Grayson County’s Let’s Throw Big throwing team made their final appearance of the summer season at the Texas Amateur Athletic Federation’s 2025 Summer Games of Texas July 31-Sunday.
Let’s Throw Big’s 9 competitors traveled to College Station to face off against some of the best the state had to offer and came away with multiple Top 10 finishes, despite not performing as well as they hoped.
“We went in and competed pretty well,” Let’s Throw Big head coach Mike Hall said. “We didn’t throw the best we’ve ever thrown, but you kind of expect that sometimes; the bigger the track meet, the harder it is to throw your best. … When you go from a track meet with seven throwers to one with 40, that's a whole different ball game.”
Melissa Torres of Gunter was the top performer on the girl’s side, finishing sixth in the Girls 16 & Under shot put with a throw of 32-feet-1 1/2-inches, beating her performance from regionals by 2 feet.
Eva Rensberger finished in 10th place in the same event with a toss of 30feet-7 1/4-inches.
Eva also placed 21st in the Girls 16 & Under discus throw, with a new personal best of 68-feet-5-inches.
Paxtyn Graves of Gunter placed 13th in the Girls 16 & Under discus throw, with a toss of 87feet.
Graves also finished 15th in the Girls 16 & Under shot put, with a distance of 29-feet-1/2-inch.
Russell Carney of Collinsville was the top thrower for the boys, finishing sixth in the Boys 18 & Under Shot Put, with a throw of 48-feet-7-inches.
Carney also placed 12th in the Boys 18 & Under discus throw with a distance of 136-feet-3-inches.
“Every summer competing is good because you get the experience of being in a live track meet that you don't get at practice,” Carney said. “My goals this year are to break our region record in shot put—I was 3 inches off of it last year— and to win state in shot put and medal in discus.”
Cooper McMillan competed in the same division, finishing 14th in the discus with a distance of 131-feet-9-inches and 16th in the shot put with a toss of 39-feet-9-inches.
McMillan bested his top discus throw from the regional meet by nearly 3 feet.
Barrett Elmore was the third Let’s Throw Big competitor in the Boys 18 & Under division and placed 17th in the shot put with a throw of 39-feet-6 1/2-inches.
Elmore also finished 19th in the discus with a throw of 118-feet-3-inches.
Stone Rumage of Gunter earned two Top 10 finishes in the Boys 16 & Under division, placing 10th in the shot put and discus with throws of 40-feet-9-inches and 119-feet-11-inches.
“The meet was like no other meet I've been to before,” he said. “A lot more kids brought a little more pressure and attention to you … [but] being able to go compete against as many kids as I did and do as well as I did is an awesome feeling, especially hitting a PR in both [events].”
Johnny Rensberger also competed in the 16 & Under division, finishing 22nd in the discus and 30th in the shot put with throws of 88-feet-2-inches and 29-feet-11-inches.
Maxim Zelenski, who was the youngest member of the team at the state meet, finished 17th in the Boys 14 & Under discus throw with a throw of 105-feet-5-inches.
Zelenski also placed 31st in the shot put with a toss of 29-feet-10 1/4-inches.
Hall thanked Let’s Throw Big parents for all the help and support they gave the team this season.
“Everybody's parents helped out at all of the summer league track meets and the practice meets leading up to regionals and state,” he said. “Whenever I needed it, they would just jump right in and help me. They would shag discs, they would mark for us and they helped me write measurements down. I couldn't have made it through all this without their help.”
