Last year, Adrienne Hill was the only Rail City track star to take home a regional crown. She did one better this time around.

The Reed senior defended her discus title and added a regional gold in the shot put as well. She and teammate Zach Comphel were the only athletes from Sparks schools who took first in an event at last weekend's Northern Region track and field championships.

While she now is a two-time regional winner in the discus, that is not necessarily the stronger of her two throwing events. After finishing second in the shot put at last year's regionals, she went and stunned the state competition by claiming the gold on her very last throw. She placed third in the discus at state.

She hopes this weekend's state championships at Damonte Ranch High School mimic last weekend's action when she added one title to her performance the year before, but it won't be the end of the world if she doesn't win both.

"I have certain goals set and if I hit those goals and don't win state, that will be fine. It's important because it's my senior year, but it's not everything," Hill said.

It won't be easy to win state though.

Heading into the regional finals, Hill was ranked first in the shot and second in the discus based on her performances at the regional trials a week earlier. She then proceeded to win the shot put by nearly a foot and dominated the discus by just under 13 feet.

Her main competition is back from the South. Silverado's Amanda Bingson won both the shot put (39-08.00) and the discus (133-06) in the Sunrise Region last week with throws that would have surpassed Hill's best efforts.

Hill threw for 39-07.00 in the shot put and 130-01 in the discus.

Hill said she is peaking at the right time, but she also doesn't want to concern herself with rivals because it could psyche herself out.

"It at least gives me a target, so I need to throw at least this in order to do well," she said.

Hill has been on the track team since her freshman year. Originally, coaches thought she would be a good high jumper because she played basketball and was athletic. However, that didn't pan out and it turned out she was a pretty decent thrower.

She really started focusing on the throwing events after her freshman year, but her abilities did not start coming to the surface until the start of her junior year.

"She just needed to start believing in herself. Once she started getting a little success, it got to the point where she stopped doing other sports and just focused on track," Reed track and field coach Dale Moss said. "The summer between her junior and senior year, she was part of a throwers group that traveled around the country. They went to Florida, and she won down there and did some great things."

Doing track for the first time as a freshman, Hill said she never imagined being where she is now. She is extremely grateful for all the support she has received from all her coaches.

"I knew this was my niche, doing shot and disc. I knew I couldn't run," Hill said. "I was just hoping I'd get better. Reed has had some really great throwers in the past."

Hill has become one of those great throwers because of the hard work she has put in the past four years at the track.

"She's a very hard worker. When she does something, she does it whole-heartedly," Moss said. "She has a lot on her plate. She's also involved with the academic Olympics. She was also involved with 'We the People' and Reed High School was invited to go to Washington D.C. two weekends ago. She flew out right after her throws and joined the group. She has a 3.9 GPA and is taking several AP classes. She's very dedicated in everything she does."

'We the People' is a civics and debate class and Reed won state and was invited to the national competition.

Hill said she is most likely attending UNR next year and would like a chance to continue her throwing career if possible.