Iowa’s Kat Moody wins Drake Relays titles in shot put and discus

DES MOINES — Iowa’s Kat Moody needed to make her last throw her best Friday night at the Drake Relays.

So that’s what she did — twice.

Moody won the women’s university division discus, then repeated her clutch feat to win the shot put, as well. But how did she do it?

“It was just really about doing what I know how to do,” Moody said. “Just really trying to feel what I feel when I throw far and just come out with a win.”

Make that two wins. Moody’s final throw in the discus spanned 175 feet and 10 inches to top the collegiate field. Her last attempt in the shot traveled 54 feet to give her a second Relays flag on the day.

“It was a dogfight to the end,” said Moody, who won two state shot put titles for Waukee High School and a Relays crown, as well. “It was definitely hard. I had to really dig deep to try to get the wins, but it was a lot of fun. The athletes were good. Everybody was cheering for each other. The atmosphere was great, so it was a lot of fun.”

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Less pleasant emotions hampered Moody’s performance early in both events.

“My technique wasn’t quite clicking in disc, so I kind of put up a mental block,” the junior said. “I was just getting down on myself, so I really had to push through that to try to get a decent throw in — and I ended up winning the collegiate (portion) of discus.”

Despite that last-gasp triumph, the same mental block carried over to the shot. She overcame it again, though, heaving what she knew was a good throw. Then she waited to see if it would be good as gold yet again.

“I didn’t know what the other girls had thrown, so I wasn’t sure if I would get the win or not, but I knew I would have improved on my (other) throws,” Moody said. “So I was happy with how it ended."

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