Hereford junior Mike Nash won a state championship in the shot put at the Class 2A state meet, but that wasn't even what impressed his coach Brad Duvall the most.
It was what he did in warm-ups at Morgan State University.
"He actually threw 63-feet in the warm-ups at the state meet," Duvall said. "It didn't count, but they did measure. That's the biggest throw I've ever seen."
Nash went on to win the outdoor state title with a throw of 56 feet, 9 inches after placing second in the event as a sophomore (50-11).
It was the second state title for the Hereford junior, who also won one during his sophomore year indoors.
Nash, who was second in the state indoors this past winter in shot put, also played football in the fall and was selected as the 2016 North County News male Athlete of the Year.
This spring, he took first in shot put in nine track meets, including the Baltimore County and Class 2A Central Region meets.
He set a personal record of 58-feet, 3 inches in a meet on May 4.
That was nearly seven feet more than his longest throw as a sophomore.
Duvall credits his jump in distance to learning the spinning technique.
"As a rotational athlete he was able to make some pretty huge gains," Duvall said. "He started spinning last spring, but he hadn't quite picked it up yet. Late this past winter, it really clicked and he gained six feet on his PR (personal record) based on that ability to rotate a little bit."
It has clicked so well for Nash that he is now is closing in on the school records outdoors (60) and indoors (57) set by David Lane in 1975.
"The school record is his next goal and I didn't ever think I would see that record broken," Duvall said. "Having a kid that is that close is pretty exciting. He will get it next year."
Although his track season at Hereford is over, he will compete in shot put June 18-20 at the New Balance National Outdoor meet.
"He wants to go down and throw well for the colleges because that's a big part of it," Duvall said.
His increased numbers should certainly catch the eye of college coaches.
"Indoors, he was only throwing about 50-feet and then outdoors it was 58. That eight feet probably leap-frogged about 500 people in the country," Duvall said. "I think after these spring results are kind of filtered through and some other coaches see those throws, schools interested in him will be changing from high level Division III and low level Division I programs to some serious Division I programs contacting him."
Nash also threw the discus and won eight outdoor meets including the counties and regionals.
His PR in discus is 154-2 inches and he placed eighth at the 2016 state meet.
On the football field for the 8-3 Bulls, he also made a huge impact for coach Ric Evans.
"He was definitely the main run-stopper for us on defense," said Evans, noting the 6-foot, 295-pounder will be a captain in the fall.
As a junior, he was named to the Baltimore Touchdown Club Super 22 Team.
"He has just done a phenomenal job for us," Evans said.
Evans said Richmond and Towson universities have shown interest in him and he has no doubt he could play college football.
Evans recalled Nash having big games in victories over New Town, Randallstown and Overlea.
"He had multiple sacks in each of those games," Evans said.
The season ended in an 8-0 loss to Patterson in the first round of the regional playoffs, but Nash left his mark on a Patterson coach.
"The Patterson coach told me after the game, 'We had to hold no. 67 (Nash) all game long because there was no way we could stop him from getting into our backfield,'" Evans said.