Hackbart fourth in 1A shot put

By Kristi Nixon

DES MOINES — Giving everything he had, St. Ansgar’s Ryan Hackbart finished fourth in the shot put, just missing a top-three spot.

Second after the preliminaries, a few had some of their best throws of the year by a lot, pushing him down to the fourth-place finish even though he improved on his effort for a final effort of 51 feet, 11.5 inches.

“Good, I’m a little sad, but good,” Hackbart said of his feelings immediately after the event. “I expected, wanted to win, had that goal coming in, but other guys performed pretty well coming in, too, so still came out with a fourth-place with a medal and that is something to look at and keep my head.”

Hackbart fouled on his final two attempts in the final after trying to catch the leaders.

“I was just trying to throw it harder than normal and my form got a little out of whack,” Hackbart said. “When you try to throw it a little too hard. But, that’s all right. I knew that if I wanted to win, I had to put a throw out there, but I’m good with it.”

Hackbart still has a chance for another medal in the discus, perhaps fuel for the fire.

“I’m excited for that, too, and it should be good,” Hackbart said. “Maybe surprise some and chuck it further than I normally do. We’ll see. Should be fun.”

When asked if he felt he did his best, Hackbart said yes.

“I think I did,” he said. “Preparation up to today was good, and I was hitting numbers that I wanted to and I think all of my throws were over 50.”