Senior Toni Doss has been throwing her weight around. The track and field athlete broke her PR in the weight throw for the second week running. Her new PR, 38 feet and 8.25 inches, launches her to No. 3 in EMU history.

“I PRed by a whole meter,” Toni said. “It was just like, oh, that’s huge. That’s huge.”

Everyone has their own pre-competition routine. For Toni, it is pretty simple.

“You wake up and hope you don’t miss the van!” With a laugh, she continued, “I’m usually pretty nervous, too, but I think with actually being there and starting it goes away. Then just basically you let it go and you just throw the thing.”

Toni did not know what EMU’s weight throw record was until Saturday, when she PRed. Now she’s gunning for it. “

“When I found out what it was for indoor I was like, I can do this. I think the record is 13.93 meters and I’m at 11.79 meters, so I was like, I’m going to try to do this.”

EMU’s track and field program has had coaching changes every year of Toni’s career. This has big effects for the throwers, who need their own specialized coach beyond a head coach.

“Not having set coaches … me and Justin [Odom] and the rest of the throwers were our own support group,” she explained.

There is still no specialized throws coach, but Toni is grateful for the support she feels from the new coaching staff.

“Coach Cam [associate head coach Erick Camodeca] has made sure there are people who come support us if they’re not doing anything and that means a lot to me … even though I don’t like them yelling,” she said, laughing.

Head Coach Bob Hepler took videos from the throws practice to get feedback from an outside throwing coach.

“I was like, that’s great! That’s great,” Toni said. “Having more feedback from people is really awesome.”

Toni is majoring in digital media and photography, with a minor in art. She has big plans for after graduation.

“I’m going to marry rich!” She paused, overcome by laughter. “That’s not really a goal … because I don’t want to get married. I just want to continue to do photography and make enough money so I can get my own camera.”

Toni is excited for her team to excel this season.

“I just want to see everybody getting better,” she said. “I want to see everybody hitting their top times. That’s all you can really ask for, is for people to do their best.”

As for herself, she said, “My goals for the season are basically to continue getting better.”

Coach Camodeca has seen Toni’s hard work in action.

“Many times it is easy to talk about goals,” he said, “but not do the things to accomplish them. Toni has really committed to those goals by pushing herself like she never has in the weight room, conditioning, and overcoming mental blocks. It is exciting to see Toni improving every single weekend.”

“I’m just trying to get close to the record,” Toni said. “I want to take a record. I don’t know when I decided that this is my goal, but I want a record.”

And if she keeps advancing by a meter a week, it is only a matter of time.