Senior Dominates NCAA Shot Put

Posted on Aug. 6, 2004

Laura Gerraughty won the NCAA indoor shot put by six feet in March. Three months later, she took it outdoors and brought home another national championship. The indoor throw was her second consecutive national best.

Gerraughty, a senior from Nashua, N.H., set a collegiate record of 62 feet, 10 inches in the spring. Her outdoor throw was 59 feet, 11 inches. Her season included two ACC indoor titles, two outdoor ACC titles and a U.S. Nationals title.

She became the first athlete in Coach Dennis Craddock’s 20 years at Carolina to go directly from college to the Olympic level.

“We certainly knew she was a great athlete, but to think that she would be doing this at this stage of her life, no, I would never have dreamed that,” Craddock said. “I thought she was going to be a good ACC athlete but not someone who could possibly go to the Olympic Games as a junior in college.”

Gerraughty beat professionals at the U.S. National Indoor Championships. Then in July, she threw 60 feet, 8 inches to top the field at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. She warmed up for the Olympic by winning at the North American, Central American and Caribbean  Track and Field Championships in Quebec.

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