By Joe O’Leary The Mountain Times
Across a spring sports season that saw solid success for several Sandy High School teams, in the form of playoff appearances and senior athletes heading off to play at the college level, perhaps no program flourished as much as SHS track and field this year. Making waves at state in running, jumping and throwing events, the team looks to be returning to the excellence it had throughout the 90s and 2000s.
Amongst many athletes who had astounding years for the team, now graduated senior thrower Hannah Petrillo was one of its brightest stars, being the only student from Sandy’s class of 2025 who’s going on to play sports at the division one level.
“I got my first offer in the fall of junior year from a small division three school in California and I was like, ‘okay, so I don’t suck,” Petrillo joked. After a hectic recruiting process, Petrillo committed to Eastern Washington. At EW, Petrillo will continue to throw discus like she did at SHS as well as competing in hammer toss, which is her primary event, although it isn’t high school sanctioned.
“Yeah I just do that through my club. I was recruited to my current club in my sophomore year, it’s run by Scott Skipper – his family is kind of legendary for track around Sandy. He runs Super Thrower Track Club. So I started practicing there for discus and shot put, and later I got into hammer,” Petrillo explained. A great support system of coaches as well as a family history of throwing seems to be the biggest things Petrillo credited her growth to.
“My dad threw at Georgetown, so he’s always encouraged me to do it. He’s always been there to support me and help me out. All my family and friends are very supportive,” Petrillo said, “Pretty much all my coaches competed at high levels; one of my coaches was just at the Olympic trials last summer. Technical coaching and great support have helped make my own work pay off.” As far as work goes, Petrillo follows a strict training process that sees her lifting three times a week and refining her skills basically every single day. There appears to be a strong intrinsic motivation within the 18 year old, her achievements driving her to train even harder.
“At first I picked things up fast. The pool of competition [in track] is a lot smaller than like football or volleyball; there’s more opportunity. I felt like I started to see myself growing and I was like ‘wow, I could actually do something with this’ and I’ve used that to push me to where I am now,” Petrillo said. As far as the near future goes, Petrillo has a full summer of training as well as competing ahead of her before she heads out to Cheney.
As the transition from high school to future endeavors transpires for just under 400 students in and around the Sandy area, one can only hope that every graduate possesses the drive of Petrillo to constantly better themselves until they reach the top, whether it be through studying, putting themselves to work, or chucking heavy objects for sport.