{"id":295292,"date":"2026-05-16T00:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T00:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/295292\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T00:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T00:17:08","slug":"frisco-heritages-cj-williams-wins-state-shot-put-title-sets-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/295292\/","title":{"rendered":"Frisco Heritage’s CJ Williams wins state shot put title, sets record"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Frisco<\/p>\n

Frisco Heritage\u2019s CJ Williams throws in the 5A boys shot put during the UIL 5A high school state track meet in Austin, Texas on Friday, May 15, 2026. Williams took gold with a throw of 67-3.50.<\/p>\n

Brendan Maloney\/Special Contributor<\/p>\n

AUSTIN \u2014 Frisco Heritage superstar CJ Williams was dealing with debilitating pain in his knees<\/a>. So much so that the nation\u2019s leading shot put thrower considered not competing at Friday\u2019s Class 5A state track and field meet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t decide I was going to compete until Monday,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought about just sitting out, but my team, I think we have a pretty good chance to win the whole meet, so I figured that was something I couldn\u2019t pass up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Because of nearly unbearable patellar tendinitis in his right knee, and with his left knee also bothering him, Williams hadn\u2019t practiced in three weeks, and it showed. The defending state champion was in last place after the first three of his six attempts Friday.<\/p>\n

But even though the Ole Miss signee wasn\u2019t fully healthy, the senior produced perhaps the gutsiest performance of his career and won the state title in the shot put with a 5A meet-record throw of 67 feet, 3.50 inches at Mike A. Myers Stadium. He won by more than 3 feet and broke the record for the UIL\u2019s second-largest classification of 66-11.50 that was set by Corpus Christi Calallen\u2019s Lucas Mireles in 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t throw very good, but I was able to throw and not have my knees completely destroyed,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThey still hurt really bad, but I just wanted to come out with the win. That was my only goal today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Williams entered the meet leading the nation with a season-best throw of 72-0.25, and he broke the state record in the discus by throwing 221-3 this season. But he seriously considered shutting his season down and not competing at the regional meet two weeks ago, then had to survive some stressful moments early in Friday\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n

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After fouling on his first two attempts, Williams had to get a legal mark on his third to advance to the final and get three more throws. He played it as safe as could be, easing the shot put into legal territory for a mark of 17-5.75 that is by far the shortest throw of his high school career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was capable of throwing in the sector, but I was like, it\u2019s better to be safe than sorry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t let the pressure faze him, and on his fourth attempt he unleashed his winning throw, bettering his third by nearly 50 feet. It gave him his second state title and second consecutive undefeated season in the shot put, and he surpassed his winning throw from a year ago, which was 66-3.25 and also achieved while injured.\u00a0He had practiced only once since early March because of a stress fracture in his ankle.<\/p>\n

On Friday, he was walking with a little bit of a limp. He protected his right knee with a small brace and stretched his left leg with a band between throws. He considered stopping after his 67-foot throw, but he made two more attempts, fouling on both to give him four fouls in six attempts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI probably should have stopped throwing, but I knew I had more in me,\u201d he said. \u201cI had a foul that they measured at 70 feet, 2 inches. It\u2019s nothing you can\u2019t push through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams nearly won a second straight state title in the discus but finished second with a throw of 200-7. He took the lead with a throw of 198-9 on his first attempt, then played it conservatively because of his knee problems, passing on his third, fourth and fifth tries while still sitting in first.<\/p>\n

Justin\u00a0Bordelon from Liberty Hill won in dramatic fashion, throwing 208-6 on his sixth and final throw. That was 2 inches short of the overall state-meet record and broke Williams\u2019 5A state-meet record of 201-4 that he set last year.<\/p>\n

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Williams was the last competitor to throw and had a chance to claim the title. He fell 8 feet short and suffered his only loss of the season in the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frisco Heritage\u2019s CJ Williams throws in the 5A boys shot put during the UIL 5A high school state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,89283],"class_list":["post-295292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-tp-all-schools-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}