3. Both The Boys Shot Put & Discus Records Are Going Down
To be honest, the discus record is lucky to still be around after the vicious challenge put to it by Jake Kubiatowicz last year, but alas, Kubs fell a mere two feet shy of Karl Erickson's all-time record of 201-7 that has stood since 2001. But the chances of the former Rochester Century star having his name top the list after this season is frankly pretty slim.
Mitchell Weber of Saint Clair had a best throw last year of 196-10, which is the best throw ever for a Minnesota junior, and the third-best throw of all time. In fact, Weber also has the best discus throw ever for a Minnesota sophomore (184-6) and a Minnesota freshman (169-11), so his trek of trying to own Minnesota's best throw ever is clearly on a good path.
Of course, Weber himself was bested in his primary event twice last year by Minnesota's other throwing star, Samuel Moore of Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale. Moore was the Hamline Elite Meet champion and the Class A State champion in the event last year, and his best throw of 188-4 is 13th All-Time and the third-best throw ever for a Minnesota junior. While Weber has already come closer to the record, Moore naturally has a great shot at nabbing it as well, perhaps even nabbing it first, or even outright besting Weber for the record and having his name top the list at the end of the season.
But it's hardly a "bold" prediction to predict a broken record when two stars are this close to breaking said record, so what will make this bolder? Obviously, to predict that the shot put record will go down as well!
I wouldn't have thought this record would really be in jeopardy coming into the season, until I saw Samuel Moore's first two indoor meet results. In two meets, Moore has thrown 59-4 and 59-6, which are both better than all his throws from last year save his state-winning toss of 59-11.5. And last year, Moore opened the season throwing 53-5.5, which was a PR at the time, which means that he improved over 6 feet over the course of the season and 8 feet in one calendar year (his best toss in 2016 was 51-10). Another six-foot improvement would put Moore within inches of Thomas Anderson's record toss of 65-8. And for what it's worth, Weber's best toss of his career some from his State-winning throw of 59-0 back in 2016 when he was just a sophomore, and he still threw over 57 feet last year despite having an injured throwing arm for much of the year.
Despite the talent of Moore and Weber, perhaps it is a stretch to say that one of them will break that shot put record, but that's what makes it a bold prediction, and I'm sure both of them will be gunning for it.