EUGENE, Ore. — Yelm High School junior Madelyn Lawson knew she was in love with the hammer throw event from her very first crack at it as a freshman in 2023.
She thrives when improvement is a goal, as she immediately analyzes her film to see what adjustments she can make. The jump from 66 feet, 8 inches in her debut meet as a freshman to 93’8” in her second meet is proof of this, and she reached 99’3” in her third meet: the 2023 Oregon Relays.
Almost two years later, Lawson earned her second straight fourth-place finish at the Oregon Relays at Hayward Field, this time with a season-record throw of 144’11” Friday, April 4. With that measurement, she now has the second-best throw of any female Washington state hammer thrower in the young 2025 season.
And she did it in the place where she competed in her “first big meet ever”: Hayward Field.
“This was my opening to hammer. That’s what really got me started. This is where I had my first big personal record,” Lawson said of her 2024 throw of 146’2,” over 11 feet further than any she had recorded before. “It’s special to me for personal reasons. It’s good to come back every year and see what I can do and see how much I’m improving.”
Lawson is the lone hammer thrower on the 2025 Tornados track and field team and was the lone YHS representative in Eugene Friday afternoon. She needed no time to get adjusted to a Hayward Field setup that gave several other throwers fits, launching the hammer 139 feet and 10 inches on her first throw before her season-best toss on her second attempt.
“It’s gotten very comfortable for me. I know the field,” Lawson said.
From her technique and power, one would have a difficult time recognizing that the junior is coming off of an injury in wrestling where she tore multiple ligaments and fractured “a few” bones in her lower leg and was in a boot for a month and a half. The Oregon Relay served as just her second meet since the injury.
“My last meet was my first meet back, and I was really stressed about reinjuring something and wasn’t sure what I could really do. I worried about it too much to the point where I wasn’t planting and it was affecting how I performed,” she said. “This meet, my mentality was to not think too hard about it and know my limits.”
Lawson, whose all-time best throw is 151’5,” hopes to throw into the 160s before the season is done. While she has experience in the high jump, javelin, discus, shot put, 4x100 relay, she’s confident that the hammer throw is what she wants to continue into college.
“I just love the technique of it. If you ask any of my coaches and anyone who’s ever watched me, I analyze my stuff like crazy the second I step out,” Lawson said. “I love being able to break it down and see what I can improve on. Today, I was pulling like crazy on the left side.”
Yelm’s track team will compete next at the Mount Tahoma Track Festival at Mount Tahoma High School at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 12.
