By Mark Spezia
PHOTOS BY JOHN NEPOLITAN AND
ADAM STIVERSON
Conditions on the day Addyson Stiverson heaved the shot put farther than any female high school competitor in the nation this year were rather off-putting. Records were the furthest thing from Montrose junior Addyson Stiverson’s mind as she stared at a sandy, somewhat damp throwing circle under dreary, overcast skies at Chesaning Union High School on April 29.
Records were the furthest thing from Montrose junior Addyson Stiverson’s mind as she stared at a sandy, somewhat damp throwing circle under dreary, overcast skies at Chesaning Union High School on April 29.
Having powered through the weather to an easy discus throw win during the tri-meet against the Indians and Ovid-Elsie, Stiverson fought to find the right mindset as the shot put competition drew near.
“I swear, that was the worst day possible for throwing,” she said. “After throwing the discus, I told my dad (Montrose track and field coach Adam Stiverson), I wasn’t sure if I should even throw the shot put.”
With some reassurance from her father, Stiverson coaxed herself back into the circle only to see conditions worsen as a chilly rain began to fall following her second throw. Concerned about slipping and getting injured, Stiverson’s first two efforts were a tad timid by her standards.
“Addy was so over the rain and wet sand in the ring at that point and being worried about not getting hurt meant she was not going all out,” Adam Stiverson recalled. “It’s hard to warm up the muscles enough to throw well in cooler weather, but I told her the best thing would be to stop holding back, let the shot go and see what happens.”
Yes, it was time to throw caution, and the shot put, to the wind. On her fourth throw, Stiverson uncorked the big one.
Photo courtesy of Nike Outdoor Nationals
“The Chesaning officials did the best job possible to clean up the ring before the throw and Addy was able to generate decent speed,” Adam said. “She didn’t have the perfect form, but the shot flew off her hand well. I turned to Addy and was like, ‘I think you have your first 54-foot throw.’ Then we pulled the measuring tape and were like, ‘Whoa!’”
She is one of the state’s top discus throwers despite not displaying nearly the same fondness for that implement.
The nearly nine-pound steel ball had landed 55 feet, 7.5 inches from the throwing circle, extending the state record Stiverson already owns by more than 2.5 feet. The throw was nearly 3 inches farther than any other high school girl had thrown this season.
Only three high school shot putters have ever thrown farther.
“My dad felt there was still a good throw in me that day if I just quit being hesitant and thinking that I can’t,” Addy said. “I let the throw that beat my record go and was like, ‘Holy crap, everything just connected for me on that one.’ Dad was like, ‘See, there you go.’”
For perspective, Stiverson’s throw would have placed her 11th at the 2024 Olympic Trials and 12th at this year’s NCAA Division I Championships. As of late June, only five shot putters under age 20 in the world, including just one American (University of Nebraska sophomore Donna Douglas), had thrown farther.
ADDYSON STIVERSON COMPETED AT NIKE INDOOR NATIONALS IN NEW YORK CITY IN MARCH WHERE SHE PLACED THIRD. Photo credit: John Nepolitan
In my mind, Addy never fails at anything because, even on her worst days, she finds a way to grind through difficulty and learn from the situation to become better.”
—Adam Stiverson
Stiverson’s mark also placed her among the top 30 female shot putters of any age in the United States this year.
“Our winter training was decent as we kept working on some form issues,” Adam said. “We took her out to see her main coach (Dane Miller of Throws University in Reading, Pennsylvania) for five days of productive, focused training. Addy came back feeling really good and was ready to have a great season.”
Miller, who has coached Olympians, world team members, and national champions, began working with Stiverson during her freshman year.
“I was excited when he reached out (after we attended a camp of his) about coaching me because I can trust that everything Dane says is the right thing,” she said. “He is a huge reason I am where I am today. He is always telling me to throw hard, not pull back and smash it.”
Stiverson continued smashing it the remainder of this season.
In May, she unleashed a personal-best discus throw of 157-1, which ranks 11th in Michigan history and second in the state this year. The next month, Stiverson captured her third straight Division 3 state shot put championship by more than 16 feet with a toss of 55-6.5 and was second in the discus (131-4) for the second time in three years. Stiverson was also state discus champion last year.
She is one of the state’s top discus throwers despite not displaying nearly the same fondness for that implement.
“I truly do not like the discus as much and spend maybe about 20% of my training on it,” Stiverson admitted. “I threw the discus maybe five times the week before the state meet. Still, I would like to get my best over 160 feet.”
Stiverson maintains a busy competition schedule outside of high school, squaring off against some of the nation’s best throwers.
She has placed in the top 10 at Nike Outdoor Nationals three times and in the top seven at the United States U20 Outdoor Championships twice. Stiverson has also twice made the top nine at Nike Indoor Nationals.
In June, she was seventh at the U20 championships and third (for All-American honors) at Nike nationals, held on consecutive days at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, which has hosted the 2022 World Championships and eight Olympic Trials.
Only one Michigan athlete (pole vault winner Katie Blue of Grand Ledge) finished higher in any girls event at Nike nationals. However, Stiverson was left wondering what might have been considering that she threw under 50 feet both days.
“I pulled my hamstring a little after my first three U20 throws, which messed me up a bit,” she said. “I was mad considering what I’m capable of doing. I fixed a couple of things and the hamstring was not bothering me the next day, which was better, but not what I was hoping for.”
Stiverson has also won plenty of powerlifting competitions and boasts bests of 425 pounds (deadlift), 405 (squat), and 235 (bench press).
Adam Stiverson is equally proud of his daughter’s maturity in handling setbacks as he is of her accomplishments.
“In my mind, Addy never fails at anything because, even on her worst days, she finds a way to grind through difficulty and learn from the situation to become better,” he said. “That determination and will to succeed, combined with the natural strength she knows how to use, are the biggest reasons for Addy’s success.”
Stiverson actually began her track career as a sprinter in sixth grade, but was soon looking for other events to try. She had already begun competitive powerlifting thanks in part to the influence of her father, a competitive powerlifter for more than two decades who owns Iron Athletics gym in Clio.
This led to the suggestion that Stiverson try her hand at throwing events.
“My brother and his friends who were throwers were like, ‘You’re strong, why don’t you try the heavy ball thing?’” she recalled.
Turns out, the heavy ball was Stiverson’s thing, and remarkable progress followed. She finished sixth grade with a best of 25-7 before reaching 34-6 in seventh grade.
“The powerlifting kind of gave me a head start for throwing,” she said. “My strength for those events was already there.”
Stiverson’s progress accelerated even more after attending one of Miller’s camps for the first time roughly a month before she began eighth grade.
“Thanks to Dane’s coaching, I was throwing 40 feet by the time I left the camp and that’s when it really clicked that throwing could take me far and I could be really good at this,” she said. “Middle schoolers usually don’t throw 40 feet.”
During eighth grade, Stiverson extended her best mark with the six-pound shot put to 47-10.5 and captured shot put and discus titles at the USA Track and Field National Youth Outdoor Championships.
Transitioning to the heavier high school shot put as a freshman, Stiverson upped her personal best to 49-2 in winning the first of three regional titles and surpassing the Genesee County record of 48-2.75 set by Powers Catholic’s Nikole Sargent in 2016.
As a sophomore, she surpassed the state record of 51-11 established by Byron’s Sarah Marvin in 2021 by nearly a foot with a throw of 52-10.75. No American high school sophomore has ever thrown farther.
Also last year, Stiverson joined the Nike Elite Program, which includes 40 of the country’s top high school track and field athletes and provides guidance, performance tools, mentorship from professional Nike athletes, equipment and apparel, while also helping offset travel costs to national meets.
Along the way, Stiverson’s all-around athletic talent has played a role in her throwing success as well. While track is now her primary focus, she played varsity basketball as a freshman and sophomore and even played football through her freshman year.
Stiverson has also won plenty of powerlifting competitions and boasts bests of 425 pounds (deadlift), 405 (squat), and 235 (bench press).
This is also the time of year Stiverson increases her training, which is made more convenient by the shot put and discus throwing rings in the family’s backyard.
“I can really train when I have fewer meets to compete in and I like to use an even heavier shot put and do more weight training,” she said. “We are focusing on things like getting into better positions when I throw and improving my form to become more explosive.”
Adds her father: “Fixing Addy’s form will fix her throwing distance, so we’re concentrating on getting her muscle strength to work even better with her form.”
Stiverson hopes to announce her college decision in November. She has narrowed more than 20 Division I scholarship offers to 10.
Goals for Stiverson’s final season at Montrose include breaking the national high school shot put record of 58-1 and becoming Michigan’s first four-time girls shot put state champion.
“I want to get the national record, but I’d also love to be the first high school athlete to throw 60 feet,” she said. “Once I won the shot put title as a freshman, I was like, ‘Now I have to win all four years.’”
