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Men’s Track: For Texas, shot put is as easy as 1-2-3
Sophomore Jacob Thormaehlen (left), freshman Hayden Baillio (middle) and senior Brandon Drenon (right) make up Texas’ shot put team. So far this season, the trio has swept first, second and third place finishes in their first three meets.
For the three members of the Texas men’s shot put team, there’s much more than NCAA-qualifying at stake with each meet.
“When we compete against each other every meet, whoever finished third has to buy dinner for the other two guys that night,” senior Brandon Drenon said. “That can be quite a lot.”
Shot put is often one of the most difficult field events for athletes to master, but for the Texas trio, it has become as easy as 1-2-3.
Freshman Hayden Baillio, sophomore Jacob Thormaehlen and Drenon all swept the podium in their first three meets this season.
The streak ended Friday at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York City though, with Baillio and Thormaehlen taking the top two positions and Drenon finishing in sixth place.
After a disappointing finish to the season last year, Drenon and Thormaehlen took it upon themselves to put in the extra practice for this season.
“Jacob and I stayed around this summer to train and got a lot stronger,” Drenon said. “I knew Hayden was coming in as one of the top recruits out of high school, and I knew we were going to compete well.”
The team has continued its summer workouts through the season. The shot putters are in the weight room at 6:30 a.m., three days a week, and they usually train for three to four hours every day.
“When you have a schedule like that, you really have to manage your time well,” Drenon said. “I usually try to grab a quick dinner after practice and then get started on homework so I can get to bed by a decent hour.”
After having limited success during his freshman year, Thormaehlen was anticipating a major breakthrough as well.
“I expected [the success], but I just wasn’t actually ready for it when it happened,” he said. “After those first three meets though, that’s all I wanted to do, was just finish 1-2-3 every time.”
Despite the 1-2-3 finish streak ending last week, the team seems to only be getting better as it draws closer to the Big 12 Championships in two weeks. Thormaehlen threw for a personal record 60 feet, 11.50 inches last week.
“I’ve been waiting to break [60 feet] for a while,” Thormaehlen said. “I guess Hayden hitting it every meet has helped push me over that line.”
The team has high hopes as it heads into the Big 12 championships.
“I think we have a really good chance to go 1-2-3,” Drenon said. “We just have to keep getting better each week. [Jacob] hit his [personal record] last week; now it’s time for me to step up.”
Right now, Baillio, Thormaehlen and Drenon are sitting in second, third and fifth, respectively, in the Big 12. Mason Finley of Kansas currently has the best throw with 62 feet, 8 inches.
“Last year when we were at the [Big 12 Championships] I felt like we were a little uptight,” Thormaehlen said. “We maybe overanalyzed a few situations, and that cost us at the meet.”
Baillio said that the team has adopted a much more jovial attitude this season.
“We’re definitely the jokers of the track team,” he said.
They appear to be taking that new mindset to heart. While taking photos for this story, the three athletes insisted on taking multiple “silly shots” and mocked one another’s modeling poses.
The tight-knit relationships between the athletes seem to have paid off.
“All three of us push each other to get better,” Drenon said. “When you’re competing against your teammates too, it really adds a whole new challenge.”
While their success as a team has been remarkable, Baillio has been the star of the team this season, winning every event this year. The guys joked that they hoped to dethrone the former Texas high school state champion soon.
“Brandon and I have a couple of things to work on, but I know Hayden still has a few things to work on too, so that could make it a little harder to catch him,” Thormaehlen said.
“We’re expecting to catch him soon though, and then he’ll be paying for dinner,” he added.
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