TEN SECONDS FOR THE RECORD BOOK

Marthaline Cooper calls throwing the hammer “the shortest 10 seconds of your life.”

The junior hails from Providence, Rhode Island, one of the few states in the country where the hammer throw is classified as a high school sport. She has competed in the field event for only a few years and has worked hard to perfect the coordination it takes to hurl the steel ball as far as possible.

She explains that the sport requires a complicated skill set where she has to sync her footwork and her arms as she twirls around three times and releases the hammer.

Cooper’s extra efforts this year in strength training and mental preparedness combined to place her in Winthrop’s and the Big South’s record books.

Cooper hit her stride after the season’s third meet when she reached her year’s goal of throwing 60 meters. She later set a school record of 63.85 meters at the 2015 Big South Outdoor Track and Field Championships where she claimed the individual title, thus qualifying her for regional competition. There she finished third and headed to Eugene, Oregon, where she encountered crowds that cheered on her and other very talented athletes. Before the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Cooper was ranked 15th in the hammer throw — she finished 10th — earning her second team All-American honors.

“I am never content with my performance,” Cooper said of her sophomore season. “That has been the driving force behind my success.”

Coach Ben Paxton marveled that Cooper is one of only two Eagle track and field athletes to earn second team All-American honors (Jeff Greene, 11th place, 5000 meters, 1994) and the first Winthrop athlete to finish in the top 10 nationally in any sport. “And she was only a sophomore,” Paxton said. “The future could hold so much more.”

Needless to say, the Big South voted Cooper its 2014-15 Big South Conference Women’s Field Athlete of the Year due to her record- breaking season.

In contemplating the future, Cooper said there is definitely room for improvement. “Track is my hobby and I do it on the side for fun, but I do not let it engross me,” said Cooper, who wants to use her integrated marketing major at Winthrop to become a market research analyst.

She credited her high school and college coaches as the keys to her success. “They saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Cooper said.

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