By Mark Schafer | The News-Review
DES MOINES – The final throw of the season wasn’t a necessity.
By the time the sixth throw for Anna Hadley had come up the Pekin junior had already known she was the class 1A State champion. During her previous marks Hadley had been feeling good in the late May spring weather that Des Moines had to offer.
On her third throw of the competition Hadley was able to send the disc soaring for 149-feet-2-inches. That throw propelled her to the top of the leaderboard, and it reset the Pekin school record.
As the discus event went into the final three throws, none of her fellow class 1A competitors would challenge Hadley. Her mark of 149-feet-2-inches stood strong. It was actually a throw that won her the meet.
Despite not needing to throw a sixth disc, Hadley did anyway. It would prove to be a good decision.
The Pekin junior was able to send the disc slicing through the air. When it finally plummeted to earth the numbers were truly shocking. Hadley had just thrown the disc 150-feet-9-inches. Not only was that another new Pekin school record, it was a new record in class 1A for discus throwers.
“I was completely awe struck when I saw that number pop up,” Hadley said back in May, and somewhat in disbelief over the throw she had. “It was amazing to see that number pop up.”
Her final throw was the third-best throw that an Iowa girl had recorded throughout the 2025 spring track season. In terms of all-time best throws, the mark that Hadley put up at the State track meet was the 49th-best throw in Iowa history.
“I didn’t think I was going to be able to break the school record this year,” Hadley said. “I was for sure thinking I was going to have to wait until my senior year to get the school record. To get that and the state record as well, that is just amazing.”
