Bureau Valley’s Landon Hulsing sets school record with winning discus throw: Boys state track notebook

Landon Hulsing had a day for the record books during Saturday’s IHSA Class 1A Boys Track and Field State Meet finals.

He not only won the state discus championship, but he set a Bureau Valley school record in the process.

His throw of 57.19 meters (187 feet, 7 inches) eclipsed the previous school record by 18 feet of Mike Behrens, who used a toss of 169-7 to capture the Class A title in 2001.

“It meant a lot to both [throws] coach [Lexie] Jacobs and I to see him put everything together for that day. He has put in hours of extra work, staying well after everyone else has gone home fine tuning little details,” BV head coach Dan DeVenney said.

“He has had some really big throws at practice, and meets he would throw them a little out of the sector or he would have his toe be out of the ring. We knew that these types of big throws were possible for him.”

The throw was all that DeVenney and Hulsing could have dreamed about.

“Landon and I both knew it was a big throw in the air, when it hit we simultaneously started clapping waiting to hear what the number was,” DeVenney said. “He had the biggest smile I’d ever seen from him when he heard it. One of his goals was to beat the school record, so I think he had a sense of relief that he did that, but also was shocked when they read off 57.19 (meters).

“I am just so happy for him that he got to have that moment of putting it all together to produce a monster throw like that.”

Hulsing becomes just the fourth state champion from Bureau Valley, following Behrens, Jason Bill in the 1,600 in 2002 and Adam Weidner in the shot put in 2012.

Tiger tradition

Ian Morris became Princeton’s second state champion in three years Saturday, following Teegan Davis, who won the 2A high jump crown in 2022 – and just the second Tiger to win discus.

He’s also the eighth state champion in school history. The late Lew Flinn was the first champion crowned in 1955 when he won pole vault.

Greg Groat is the only Tiger to take two state titles in the same year when he swept the Class A discus and shot in 1991.

Also crowned as state champions for the Tigers have been Tom Swan (mile run, 1968), Eric Foresman (shot put, 1981), Adam Suarez (1,600 meters, 1986), Erick Wahlgren (pole vault, 1986) and the 4x800 relay of Tom Caldwell, Jaimie Dow, Tom Hodge and Mike Rieker in 1981.

Bureau County now has produced four state discus champions with Morris, BV’s Hulsing and Behrens and Hall’s Ken Meek in 1952.

Morris and freshman Landen Hoffman, who took second in discus, are the first 1-2 state finish in the same event by not only Princeton, but all of Bureau County.

The three medals also were the most won by Princeton in throws since 1994, when Jeremie Carlson was sixth in discus and seventh in shot and Mike Donovan fifth in discus in Class A.

Odell makes it back

Princeton senior Cade Odell didn’t know if he’d make it back to the awards stand this season. He was still bothered by a shoulder injury from wrestling and wasn’t able to throw like his old self.

Through perseverance and prayer, he gradually regained his strength, not only making it back to state, but landing another state medal in shot put with a fourth-place finish. He stood eighth until his final throw of 16.06m (52-8½) to move him up on the medal stand.

Odell also used his last throw of the day to move up a year ago.

“I was just so thankful to the Lord to be able to help me in this journey and throughout my high school career. It was a very good ending to my career in high school, he said.

Dad duties

Curtis Odell found himself not only coaching the Princeton throwers to three state medals, but serving dad duties as well along side his son, Cade, He had he best of boh worlds.

“As a dad, I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome of this weekend,” Curtis Odell said. “It has been a blessing that God has allowed me to coach my son for the last four years. He’s been a joy to watch.”