Evanston’s Dawson Wright is a state champion in an event she hadn’t even tried until this year.
An accomplished sprinter with a state title already on her resume, Wright switched to shot put for her senior season due to injuries.
She made the absolute best of the situation.
“It’s so crazy that I still don’t even believe it,” Wright said. “I’m still confused and in a state of shock. Who would have thought that this would’ve happened?”
Wright shocked the field when she recorded a personal-best 13.19 meters during the Class 3A state meet at Eastern Illinois in Charleston on May 20. That was good enough to win the state title, Evanston’s first in the discipline. Hoffman Estates’ Amaya Hendrickson was second with a throw of 13.08 meters.
“I’m still taking it in,” Wright said. “It’s a good feeling, though. My hard work really did pay off. Every single day, I had to work hard to understand how to throw. At first, coming in as a sprinter, I didn’t pay too much attention to throwing.”
Wright was an elite sprinter for Evanston. She won a state title in the 800-meter relay as a sophomore and was a state runner-up twice.
But severe inflammation in Wright’s right shin bone derailed her plans. She was forced to give up sprinting or risk long-term problems. So Evanston girls track coach Fenton Gunter met with Wright to devise a new plan.
“We sat down in our weight room and had some conversations about it,” Gunter said. “We were like, ‘We don’t want these injuries to affect you for the rest of your life.’
“I said ‘Do you want to finish the season or toss in the towel?’ She said she wanted to finish the season.”
Gunter conferenced with George Woolridge, Evanston’s longtime throwing specialist who had taken over the girls throwing program after the death of Alex Thomas last year.
Gunter and Woolridge suggested to Wright that she take up shot put, and she was on board.
“I’ve been with the track program for 38 years, and I’d watched her run,” Woolridge said. “I was like, ‘That girl has leg power.’
“As we moved to the indoor season, I saw her limping around. I was thinking about if she can do anything in the shot put. I figured, ‘Let’s bring her over and see what happens.'”
Woolridge put Wright and her teammates into the same regimen he had used for the boys throwers. His new pupil learned, and thrived, quickly.
“She’s willing to try anything you put at her,” Woolridge said. “It’s always ‘Yes sir, yes sir,’ and never ‘I don’t know about that.’ I’m going to miss her.”
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Wright said she toiled away every day to immerse herself in shot put technique and, even after winning the state title, is “still learning it.”
“I told myself, ‘If you’re going to make it, you’re going to have to take this as seriously as you can,'” Wright said. “Of course, I miss running. But I had a goal, and I wanted to stick to it. I didn’t have time to sulk about not running. I just had to adjust as soon as possible.”
When Wright began throwing, she was routinely reaching only 8-9 meters. After a spring of dutiful practice, she improved by leaps and bounds.
“My goal was just to hit 13 meters,” she said. “It wasn’t even to win state. At that point, it was about personal growth and reaching a goal I had.”
Now a state champion in both track and field, Wright will continue her athletic career at Saint Louis. She is planning to major in biomedical engineering.
“I’ve learned to be confident in myself, in life and in sports,” she said. “I learned that I can do anything.”
Sam Brief is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.