RATHDRUM — At first, Brooke Andersen was just pleased with her distance.

Then, her Saturday went from great to unbelievable.

Andersen, who moved into fourth place in the nation with a throw of 246 feet, 10 inches on her third attempt of the day in the women’s hammer throw, quickly jumped past that into first with a mark of 251-9 on her next throw at the fifth Iron Wood Throws Classic at the Iron Wood Training Center.

“Honestly, when I threw it, was I thinking, ‘oh my gosh, it’s 76 (meters),” said Andersen, a 2018 Northern Arizona graduate who finished runner-up at nationals in 2017. “Everyone was saying that I was the U.S. No. 1 with that throw, and I couldn’t believe it. There was no way little ol’ me could be No. 1 in the nation.”

Participants competed in the hammer throw and shot put on Saturday, with divisions for high school (boys, girls) and college and post-collegiate (men’s and women’s). Roughly 400 attended the event, held on 10 acres owned by throws guru Bart Templeman.

Since graduation, Andersen has been training at Kansas State, where her college coach Nathan Ott has joined the staff.

“It feels good with the work that I put in,” Andersen said. “I’ve just been trying to fine-tune some things and trying to improve on the little things.”

Andersen added that at first, things didn’t feel right.

“My warmup felt really bad,” Andersen said. “So I took five attempts to try and feel something that I felt yesterday (Friday). My first few attempts were just trying to get a mark, but the next few were trying to allow myself to follow all the way through.”

Anderson’s training partner, Janee Kassanavoid, who competed at Kansas State, was runner-up at 234-9.

“We really push each other in competitions and practice,” Andersen said. “It was just a good day to execute things for us.”

After not having his best afternoon in the discus on Friday, Jacob Lemmon of Fort Myers, Fla., made up for it at the right time in the boys hammer throw on Saturday.

“I was brought here for the discus throw, and that didn’t go as well as I’d hoped,” said Lemmon, who will continue at Virginia in the fall. “I had an open blister on my release finger.”

Lemmon was third in the discus on Friday with a throw of 195-4, some 10 feet behind the winner.

Due to the top men’s hammer throwers opting to compete in the Diamond League this week according to Templeman, the event organizer, only three high school boys — Lemmon, Joshua Jackson of Quincy, Ill., and Tanner Duffin of Atlanta — competed in the hammer in Rathdrum. They were added on Saturday morning.

“I haven’t had a meet in the hammer in a year, so I had to hit 180 feet to qualify for the New Balance national meet,” said Lemmon, who won the event with a throw of 201 feet, 6 inches. “I was just thankful to be able to have this meet and hit that mark.”

To repeat women’s shot put champion Daniella Hill, who competed at Purdue, Saturday’s win was progress after a rough season in 2018.

“This felt a lot better this time around than last year,” said Hill, who won with a throw of 61 feet, 2 3/4 inches. “It was a season best for me, so it feels like things are heading the right direction.”

Hill, the 2018 U.S. Indoor champion in the shot put, also has been working with Ralph Neal, a Michigan State coach who coached her husband, Zack Hill, during his time with the Spartans.

“We’ve been kind of changing things a little bit heading into this meet,” Daniella Hill said. “He coached my husband, and he’s a pretty good shot putter. So I’ve got a lot of confidence in him.”

At first, Jonathon Jones was a little nervous in the ring for the men’s shot put.

It didn’t show by the finish, with Jones winning with a throw of 69 feet, 1 inch.

“The amount of explosion I had going in was really good,” said Jones, who threw collegiately at Buffalo. “I had a little bit of jitters coming in, but I felt good. I finally feel like I’m getting to a level I should be right now. Winning here means progress for me. There was some good competition here this year. I’ve had a couple of bad years with injuries, so I’m ready to get things going heading into nationals.”

Other winners on Saturday included Daniel Viveros of Bakersfield, Calif. (boys shot put, 70-10 3/4) and Faith Bender of Bakersfield, Calif. (girls shot put, 47-2). Viveros holds the top mark in the nation in the boys shot put at 71 feet, 3 inches.

WOMEN’S HAMMER THROW — 1, Brooke Andersen, 251 feet, 9 inches. 2, Janee Kassanavoid, 234-9. 3, Whitney Simmons, 202-11. 4, Christina MacDonald, 198-2. 5, Cara McClain 185-4.

BOYS HAMMER THROW — 1, Jacob Lemmon, 201-6. 2, Jordan Johnson, 175-1. 3, Tanner Duffin, 164-11.

GIRLS SHOT PUT — 1, Faith Bender, 47-2. 2, Gretchen Hoekstre, 44-4 3/4.

WOMEN’S SHOT PUT — 1, Daniella Hill, 61-2 3/4. 2, Jeneva Stevens, 59-11. 3, Jessica Woodard, 58-8 3/4. 4, Lena Giger, 55-11 3/4. 5, Brittany Smith, 53-1. 6, Samara Nelson, 47-9 1/4.

BOYS SHOT PUT — 1, Daniel Viveros, 70-10 3/4. 2, Tanner Duffin, 66-1 3/4. 3, Zechariah Blake, 58-3 3/4. 4, Jordan Johnson, 57-5 3/4. 5, Jacob Lemmon, 56-5 1/4.

MEN’S SHOT PUT — 1, Jonathon Jones, 69-1. 2, Josh Awotunde, 68-7. 3, Garrett Appier, 67-4. 4, David Pless, 66-10. 5, Roger Steen, 64-8 3/4. 6, Alex Renner, 63-6. 7, Nick Ponzio, 63-2 1/4. 8, Jake Knight, 58-6 3/4. 9, Abuduaini Tuergong, 55-0 1/4.