Fredonia State has its first national champion in women's track and field.
In her final collegiate throw indoors, senior Julia Hopson (Poughkeepsie/Arlington) heaved the 20-pound weight a school and SUNYAC record 18.25 meters, which converts to 59 feet, 10 ½ inches.
Two more women had a chance to beat Hopson, and when neither one did she became the first Fredonia State woman to win an NCAA Division III event.
Hopson's throw came as no surprise to her coach, Liz Aldrich.
"She's thrown this in practice," Aldrich said from the site of the meet on the campus of the Ruse-Hulman Institute of Technology. "But when the pressure is on in a meet, it's harder to put this together. It was real good that she did it in her in final collegiate throw."
The women's weight throw competition was broken into two flights, with Hopson entered in the first flight. Her best throw of 16.42 meters was best in the flight, but was bettered by two women in the second flight, with throws of 16.84 and 16.44 meters.
Holly Ozanich of Wisconsin-Oshkosh was leading the finals with a throw of 17.18 meters, with Hopson second at 17.03, before Hopson's break-through winning throw. It bested her previous personal-best by over two feet and topped runner-up Ozanich by 3 ½ feet.
Hopson was second in the event at the 2008 NCAA indoor championships, when she became only the second Fredonia State women to finish as a national runner-up. Jackie Blake was second in the indoor long jump in 1986.
The last Fredonia State track and field athlete to win a national title was Trevor Hitchcock in the men's 35-pound weight throw at the 1994 championship meet. Four other men before Hitchcock were national champs - Bernie Prabucki (1982 - 5,000 meters), Kym Orr (1985 - high jump), Pat Corbett (1986 - long jump), and Steve Hoyser (1987 - pole vault).
With the indoor season complete, Hopson will begin concentrating on her outdoor throwing events. She was fourth nationally in the hammerthrow at the 2008 NCAA outdoor championships.
