ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – Claire Baker has seen steady improvement in her performance in the hammer throw at every meet this outdoor season.
Baker, a junior thrower on the College of Saint Benedict track and field team, missed her lifetime best by less than a meter, but in the four meets after that, she kept on improving on her own personal best. This past week at St. Thomas, she very nearly surpassed Saint Benedict’s best.
Baker missed the school record in the hammer throw by just 12 centimeters last week at the Tommie Twilight. Her throw was also a personal best by nearly three meters, and a nine-meter improvement from where she started this spring. For her big performance, Baker is this week’s CSB Athlete of the Week.
After starting the season with a mark of 36.77 at Saint Mary’s in late March, Baker made her way onto CSB’s top-10 list in the hammer with a toss of 39.83 meters at Hamline on April 11, putting her in 10
th. She moved up to seventh at St. Olaf on April 25 with a mark of 41.62, and moved into fifth with a personal best of more than a meter and a mark of 42.80 meters at Macalester on April 28.
Four days later, Baker came within inches of setting a school record at St. Thomas. Her best throw of the day – and the season, and her career – of 45.60 meters marked a personal best of 2.80 meters, and missed the school record by 12 centimeters. The current record is 45.72 meters, set in 2000 by Missy Smoot. That throw was good for fourth at the meet, and is sixth in the MIAC heading into the conference meet this weekend.
Baker also took sixth in the shot put at Tommie Twilight with a career-best mark of 11.02 meters – ranked ninth in the MIAC – and 10
th in the discus with a throw of 28.68 meters. She is 12
th in the conference in the discus with a mark of 35.22 meters, a career-best achieved at St. Olaf on April 25.
Baker and her teammates are getting ready for this week’s MIAC Outdoor Championships, which run May 11-12 at Carleton College in Northfield. Last year, Baker finished top 25 in all three throwing events, and CSB took second as a team.
