Youth Hammer Continues Growth in 2016

As we wrote about last week, 2016 had some standout performances that rank among the best in high school history. In addition, the depth reached new levels too. Overall the number of throwers qualifying for Bob Gourley’s national list increased to 261 throwers. This means that throughout the season 131 boys broke 150 feet and 130 girls threw over 120 feet. This represents a slight 1% increase compared to 2015.

→ Related Content: HSHammer’s overview of records set in 2016 and movements on the all-time rankings list.

Despite higher overall numbers, strength was not up across the board. After a historically strong season in 2015 with five boys over 230 feet, just one broke the barrier this year. At other levels results stayed consistent. Girl’s results, on the other hand, trended upwards with an impressive three girls over 190 feet and 38 over 150 feet, both new records. Below is an overview of the five-year trends over certain barriers.

→ More stats: Bob Gourley’s season ending national performance lists contain the complete list of all 261 athletes.