Stepping into the circle, she collectes her thoughts and visualizes how she wants to make her upcoming throw.

Nai’ Leni is a first-year shot putter for the track and field team. Coming out of Carson High School, Leni did not discover her ability to compete in the shot until her junior year.

“I needed a P.E. class and I didn’t want to take a regular class, so I took track and field and I started with the shot,” Leni said.

Although her decision to get into track and field was at first an after thought, it soon proved to be the perfect outlet.

During her two years as a shot putter at Carson High, Leni won the Marine League and even competed in the state competitions.

Working closely with throwing coach Darryl Guerin, who she credits in helping to develop her technique, Leni has been literally inching closer and closer to the top spot in the EC record books. ÿÿÿÿÿ

“She is coachable, and when they are coachable, they want to learn,” Guerin said.

Leni was recently named the Conference Field Athlete of the Year, something that her teammates aren’t surprised about and admire Leni’s potential, which she has showecased throughout the season.

“She only missed it (the shot put record) by less than a foot last time,” Barbara Farag, Leni’s teammate, said. “We knew she was able to do better.”

As Leni stepped into the circle April 4th, it was not just any regular shot that she was about to throw.

It was a year’s worth of training, a semester’s worth of targeting a specific goal and a week’s worth of contemplation of how close she had been to being the new record holder.

The only problem was that there was somebody too close for comfort in her area. Just outside her circle was a competitor who refused to move.

Leni was not only angered by it, she felt uncomfortable using her spin move to gain speed to launch the shot.

It was then that Leni sent the shot a distance further than any other woman in school history.

Leni’s shot surpassed the previous mark by traveling a distance of 48 ft.

However, the fact that Leni broke the record is not the most interesting aspect of her shot.

Leni, in all her anger and frustration over the female competitor who was too close to her, set the record by using a stand shot, meaning that Leni did not spin to gain speed and momentum.

She simply pushed the ball using nothing but her body strength and combined anger and threw it farther than anybody else.

“I was mad at the girl who was in my way,” Leni said of the moments prior to her record-breaking toss. “I told myself, ‘Since she was not going to give me respect, how about I do this.'”

Leni’s reaction to the challenge and her shot using a standing throw was not a total shock to any her teammates.

“She needs competition to get her worked up,” Jacob Weintraub, also a freshman teammate, said. “She made that shot with a stand throw. We told her she has a lot more in her.”