On an April day in 2012, high school track and field
star Maggie Ewen was being interviewed when she made a statement that says
everything about athletes who throw things: “My goals are just to throw an inch
farther than my best.”
Fast forward to April 2023, and that remains
Ewen’s goal: Simply throw an inch farther than her best.
In the spring of 2012, Maggie was a junior at
St. Francis High School who was in the midst of breaking and re-breaking state
records in her two events – shot put and discus -- and winning seven state
titles. She graduated from high school in 2013 and now, a decade later, her
state records remain standing.
“There are so many great memories,”
she said last week during the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, where she
competed along with many of the best professional track and field athletes from
the U.S. and around the world.
After high school Ewen was a standout
at Arizona State. She set school and
national collegiate records in the shot put and hammer throw, winning NCAA
championships in those events and the discus.
Becoming a
professional thrower after college, she ranks among the leaders in the U.S. as
well as on the world stage. She placed fourth in the shot put behind athletes
from China, Jamaica and Germany at the 2019 World Outdoor Championships in
Doha, Qatar. In 2020 she finished fourth at the U.S. Olympic trials in the shot
put; the top three qualified for the Olympics and Maggie came an inch and a
half short of third place in that competition.
She said the
possibility of being a professional athlete was not on her radar in high
school.
“Track was always something for me
that was just a lot of fun. I enjoy doing this,” she said. “And then as I
progressed through high school, college, and then I got to the end of college,
I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, can I just continue to do this?’ So it was a slow
realization, but it's been awesome.”
In the shot
put, Ewen set the high school state record of 54 feet, 8.5 inches at the 2013
state meet. No. 2 on the all-time list is a distance of 52-4.75
by Liz Podominick of Lakeville 2003. The best mark since Ewen graduated 10
years ago is 47-9 by Alexandrea Hurst of Robbinsdale Armstrong in 2016
Ewen’s state
record in the discus is 175-9, also set in 2013 at a True Team section meet. Next
on the all-time list are 167-6 by Natalie Manders of Eastview in 2015
and 166-10 by Amanda Anderson of Saint Francis in 2017.
Andy
Forbort, who was the head track coach at St. Francis for 10 years through 2015,
said Anderson was Ewen’s protégé. “I called her ‘mini Mags’ because was a
sponge following Maggie around.”
Maggie
first broke the discus record when she was a sophomore in 2011. That throw,
during a four-team meet in St. Francis, was 165
feet, 9 inches, breaking the previous state record of 162-4 by Jessica Cagle of
Grand Rapids in 2008. Before her high school career ended, Ewen had won four state
championships in the discus and three in the shot.
Her early success
was framed by training with her dad, Bruce, who was
a collegiate thrower at Illinois State and came within a quarter inch of making
the 1988 U.S. Olympic team in the hammer throw. Maggie’s mom, Kristi, played
volleyball at Columbia Heights and Ohio State.
With throwing circles on their rural property, the Ewens could
work out at any time.
“I have fond memories of all the time
I was able to spend with my dad with the events, because he was my primary
coach,” Maggie said. “There was a lot of Saturday morning throwing and it was just
all that great time we spent together. It's just really special.”
Bruce and Maggie were in Des Moines
to watch their daughter compete in three events last week. On Wednesday evening Maggie was one of four
female and four male shot putters to compete in a unique coed indoor event,
with teams of one female and one male using combined distances to determine the
finish. Maggie and Tripp Piperi finished first, ahead of two-time Olympic
champion Ryan Crouser and Jessica Woodard.
On Thursday
she was second in the hammer throw behind Brooke Anderson, an Olympian in that
event, and on Saturday Ewen finished second to 2022 world champion Chase Ealey
in the traditional outdoor women’s shot put.
Ewen lives in Vermillion, South Dakota, where
her personal coach, Kyle Long, is an assistant coach at the University of South
Dakota. He is a former throws coach at Arizona State, where he worked with Ewen.
Maggie works as a volunteer assistant coach with the Coyotes.
Maggie is sponsored by Nike, but much
of her income is largely dependent on how well she does in competitions. When
she and Piperi won the coed shot put at Drake, they split $3,500.
“Don't get me wrong, but having a
performance-based salary can get stressful,” she said. “But if that's my
biggest worry, it's not that bad.”
Her schedule follows a pattern every
year.
“About seven months out of the year,
you're really just hunkered down training, training, training,” she said. “And
then for about five months out of the year it’s nonstop traveling and competing.
That's really the only way to describe it as you go from hibernating to
everything all the time. But it's so much fun. It's opened so many doors. I've
got to see so many cool places I never imagined and I’ve seen so many cool
things. It's been great.
“I think what's been the most fun is
all the people you meet along the way. People from different countries, people
with different backgrounds. The men, the women, the different events. I just get
to meet so many great people and have so many cool relationships. A lot of us
know each other from the circuit, from making teams together, from our college
days. Me and Chase (Ealey), we were on the same juniors team, so we all just go
back in our own ways. And we're all friends.”
Forbort, now an assistant principal
at Grand Rapids High School, said he stays in contact with Maggie, mainly via
texts.
“I’ll
see meets on TV when she’s competing and shoot her a message,” he said.
Forbort said Ewen is a rare mixture
of natural ability, hard work and complete class.
“Obviously
she had the genes from her parents, the athletics, the background, but that
will only take you so far,” he said. “It was her commitment and attention to
detail, and she was humble. She was never arrogant, never cocky, she cheered
people on, she wanted everybody else to succeed. And her sportsmanship, the way
she carried herself, that was really something for a talent of that level.”
Ewen’s impact on Minnesota track and
field is almost unparalleled, and that extends way past how far she throws
things.
There is a 9-year-old
girl in Grand Rapids who has a special name. Maggie’s full name is Magdalyn Mae
Ewen, and Forbort’s daughter is named Madelyn Mae.
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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