Connell grad throwing herself at chance to go to Tokyo Olympics
Ashton Riner has an Olympics plan.
She’s shooting for two of them: this year in Tokyo, then Paris in 2024.
Riner, a Connell High School graduate, sees a lifelong dream come true June 25 when she competes in the women’s javelin throw at the 2021 USA Olympic Team Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Believe it or not, she’s been thinking about this day since she was a little girl.
“This has been a big dream of mine since I was in third grade,” she said.
Really? The javelin?
Riner explains: I’m a bigger child in the family. I’m one of eight kids. They’re all tiny, and all of a sudden my parents get this big child.”
Ashton might exaggerate just a bit. She’s 5-foot-9 is all.
But her dad, Connell High School teacher and head football coach Wayne Riner, imagined her throwing the javelin.
“I told him no, that I wanted to be a runner just like my siblings,” she said.
But she listened to her father, and took the event up.
“You start out when you’re little with the Nerf things to throw,” Riner said. “It gets to help you thinking about the form. I didn’t actually start throwing a real javelin until I was in seventh grade.”
She became a high school state champion at Connell, set a state 1A record with a toss of 153-9.
Personally, I saw her throw over 150 at the Pasco Invitational her junior year in high school, and I couldn’t tell who was more excited — Ashton or her father.
“My coach had told me that when I threw over 150, college coaches would start showing interest in me,” Ashton said.
Now, just finishing her junior year with the BYU women’s track and field team, Riner had an up and down 2021 season.
In March, she crushed the school record with a throw of 188-0 feet in Texas.
That toss gives her the sixth-best throw in the nation coming into Friday’s event.
But she didn’t make it to the NCAA Finals earlier this month, losing out in the NCAA West Regionals on Memorial Day Weekend — throwing over 30 feet under that great toss in Texas back in March.
Injuries were a problem, she said.
“I had Tommy John surgery my sophomore year at BYU,” Riner said. “And afterward, I pushed it a bit to get back. The scar tissue had built up.”
Of course, the pandemic wiped out the 2020 season.
By the time this spring had rolled around, “I hadn’t competed in almost three years,” she said.
BYU started early, with meets in February.
And by the time the postseason rolled around, Riner had put in a lot of throws.
That resulted in some nagging injuries by the NCAA West Regionals.
“There was a lot of stress on my (throwing) elbow,” Riner said. “And my shin was injured with it being stressed.”
Since Memorial Day Weekend, though, she gave her body some time to recover.
Then she went about getting it ready to compete against our country’s best women’s javelin throwers.
On Friday, she’ll be among the top 24 in the nation, looking to earn an Olympics roster spot.
“I feel pretty good,” Riner told the Herald. “My last throwing practice was good.”
The key, she said, has been staying consistent in her workouts.
“My summer coach isn’t here (in Provo, Utah) to train me, so I need to make sure I show up every day,” Riner said.
There has been plenty of weightlifting and cardio.
“A lot of medicine ball drills,” she said. “Or I’ll snatch the weight up on a lift, to make sure there is an explosion (of strength).”
She knows she’ll be nervous coming into the event, but it’ll go away quickly.
And this wont be the last of her throwing the javelin, whatever happens Friday.
“I at least want to do one more (Trials),” she said. “I’ll want to gain some weight, and more strength, to be ready for the next Olympics too.”
To keep the dream going.
Note: The women’s javelin throw event begins at 1 p.m. Friday with 24 competitors, in two groups of 12. Riner is in the second grouping, which consists of the better throwers. NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) will have coverage between 2 and 5 p.m.
Other notes
▪ For the second straight year, organizers of the Earl Barden Classic — the small-school all-state football game annually held in Yakima — was canceled because of the pandemic.
Organizers plan to hold the game again in June of 2022.
▪ Freshman outfielder Gavin Ayers (Kamiakin), who played for 7-19 Wenatchee Valley’s baseball team this spring, has signed a letter of intent to play for Biola University in California next spring.
Ayers hit .244, with 2 home runs and 9 RBIs for the Knights this spring.
▪ The Mid-Columbia Conference all-league boys and girls golf teams recently came out, and Richland senior Carter Sheets and Southridge junior Angela Park were the big award winners.
Sheets was named the Player of the Year for boys, while Richland’s Mike Neidhold was named Coach of the Year.
Joining Sheets on the first team were two teammates — junior Evan Johnson and freshman Davis Sheets. Three Kamiakin golfers completed the first team: senior Clayton German, sophomore Wyatt Hansen, and senior Logan Knaff.
The Suns’ Park was the girls’ Player of the Year, while Southridge’s Spencer Reiboldt and Richland’s Janet Schuster were named co-Coaches of the Year.
Joining Park on the first team were two of her Southridge teammates, sophomore Jillian Hui and senior Hope Lawrence.
Also on the first team are Pasco sophomore Jillian Breedlove, Kamiakin sophomore Grace Gintner, and Kamiakin senior Tatum York-Bement.
▪ The Columbia Basin College volleyball team, under first-year coach DiShondra Goree, finished the shortened spring season with a 7-9 record, led by sophomore Jorja Hadden (Twin Falls, Idaho).
Hadden had 68 kills, and led the team with 29 blocks.
Her sister, Cierra Hadden (Twin Falls, Idaho), led the Hawks with 75 kills. She also had 77 digs and 13 blocks.
Tamia Allen-Greggs (Eisenhower-Yakima) added 62 kills and 19 blocks.
Reina Deasy (Kamiakin) led CBC with 146 digs, and also had 22 assists. Rose Vazquez (Ellensburg) added 92 digs for the Hawks.
Finally, Jaiden Blakeley (Bozeman, Mont.) and Nya Calzadillas (Kiona-Benton) were a 1-2 punch in passing, getting 129 assists and 128 assists, respectively.