Ava Walters’ pre-practice routine didn’t change Tuesday afternoon: up-and-down stretches, leg swings, easy tosses in shot put and discus, full-power throws, cool-downs and more stretching.
“Just getting my body and, like, getting some flow in there,” Bishop Brossart’s senior thrower said. “I go through a progression I’ve been doing for a while; it’s about seven-, eight-ish steps.”
It’s been a winning formula.
Walters has dominated Class A in the outdoor shot put and discus the last two years – she won both last year, took the state indoor shot put last month, was undefeated through six outdoor events so far this year, and has signed with Eastern Kentucky University.
Sometimes, the discus is Walters’ favorite event – until it’s the shot put.
“They kind of go back and forth, but I would say primarily shot put is my favorite event,” Walters says. “I think that I am built pretty well for it and I’ve always had I’ve had prolonged success with it.”
‘A pretty good athlete’
Brossart girls coach Dave Schuh wasn’t sure whether he first saw Walters fling the two-pound discus or toss the eight-pound steel ball at The Quad, a March 21, 2023 meet in Alexandria. Walters tied for fourth in discus at 63 feet, 6 inches and second in shot put at 26-4.
Whenever it was, Schuh was immediately impressed.
“(Walters) was a pretty good athlete,” he said. “She did, really, she did a nice job for us from day one. I keep all kinds of records, so before the year was over, she had our freshman record in shot put and disc(us), and she threw farther than any freshman we’ve ever had.”
Walters was a basketball player first. (She eventually averaged 3.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in 52 games from 2023-25.) Throwing implements became a thing when family friend Les Leicht and his son started a track team at St. Mary School in Alexandria.
“I started out just naturally kind of good at it, which always kind of catches somebody’s eye,” Walters said. “But it was also something new and different that I really liked because I had grown up playing basketball my whole life … and I used to want to pursue that beyond high school, but I think that (track) was a good, fresh new thing that kind of caught my eye, caught my attention.”
The car ride
Walters won her first outdoor event as an eighth-grader, the shot put at the Bearcat Series No. 1 meet on March 30, 2022 at Walton-Verona with a throw of 27-4.
“I remember that car ride home with my dad kind of thinking, ‘Oh, this is something I could really pursue or at least try to have some fun with, even if at that point I wasn’t thinking beyond high school,” she said.
Walters struggled as a freshman in 2023 – she placed seventh in the Class A, Region 4 shot put and 11th in the discus. (“It was pretty much just brute strength, not much technique, kind of throwing it up at the ring every practice,” she says.)
A month or two after winning the 2024 Class A shot put with a 34-6 ¼ and finishing fourth in the discus at 110-5, Walters’ family searched for an experienced coach and found one before her junior year: Mason County and University of Kentucky alumnus and EKU throws coach Andy Fryman.
In 2003, Fryman set records that still stand: the Class 2A shot put (65-7 ½) and all-class discus (194-11). In 2006 at UK, he won the outdoor Southeastern Conference and NCAA Mideast Region shot put titles.
“Andy trains Olympians,” Walters’ dad, Jason Walters, says. “We had no idea, really, who he was or what he was prior to contacting him, being with him.”
Proper shot put and discus technique share the same kinesiological principle: power must be generated from the hips and legs and through the core. Walters’ form was raw her first two high school seasons – a fact Fryman saw early.
“I think just a lot of my movement patterns could have been sped up, a lot could have been cleaner,” Walters says. “I think there was just a lot of things that he saw that he definitely knew could be cleaned up with some good practice.”
The work paid off last year. Walters won the outdoor shot put in a personal-record 39-1 ½ and took the discus with a 123-8. She finished lower than third place just once, a fourth in the state Class A indoor shot put with a 31-9, partly because she had switched from gliding in the ring to spinning just two weeks before.
“I was pretty proud of that fourth-place finish, so going into outdoor, I was really excited to work,” Walters says.
Farther and farther
Walters’ 42-10 ¼ in the 2026 indoor shot not only bettered her PR by nearly four feet – it was the farthest toss in all three classes and bested the Class A record by over three feet.
“That was pretty exciting because that was one of the things I had in my mind,” Walters said. “My main goal was the Class A record.”
Walters is 3-0 in both the outdoor discus and shot put this season, including a PR 129-6 in the discus at the Stan Steidel Invitational March 28 at Holmes – which makes up for the 111-5 at the Campbell County Quad two days before.
“I had been feeling that I had some good throws, but I was kind of fouling towards the right sector,” Walters said. “… The 111 at the Campbell County one, I think I only marked one throw there because I was fouling that right side.”
Walters has an outdoor shot put goal: the state-record 40-4 Shelly Mayes of Harrodsburg set in 1999.
“I’m working to get over that 40 mark outdoor-wise, and then I think that it’s just up from there,” Walters said. ”I think I have some really big throws stored … but I think as time goes on, I will be able to work and practice and let those out.”