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No. 3: Brode wins national indoor shot put title
Athlete of the Year: Dustin Brode
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Neighbors | Submitted.Dustin Brode (center) earned All-American honors last weekend in Boston as he competed in the Nike Indoor Nationals. He was crowned Nike national champion in the shot put, winning the event with a throw of 64-10.5. He earned Nike national runner-up in the weight throw with a distance of 70-3.
Top Athlete: Dustin Brode
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Canfi eld’s Dustin Brode broke the district and stadium records in shot at the Division I district championship meet in Austintown recently. He also won in discus.
• No. 2: Akise Teague named Mr. Football
• No. 3: Brode wins national indoor shot put title
• No. 4: Poland 12-year-old softball team competes in LLWS
• No. 5: YSU hires Wolford to lead football team
• No. 6: YSU women go winless
• No. 7: The Vindicator sports staff loses Kovach, Housteau
• No. 8: TOTV succeeds in second year
• No. 9: Jones, McCarthy live NFL dreams
• No. 10: Porter named Greatest Golfer of the Valley
Over a four-month period, Canfield’s Dustin Brode won three state titles (two indoor, one outdoor), finished runner-up in another event and set the Ohio outdoor record in the shot put.
But it was on a Saturday in March that he stepped out of Ohio and stepped into history.
At the Nike Indoor Nationals in Boston — about a 10-minute train ride from his future school, Harvard University — Brode won the national indoor shot put title with a throw of 64 feet, 10 1/2 inches.
Less than three months later, on a warm day just outside Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus, he put the shot 71 feet, 7 1/2 inches to break the state record and capture the Division I crown.
“It was great,” Brode said in June, when asked to reflect on his historic season. “Every week I would set a goal, and sometimes I would hit it and sometimes I wouldn’t. But I would make some pretty big jumps here and there, and I’d have milestones to hit for me and my long-term goals.”
Brode won indoor titles in the shot put and weight throw, and finished runner-up in the discus in June. In mid-July, he was named to the All-USA track and field team by the USA Today.
But the notoriously self-criticial Brode had trouble enjoying much of it, often focusing on the marks he didn’t reach than his medals.
“When people put things in perspective, I sat back and realized I accomplished something special,” Brode said after the national meet. “After I thought about it, I was tremendously happy.”