CARLINVILLE — Hannah Gibson has no quit.
The Carlinville senior polished off her stellar high school athletic career with gold in the discus throw at the Class 1A girls track and field state finals in Charleston — but not without adversity.
She approached the state finals with a sense of urgency after narrowly advancing through the squirrelly Riverton Sectional with a distance of 107 feet, 11 inches.
She immediately went to work with her dad, Randy, and unraveled the mystery in the nick of time.
“We kind of made it more simple because I was focusing way too much on everything that I was doing wrong and trying to do too much right,” Gibson said. “We just had to slow me down and go back to the basics and just let it flow, and it worked.”
Gibson’s first throw travelled a personal best 141 feet, 8 inches that opening day. It left other contestants in awe, according to throws coach Sean Canaday.
“I think sometimes young athletes feel like they need to rush to get done when it’s just the opposite,” Canaday said. “They need to stay calm and be patient. In that week of practice, she really hadn’t thrown all that well until we got to state. She started warming up and I could just see it was different. After her first warmup, I told her, ‘You’re done, stop throwing. We’ve got what we need.’
“When Hannah made that 44-meter throw, the girls who were waiting and competing in the third flight were migrating over and I really believe it sent a ripple through the competition, ‘Holy cow, look what just happened.’”
Gibson became Carlinville’s first state champion thrower since Kelsey Card, who won both discus and shot put all four years from 2008 through 2011 before twice appearing in the Olympics.
“It just feels really good because it was something that I was working towards since I was a freshman, and that’s obviously the end goal,” Gibson said.
Her efforts for the entire 2024-25 school year have earned Gibson The State Journal-Register’s Female Athlete of the Year honor.
Just the beginning
Canaday said the best is yet to come.
Gibson indeed recently won the hammer throw at the USATF National Youth Outdoor Championships in the 17-18 age division in New York City on June 25. She heaved a personal best 155-11 in what is hailed as her top event.
She just might end up trying everything — including the javelin — at Illinois State University.
Gibson rarely takes a break.
She also participated in volleyball, basketball and softball over the school year. She was tabbed Illinois Coaches Association all-state second team in Class 2A at the end of her final softball season, in addition to being a key starter on the volleyball and basketball teams.
She played alongside a gamut of other talented multi-sport athletes that also included volleyball, basketball and softball standout Isabella Tiburzi.
“Towards the end, we were all super close just because it was our senior year,” Gibson said. “We knew this was going to be our last year together. We just wanted to make it happen this year because the three years prior we’ve kind of been short (of certain goals). We wanted to go out with a bang.”
Student-athlete par excellence
Gibson also carries high academic standards.
The exercise science major was among just two athletes in the area to land on the IHSA All-State Academic Team. She was also an Illinois State Scholar and National Honor Society member.
“That’s all on her,” said her mom and softball coach, Julie Gibson. “She’s kind of put that pressure on herself. She’s taken a lot of dual-credit classes, so she’s had a tough schedule these last couple of years especially. But luckily, it comes fairly easy for her.
“She does have to work and study, but she enjoys it and she always wants to do well. That makes it a whole lot easier from the parenting aspect. I never have to worry about her with homework and studying for tests because I know she’s got it.”
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Carlinville’s Division I thrower named SJ-R Girls Athlete of the Year for 2024-25
Reporting by Bill Welt, Springfield State Journal- Register / State Journal-Register
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