Ekene Chukwu broke his own school record in the discus on the first day of his junior season.
Chukwu threw 54.54 meters — roughly 179 feet — at the Republic Classic, winning the event by nearly nine meters. The mark topped his previous best of 49.96 meters, which he’d set as a sophomore. That throw had broken a record Ryan Anstaett held since 2005. Chukwu beat it as a 10th-grader, then added more than four and a half meters to it in his junior opener.
He also placed fifth in shot put as Republic swept both team titles at its own invitational.
A few days later at the Branson Invitational, Chukwu won the discus again at 49.10 meters — a throw that would have been just short of a school record when the week began.
Chukwu’s record-breaking start to the season is our Performance of the Week.
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