Adelaide Aquilla Wins Shot Put National Championship
3/12/2021 3:26:03 PM | Women's Track & Field
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State University junior throws specialist Adelaide Aquilla has won the national championship in the shot put. The Rocky River, Ohio, native sent the shot a school-record 18.12m / 59-5 ½ today to win the competition at the 2021 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, being held in Fayetteville, Ark., at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
Aquilla’s first two throws of the day were sector fouls, just outside of the throwing area, but the fouls didn’t affect her.
“I was throwing more aggressively than last week, so my coach and I made a small adjustment in the ring,” Aquilla said in referencing Ohio State throws coach Ashley Kovacs. “Ashley helped me get lined up and I decided I was going to go for it.”
Her third throw moved her into second place at 17.24m, and she took the lead from University of Arizona junior Samantha Noenning on her fourth throw, a winning 18.12m toss that broke the Ohio State school record of 17.88m set by Sade Olatoye in 2019.
Aquilla has come a long way, as in being a walk-on to the program and one that barely met the program’s shot put standards for walk-ons.
“It is truly astonishing how far she has come,” Kovacs said. “I’m not sure anyone has had a more humble beginning [as a collegiate athlete] than what Adelaide has had. She has had a full belief in herself and in our program and she has kept fighting and working.”
A two-time Big Ten indoor shot put champion (2020 and 2021) and the 2021 Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championships, Aquilla becomes just the sixth Ohio State women’s track and field athlete to win an indoor national championship. Olatoye (weight throw) and Julia Rizk (mile) were Ohio State’s most recent indoor national champions, both having won national titles in 2019.
Ohio State’s Indoor National Champions
2021 – Adelaide Aquilla – shot put
2019 – Sade Olatoye – weight throw
2019 – Julia Rizk – mile
2012 – Christina Manning – 60-meter hurdles
2001 – Donica Merriman – 60-meter hurdles
1983 – Diane Dixon – 400 meters
Aquilla is the second Buckeye all-time, after Dan Taylor in 2004, to win a shot put national title, something that is especially rewarding for Kovacs, who is in her seventh year with the program.
“We’ve wanted another national champion in the shot for Ohio State,” Kovacs said. “We have some very good shot put women in our program right now. Adelaide has grown in our program with the expectation of us producing a national champion in the shot. This means a lot to have this happen.”
Aquilla qualified for the NCAA indoor championships last year as a sophomore after winning her first Big Ten title, but she and the rest of the team were unable to compete as the championships were cancelled because of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
She earns first-team All-America honors and is now a two-time indoor All-American.
“I’m happy with how the season has turned out,” Aquilla said. “Obviously, it wasn’t guaranteed that we would even have a season, but to be able to compete at this level and win is amazing.”
And awesome!
#GoBuckeyes
