DES MOINES — After her second throw in prelims, Creston junior Hannah Hood looked to coaches Clay and Maggie Arnold in the Drake Stadium stands.
Clay Arnold sat in silence and flashed two thumbs up.
Two thumbs up for Hood's best throw of the season, which held up as the top throw in flight one of Thursday's Drake Relays high school girls shot put competition and qualified Hood for the finals.
Hood's throw of 40 feet blew away her best throw of the season, which was 38.9.50. Hood came into the Drake Relays competition ranked 19th out of 24 competitors.
She finished ninth Thursday in the elite field that saw two girls eclipse the 47-foot mark.
"The goal going up there was to throw a season best and improve from the place she qualified in," Clay Arnold said. "She more than did that. Got out to 40. Obviously finishing ninth was a lot better than she qualified in. Hopefully that's a good confidence booster. Technique is not where it needs to be, but hopefully it will be ready to go by next week, because that's when it counts."
Hood threw 36-6.75 on her first attempt in prelims, before uncorking her throw of 40-0.
Arnold said it was amazing she threw that far, considering her form was not sharp on the throw.
"Honestly, to get that throw with what she was doing was pretty good," he said. "She had some strength behind it. She had a downward trajectory on it and didn't get it up very good. She was standing up in the middle of the ring. She fixes those couple of things and gets under another one, we'll see. I'm just glad for the rest of the season that she got to that mark."
Hood threw 37-10.75 on her last attempt of prelims and was unable to improve on that mark in finals. Her 40-0 throw held on to win flight one and was good enough for ninth place overall.
The Panther junior qualified in eighth to finals and was passed only by Camanche junior Courtney Schnoor in finals. Glenwood senior Linnaea Konfrst threw 40-2.50 to finish eighth.
Clinton senior Erika Hammond and KP-WC senior Kiana Phelps battled it out throw for throw, with Hammond winning the event with a heave of 47-10.75. Phelps finished second at 47-10. Iowa City West sophomore Chandler Haight took third at 41-8.50.
Carroll's Bianca Irlbeck, who qualified with a throw .25 inches better than Hood, finished 21st at 36-8.25.
"It was nice to out-throw her, because she's in our district," Arnold said. "We were really excited to see that second throw get to 40 feet. Glad she got ahold of that one. She can get a lot more out of that, too. Her form was not the best. If she tweaks a couple of things ..."
Creston senior Amber Castillo ran the 100 meter hurdles this morning at the Drake Relays. See Monday's CNA sports section for more on Castillo's hurdles race.