Flying on the Field of Indoor Track

Maria Soto, 11, launches a heavy ball, called a shot, across the sand pit. Shots are typically made of a lead core encased in iron or steel with a rubber coating on the outside, and they can weigh 8-12 pounds. Photo credits: Edie Berke

Edie Berke, Staff Writer for The Powderhorn

If you wandered down to the football field during an Indoor Track and Field practice, you would see a flurry of activity: sprinters and long-distance runners rounding the bends of the track, hurdlers bounding over the hurdles, and jumpers leaping across the sand pits. You would also see both people and metal balls flying through the air. Pole vault and shot put, while common on outdoor track teams, may not be the first events that come to mind when you think of track. They certainly weren’t for junior Maria Soto, one of Watauga’s talented shot put throwers. When she first tried the sport in 7th grade, she was intrigued by the lack of recognition it gets.

“You don't hear a lot about it in track and field talk,” said Soto. “I thought it looked really difficult. I think after the first practice, I was like, maybe track is not for me. I went home and looked up a whole bunch of videos, and I saw all the Olympic spins and all this. I was like, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but it just looked really intriguing.”

Despite her initial reservations about the sport, Soto decided to stick with it. As she was drawn in by its unique nature, she also fell in love with the uniqueness of its setup. Similar to many track events but unlike most other sports, throwers don’t compete as a team.

“I've tried a lot of sports, and this one just had a different feel, especially the team aspect of it,” said Soto. “I really liked it. It was more of an individual sport, and it was based off of your performance. And once you learn the steps, it just feels really simple and natural.”

In shot put, throwers hold a heavy metal ball at their shoulder and complete a series of spins to launch it as far as they can. In pole vault, however, competitors attempt to launch themselves into the air. Junior Sydney Helms, who has been pole vaulting for three years, explains the process of getting up and over the bar.

“On the runway, I like to count my steps, and I count up,” said Helms. “So whenever I’m on the last step, which depends on how far I’m running, you have to think about really planting [the pole] and pushing up, and then when you’re in the air, you just swing your legs and make sure you get your feet to the tip of the bar, and then just spin over it.”

Since Soto joined shot put four years ago, she has seen major growth in her skills and techniques, evident by the fact that she competed at the national level in the spring of her sophomore year. However, she says that the most progress she has seen has been in her mindset.

“My mentality, I think, has really improved from last year,” said Soto. “Last year, it was more like I was basing myself on how I did. If I threw bad, I was like, okay, I'm horrible, I'm quitting, this is terrible. But this year, I'm trying to go in with the ‘one bad throw mentality’. It's one bad throw. You have three more, you know, just kind of shake it off. I would really get in my own head after my throw, especially if it was the very first throw I threw. It was bad. That would just set the tone for me for the rest of the meet. So I think this year I'm just trying to go in with the one bad throw.”

It hasn’t been easy for Soto, though. In April of 2025, she began experiencing severe shoulder pain that interfered with her throwing. What followed was a long road of recovery that Soto is grateful is nearing its end.

“I just pushed through for the rest of the season because I didn’t want to get told by the doctor that I couldn’t throw,” said Soto. “After I went to nationals, my shoulder was really bothering me. I couldn’t really move my arm without being in pain. I went to the doctor, and I had torn two parts of my labrum. I had surgery August 14, four days before school, and I am currently four months out. I just did my first throws today (January 6), actually. I go back February 15 to hopefully get cleared to fully throw.”

As Soto continues to heal from her surgery, she looks forward to the season ahead and the opportunities it holds. Helms also anticipates her pole vaulting season, and she has big goals for herself.

“I definitely want to improve my inversion form over the bar,” said Helms. “When you're pushing your feet up, and you go upside down, and then you have to twist. I need to improve on that. And I want a PR by a foot.”

With a clean bill of health expected from the doctor soon, Soto is setting her sights once again on the national competition. She hopes to take advantage of the opportunity to set herself apart from the other competitors.

“A lot of the seniors that were there last year are no longer there, so I'm looking for a chance to really put myself out there and open up,” said Soto. “After my shoulder surgery, I’d say it would definitely prove to myself how hard I've worked and how much I've really put into this sport. Last year, I put in so much, I was training pretty much every day of the week. If I made it to nationals again this year, it would just really show me how far I've come from the beginning of this season.”