NCAA Women’s Discus — Jackson MR A Bolt From The Blue

THIS WENT VERY DIFFERENTLY from the men’s discus, where Ralford Mullings waited until the final throw of the day before smashing the NCAA meet record. In the women’s comp, Fresno State’s Cierra Jackson took care of that on her first attempt, a 215-11 (65.82) PR that added nearly a meter to Jorinde Van Klinken’s 213-3 (65.01) MR from 2021.

Few saw it coming.

Jackson, a senior who placed 8th in the shot on Thursday, came in with a checkered discus past. During a breakthrough season in 2022, she fouled out at the NCAA finals. The following March, Jackson lifted her PR to 199-4 (60.77), then finished 34th at the regional. The horror continued at the 2024 regional, where she did not record a mark. In March of this year, she raised her PR to 211-4 (64.42), went 205-11 (62.76) a week later, then had three disastrous outings including 121-0 (36.89) at the Mountain West. At the West Regional, she was sitting in 46th place until popping 201-0 (61.27) for the win on her third and final attempt.

Jackson, though slotted 3rd on our formchart, was also overshadowed by the return of last year’s 2nd-thru-4th-place finishers, Jayden Ulrich of Louisville, Alida van Daalen of Florida and Shelby Frank, currently representing Texas Tech. Each was having an outstanding season.

All of the aforementioned were throwing in flight 2. Auburn’s Adrienne Adams and Virginia’s Estel Valeanu got the party started in flight 1 with PRs of 198-8 (60.55) and 191-0 (58.22) respectively. Then flight 2 began and Jackson, ninth in the order, dropped her nuke.

There’s nothing like getting kicked really hard in the face when the competition has barely begun, and it took Frank and van Daalen until the later rounds to recover. Ulrich, unfortunately, never did. The formchart favorite and CR-holder — with 227-8 (69.39) from Ramona — Ulrich followed her 197-8 (60.25) opener with 195-8 (59.65) and four fouls.

Frank, who placed 2nd in the hammer earlier, PRed with 207-11 (63.37) in round 4, and van Daalen took her shot with a 213-1 (64.94) round fiver.

That’s as close as anyone could come to Jackson, who reverted to old habits the rest of the way: 192-5 (58.65) and four fouls. As they say though, it only takes one.

Jackson’s coach, Joe Riccio, attributed her breakthrough to two factors. Jackson’s setup at the start of the throw, which they modified…