Anchorage Daily News

Once you get beyond gaping at Jordan Clarke's size -- his 6 feet, 4 inches and 280 pounds look firmer than the concrete pad of the throwing ring from which he launches his sublime shot puts -- you notice he is a conversation killer.

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As Bartlett High's record-breaking senior approached the circle in a corner of the sprawling field behind his school Friday morning, social hour ceased among the 100 or so athletes, coaches and fans assembled.

Murmurs turned mute.

Video cameras and digital cameras were pointed at Clarke.

Beginning with his back to the field, Clarke nestled a yellow shot put into the crook between his boulder of a right shoulder and his square jaw. He spun counter-clockwise one and a half rotations, corkscrewing swiftly yet smoothly, his long, wavy black hair flying off his forehead, and unleashed the fourth of his six throws in the Cook Inlet Conference Track and Field Championships.

The 12-pound implement arced high in the air -- and far, so far half the crowd cheered and the other half gasped.

While an official marked where Clarke's heave landed in the dead, straw-colored grass of the field, another official, Bruce Jayne, knelt at the circle and stretched his end of the tape measure.

"All right, folks,'' Jayne announced, then paused a moment.

"Seventy feet...'' Jayne began, and the rest was lost in the roar of cheers and clapping.

"Holy smokes!'' cried one man.

"Yeah!'' screamed a boy.

Clarke's personal-best throw of 70 feet, 6 inches, marked the longest in the nation by a prep athlete this season. His previous best of 67-10 3/4 had been the standard -- until his first throw of 68-7 1/2 Friday, which didn't last even an hour before he uncorked the 70-footer. Clarke's effort also obliterated his previous conference record of 60-11 1/2, set last year and earned him his third straight conference title.

And so Clarke, Arizona State-bound on a scholarship in the fall, buried another benchmark. He came into the meet seeking a 70-footer.

"I knew it was close, but I wasn't sure until they announced it,'' he said. "I'm trying to do the best I can, my personal best, to push myself to my maximum.

"It feels almost effortless when you have a good one -- you just pop it. It's like in baseball, when you get a really good hit. It feels smooth, like you're just swinging through air.''

Clarke's first throw of the competition proved satisfying but nothing to savor.

"The first one, I rushed through it,'' Clarke said. "You can muscle it, but you want to be smooth. You have to learn to control your adrenaline and put it into your technique.''

The mark of runner-up Ian Rosario of Chugiak -- 49- 3/4 -- lagged more than 21 feet behind Clarke's winning heave. In 10 of the previous 18 conference championships, Rosario's effort would have earned him gold.

But Clarke is establishing marks that could last decades. He owns the state record of 60-1, which seems certain to fall next week in Fairbanks -- state records can only be set at the state meet.

Joe Alward, the West High assistant coach who has been involved in Alaska track as an athlete, coach and official for most of the last 30 years, marveled at Clarke's mark.

"Where do I bow down?'' Alward asked.

Alward said Clarke is leaving his legacy on the landscape. The field where Clarke and others competed Friday is pockmarked with small craters, beginning about 30 feet from the ring, created by the impact of the shot put landing in the grass.

"You see all these divots in the mid 30s to the low 40s,'' Alward said. "Then there's one near 50 (Rosario's), and that's really impressive.

"And then there's emptiness, and then (Clarke's) divot. Just out there, by itself. I think it says he may have way more in the tank, more potential, than we know.''

Find Doyle Woody's blog online at adn.com/hockeyblog.

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