SE: Patiently Waiting to Wear the Purple and White

By: D. Scott Fritchen

The town of Webster, New York, borders the southeastern shoreline of Lake Ontario and is about a 2-hour ferry ride to Toronto. Although Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes, measures 53 miles across, the Canadian shores remains hidden from view. Brian Bliss, current Director of Player Personnel for Sporting Kansas City, is from Webster, as is astronaut Edward Tsang Lu. To our knowledge, one Webster native, if she chose to, could fire the weight throw farthest into Lake Ontario.

Her name is Monique Hardy. As a senior at Webster Thomas High School, Monique once tossed the weight throw 66 feet, 11 ¼ inches at the 2020 Millrose games in New York City.

It marked the second-farthest throw by a female high school athlete in American history.

Monique won three straight New York state titles in the weight throw in 2018, 2019 and 2020. She commanded the cage. The only thing that stood between her and the No. 1 all-time weight throw record? The COVID-19 pandemic. She was one week from potentially setting the national mark. Then the pandemic shut everything down, including the final months of her brilliant high school career.

"Tough to take," she says. "I would've been No. 1. I'm still very proud of my accomplishment. I'll take No. 2."

There's so much that goes into the weight throw and hammer throw. The hours of on-field preparation probably aren't unlike many track and field events. But the weightlifting is intense. And when it comes to Monique's specialty, man, there's just a feel — that feel during the final spin in the ring when everything makes sense, when everything is just right, and when the release over the shoulder, sometimes, leads to a historic mark.

The passion began in the eighth grade. That's when Monique began official competition in track and field. She started competing in hurdles. Then she picked up a shot put. In the eighth grade — yes, the eighth grade — she threw the shot put distances that would've ranked among the farthest by any high school athlete in America. Then she gravitated toward the weight throw and hammer throw. In her words, she just "clicked quickly." She finished out her high school career winning 20 of her final 21 weight throw competitions.

Meanwhile, Sherman and Sylvia drove their daughter to hammer throw events in Ohio and Rhode Island (the NYSPHSAA did not recognize the hammer throw as a sanctioned state-wide event). She earned the 2018 USATF Junior Olympic hammer throw title with a mark of 170 feet, 5 ¼ inches at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, North Carolina.

"I was competing for fun, and I didn't realize I had a gift until maybe my sophomore year," she says. "I started getting some attention from colleges. My numbers, they were just a little bit 'out there.' I looked forward to every day and working on specific technical things. It wasn't like, 'Oh, you sprint one season and now you're fast.' It takes a long time to get good. I enjoyed the weight and hammer throw, maybe weight a little bit more, because we threw it more often. The hammer throw literally took me places."

The weight throw and hammer throw are similar. For women, the weight throw features a metal ball of 20 pounds on a 1-foot wire attached to a grip and competitions are held on an indoor track and field, while the hammer throw is an outdoor field sport that uses a metal ball of 8.8 pounds on a 3-foot wire attached to a grip. Both requires power and strength. Each participant starts at the back of a throwing circle, generates power by spinning two or three times while bending the knees and inching toward launch zone, then releases the hammer at a 45-degree angle, sending it rocketing into a field.

"My parents were skeptical at first," she says. "They didn't see me lifting weights and going to throw a metal ball into a field, but the more I put myself into it and dedicated my time to it, they really supported me. In high school, they were my managers, and drove me everywhere. My dad became my coach at one point."

Monique was stronger and more powerful than all her competitors. The regimen involved warming up, stretching, and performing between 30 and 35 throws each day before lifting weights. She followed this routine five or six days a week. She posted videos of her 60-foot throw on Instagram with her email address and phone number attached, hoping it might entice a major college. Only one other female in high school history had ever thrown such a distance, she figured, so why not?

Greg Watson, assistant coach for throws at LSU, was the first Division I coach to call Monique. Watson was entering his third season with the Tigers. He previously served as the throws coach at Kansas State from 2013-18. While at K-State, Watson coached Janee Kassanavoid, the current K-State record holder in the women's weight throw and hammer throw, who recently finished fourth in the hammer at the Olympic Trials and currently ranks fifth all-time in the event in American history.

"Coach Watson reached out to me, and I'll never forget, he said, 'I'll be the first (to call you) and I'll be the last,'" Monique says.

Of course, every other SEC school came calling shortly after, along with UCLA, Penn State and Texas. But Monique was hooked on LSU. And she did not disappoint. As a freshman last year, she competed solely in the weight throw indoors. She became the second female in LSU history to be named SEC Women's Freshman Field Athlete of the Year indoors. She recorded the second-best throw in LSU history with a toss of 71 feet, 11 ½ inches. She finished fourth at the SEC Championship with a heave of 70 feet, 10 ½ inches, then she finished ninth in the NCAA Indoor Championships with an effort of 70 feet, 6 ½ inches, as the only freshman in the nation to make it to nationals in the event.

Outdoors, she recorded a distance of 214 feet, 11 inches in the hammer throw, the third farthest in LSU history. She was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team in both indoors and outdoors — and achieved such feats while also earning a spot on the 2020-21 SEC First Year Academic Honor Roll.

The first heartbreak of Monique's life arrived in mid-June after the 2021 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. That's when Watson called Monique to inform her that he wasn't returning to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He had accepted another coaching job.

"Very upsetting," Monique says. "It was my dream to attend LSU. I had to think about the why I really went there. And that was because of Coach Watson. It was very rough knowing that the one thing that drew me to that school was leaving. Who was going to replace him? In my mind and heart, I knew I wanted to transfer. I knew how much progress I made with him in one year, so I couldn't imagine how much progress I'd make with Coach Watson after a few more years."

Watson returned as throws coach at K-State.

Monique had never been to Manhattan, Kansas, but she put her name into the transfer portal in hopes of being reunited with Watson. However, she narrowly missed the initial deadline of July 1, making her ineligible to participate in competitions as a member of the K-State track and field team in 2021-22.

"I came sight-unseen to K-State," she says. "I'll still be able to compete this year, but just not for K-State. During my years of eligibility, I plan on being Big 12 Champion, national champion multiple times, break some records here and there, and take some names. I have plenty of time for it."

On December 11, in her first event in Manhattan, Hardy participated as an unattached competitor, and won the women's weight throw at 69 feet, 4 ¾ inches at the K-State Winter Invitational at Ahearn Field House. On January 21, again as an unattached competitor, Monique was the top collegiate finisher with a throw of 66 feet, 10 ½ inches at the DeLoss Dodds Invitational.

She seems to be fitting in just fine in the Little Apple.

"I practice with the team every day," she says. "I just have to wait to wear the purple and the white."

For now, Monique sets her sights on the 2022 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships on February 26-27 at The Podium in Spokane, Washington. The USATF serves as the national championship in track and field for the United States and selection meet for Team USA for 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in March in Belgrade, Serbia.

One day, she'd like to represent K-State and the United States in the Olympics.

"Am I ready for the ride?" she says. "One hundred percent. I'm gearing up this year, and I'm kicking butt next year."

While a small lifetime has seemingly passed since Monique picked up her first shot put back home in Webster, New York, a new and exciting journey still awaits — and she has yet to wear K-State colors into a throwing cage. Reunited with Watson, it will be intriguing to see Monique's progression, and indeed, how many Big 12 Conference or NCAA titles she might collect during her career. Equally intriguing will be what she might achieve as a professional thrower years from now.

There's a world of opportunity out there for Monique. And it's way bigger than Lake Ontario.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Monique Hardy

Related Videos