in Atlantic on May 15 at the Class 3A State Qualifying Meet when he exceeded his previous best distance on five of his six attempts. Rasmussen had a best toss of 155′ 3″ and he won the competition. That distance is nearly 17 feet more than he had ever thrown prior to Thursday, and he enters the 3A state meet on Thursday,  May 22 at 4:30 p.m. with the sixth best throw from all eight State Qualifying Meets.

Raccoon Valley Radio asked Rasmussen what led to his sudden extra distance. “I have no idea! I threw the first one and was like, WHOA! I just tried to go on from there, and I did pretty well, I guess.” The 155′ 3″ was on his sixth and final throw, and it took him from second place to first.

Rasmussen also qualified for State in the shot put, where he enters the Friday, May 23rd competition at 4:30 p.m. with the 24th best distance in the field of 24.

The Rams have had a fine tradition of throwing the discus and shot put and the Greene County girls also have a State qualifying discus thrower in junior Hannah Onken. She will throw on Thursday, May 22 at 2 p.m.

In all, the Rams have 12 girls’ events and seven boys’ events at the May 22-24 Coed State Meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.