Even before Danielle Hoyle threw the discus in the Class 1A portion of the Coed State Meet on Friday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, longtime Paton-Churdan track & field observers were not coming up with names of any girls that had won a State Championship on the track or in the field from the school. They were right. A check of Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union online records had no females from the school listed; but there is one now!

Hoyle went from fourth place to first on her sixth and final throw of the competition to win with a toss of 130′ 11″ and become the first female from the school to be an Iowa High School track & field State Champion. What’s even more amazing is this is her first season of high school track & field and she didn’t start throwing the discus until March of this year.  The 6′ 3″ senior is enrolled as a student at Iowa State University. When asked if she would consider walking onto the team at ISU and giving collegiate throwing a try, she said if the Cyclones’ coaching staff asked her to do that, she probably would.