Just one throw.
That’s all it took for New York’s Rudy Winkler to break a 14-year-old record at the annual Hammerama.
The nation’s No. 1 hammer thrower and recent U.S. record-holder unleashed a winning distance of 247 feet, 10 inches to capture the individual title in Sunday’s 21st edition of the event at Curtis Corner Middle School. He beat the existing mark of 246-6, set by former Bishop Hendricken standout Jacob Freeman in 1999.
Winkler, a two-time national champion in his specialty, originally planned on just throwing the 16-pound collegiate hammer in the Open Division of the meet. When he found out from meet director Bob Gourley that he had to place among the top six in the high school division (12-pound apparatus) in order to throw the heavier apparatus the Averill Park graduate obliged and quickly took care of business with his winning heave coming on his initial attempt.
“I just went, took a throw and got a meet record apparently,” said Winkler, who set the U.S. mark of 260-5.25 at the Army Strong Series in West Point on July 2. He also broke the 6K record at the meet with a 249-0.5 effort. “I can’t complain, one throw, one and done.”
Finishing second in Sunday’s competition was Barrington state titlist Charlie Ionata, who had a best of 221-1. Ionata, who also finished second to Winkler at the New Balance National Outdoor Championships (NBNO) last month, was nearly 20-feet short of his personal best, set at the states.
Considering he was not in peak form, he wasn’t complaining.
“My PR is 241 so to be 20-feet off isn’t always good, but it’s late in the season and I have taken a couple of weeks off for vacation and got some rest,” he said. “I guess I am happy with it. I would have liked to have thrown farther, but not practicing that’s all I can expect.”
“Everything was there,” he continued. “I mean, 220 (feet) is still pretty good. I peaked right about states and things have gone a little downhill from there. It wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have the speed that I had when training every day.”
Ionata will be in the circle one more time this summer when he participates in the Sons of Italy hammer competition next month at Mount Pleasant. He’ll then prepare for his freshman year at Wake Forest (N.C.) in the fall.
He’s excited about competing for the Division I program.
“It’s Division I, ACC, really competitive,” Ionata said. “(Central star) Carlos (Mangum) he’s going to be at Florida, so I will be competing against him. It’s some pretty crazy track competition. It should be fun.”
In the girls’ division, R.I. state champion Marthaline Cooper captured the overall title with 
a distance of 169-9. New York’s Danielle Borriello was second at 154-8.
“I felt confident in myself that I could do well. I would have liked to have thrown farther,” said Cooper, who has a PB of 178-7 in the hammer. “I am content with what I threw today, but I am not overly joyful about it.”
Cooper, a recent graduate of Classical, came into the meet focused on breaking the record of 173-3 by Warwick’s Kate Johnson in 2000.
“I guess that didn’t happen,” she said. “But it was a good day. It could have been a lot worse. It was nice to see everyone again.”
Cooper, who will attend Winthrop University in South Carolina this fall, was competing in the hammer for the first time since a somewhat disappointing ninth-place finish at the NBNO meet where she was ranked No. 1 entering the competition.
“I really wanted to redeem myself (today) coming from the nationals,” she said. “The nationals are just a memory I would like to forget personally. But it happens. That’s life, you take it and you learn from it and you move on from there. I was upset about it and I got over it. I just came in here wanting to do the best that I possibly can."
For full results and photos, click here.
***
Hammerama
Curtis Corner Middle School
High School Boys (12-pound hammer)
Top 6 finishers
1. Rudy Winkler, New York, 247-10
2. Charlie Ionata, Barrington, 221-1
3. Mahlik Handley, South Kingstown, 217-8
4. Sean Ryan, New York, 210-0
5. Adam Kelly, Barrington, 208-10
6. Gabriel Arcaro, Burlington, Mass., 208-2
High School Girls (4K hammer)
Top 6 finishers
1. Marthaline Cooper, Classical, 169-9
2. Danielle Borriello, New York, 154-8
3. Lea Mistowski, Narragansett, 153-2
4. Alva Hicks, Classical, 147-6
5. Courtney Jacobsen, Warwick, 139-0
6. Brianna O’Grady, South Kingstown, 137-3
Just one throw.
That’s all it took for New York’s Rudy Winkler to break a 14-year-old record at the annual Hammerama.