Marlboro's Batts joins elite company in discus

BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

Kristen Batts Q

uietly, just as in the solo workouts she does when everyone else has left, Marlboro's Kristen Batts has become one of the state's best throwers.

Back in April and early May, Batts was playing catch up with the top throwers after spending the winter playing basketball. But sticking to her workout schedule, Batts began to peak when the state meets rolled around.

A second place at the Central Jersey Group IV and the State Group IV meets made her a Meet of Champions contender, and a personal best 132-5 got her a fourth place at state's season-ending meet. It was the first time she had been over 130 feet and she did it twice (she had an earlier throw of 130-8).

Batts, however, was just getting started. Two days after her pb at the MOC, she won the New Jersey Invitational at Colts Neck High School in a new pb, 137-0, and beat her Shore rival Deanne Hahn, of Lakewood, for the first time in the process. It was a big psychological win for the Mustang, who will be going at it with the Piner again next year. Hahn is just a sophomore.

"I've wanted to catch up to her," said Batts. "That was my motivation."

Batts followed the meet at Colts Neck up with her biggest scholastic win, the Eastern States Championship on Long Island, where she threw 127-2. Batts also hit her personal best in the shot put, 36-5, in finishing second.

Batts attributes her improvement this spring to a different approach toward her workouts.

"I'm lifting a lot more and throwing less during the week," she noted.

The weight lifting is event specific, isolating the shoulder, legs, arms, stomach and back muscles, all of which are used in throwing the discus and shot put. She doesn't just go into the weight room and lift barbells. There is a designed purpose behind every lift.

This comes from no less an authority than Bayonne's Kevin DiGiorgio, the state record holder in the shot put, and a high school national champion in the event.

DiGiorgio, it turns out, was a teammate of Marlboro head coach Ray Sypniewski's in high school and he's the one who hooked Batts up with the Bayonne thrower, who gives one-on-one instruction to promising throwers. He has been giving Batts private instructions since last summer.

The DiGiorgio philosophy is quality over quantity. Every throw, he points out, should be a max effort throw. Less is better. Throwing just for the sake of throwing doesn't accomplish anything.

Batts, who plays basketball and volleyball at Marlboro, didn't pick up a shot put or discus, or for that matter the javelin, which she throws in dual meets, until her freshman year.

"I wanted to do something for the spring," she said.

With the only options softball or track and field, Batts went with the latter.

"I liked it," she said, coming up with a personal best of 95 feet her freshman year.

She would discover that her basketball background was a big help, especially with her footwork in the circle. Often overlooked, footwork is critical to a discus thrower, everything starts there.

By her sophomore year, she was becoming very capable at the discus, reaching 122-4 and finishing 10th at the MOC. That was good enough to get her to the Penn Relays back in April.

After winning the Freehold District and Monmouth County titles, Batts began to peak at the state meets with her personal best 137-2 coming at the MOC. That mark was good enough to qualify for next year's Golden West Invitational in California.

Five days after the MOC, she struck gold at the Easterns. She finished the season throwing 125-3 at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., and finishing 28th in the nation.

Batts still has a ways to go to get the Marlboro school record and Freehold Regional District mark of 144-1 held by the ex-Mustang Trisha Harris, who was an MOC champion. She would like to get that mark and do 40-0 in the shot put next spring.

"I want to get better," she said.

According to her coach, the goals are within her range because she has the drive and competitiveness to succeed as well as the proper approach.

"We tape her throws and she'll watch video analyzing them," said Sypniewski. "She listens and is a hard worker."

That should be enough to take Batts from just another face in the crowd, to one everyone will have their eyes on next year.