Monahans Displays New Crop of Throwers
    By Craig Craker, Staff Writer ~~ Odessa American, March 15, 2008

The distances were not as great as their predecessors, but the points were still there.
 

The Monahans boys track and field team has had a good run of shot putters the past few years, led by state qualifiers Stephen Richardson and Michael Murphree.
 

Both are gone now, but the Monahans tradition is continuing.
 

Sophomore Shaquille Smith won the Division II event at the West Texas Relays on Friday at Ratliff Stadium.

“This is a pretty big deal for me,” Smith said.  “ The best I’ve gotten (before this) was a third place.  I just felt really good (Friday) about my throwing.  I just got really warmed up and pressed it out there.”
 

Smith won the even with a throw of 44 feet. 5 inches Chase Williams was third at 42-05.5 and Kydrick Anderson was fourth at 41-0.  Fort Stockton’s Jacob Carpenter was second with a throw of 42-11.5.
 

 “It has been a good group of kids that have come through that enjoy it,” Monahans throws coach Kade Burns said.  “The young ones see the success of the older guy and want to do it.

“There is not necessarily pressure, but they want to keep the tradition going.”

To keep the state qualifying tradition alive, the Loboes throwers will have to improve drastically, but Burns is confident in his group.

Murphree threw a 53-4.5 to win West Texas Relays last season.

“It is early in the season,” he said. “Each of these guys have been getting better the past two or three weeks.  Hopefully they are peaking at the right time.”

For Smith, the sophomore wasn’t even going to compete in the shot put.

He was on the varsity track and field team as a freshman but didn’t plan on trying out for the shot put until a little bit of nudging by Murphree.

“He kept calling me a pun k because I wouldn’t do it,” Smith said.  “So I did it to prove him wrong.”

Smith has a way to go to prove Murphree wrong, but he is starting to see success at an early age as evidenced by Friday’s result.