Recent Carson alum Lauryn Williams is a two-time City Section champion in the shot put. In the City Section shot put finals, Williams threw a 39-8.25 to become the back-to-back champ. In the State prelims she improved to a 40-2.00, coming in 10th and qualifying for the State Finals.
The 41-2.50 that Williams threw in the Finals placed her in eighth place in the State. In the fall, she will be attending UNLV to continue her track and field career. She will be under the tutelage of women’s track and field head coach Carmelita Jeter.
“It’s a lot of women empowerment with [Jeter], she empowers Black girls,” Williams said. “I love being able to be in her care and having her help me grow as a woman myself and as a Black woman as well.”
As she contended in the event, she also acted as the shot put coach to her teammates at Carson.
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“We had a lot of shot put athletes who didn’t have any guidance, so I stepped up and took it upon myself to coach the other athletes who had no knowledge of shot put,” Williams said. “Two of my youngest throwers who just started shot put this year, we actually made the City Finals, all three of us.”
Leadership is second nature for Williams; she is the oldest in her family and her sisters Tiffany and Kaitlyn are also on the track and field team. They talk about the sport frequently.
“Literally almost everyday we talk about track, watching videos,” Williams said. “We’d be in the living room, watching track meets, screaming and yelling like it’s a football game.”
Williams has been competing in track and field since the age of five, she began competing in shot put and javelin throw at 12. She competed in the Junior Olympics at least six times prior to her high school years.
Balancing being a student and athlete has helped Williams develop her character and prepared her for college. Carson track coaches Armit Lal and James Shannon helped her excel on and off the field.
“[Lal] always puts greatness onto his athletes and me as well,” Willaims said. “They didn’t let us slack, bad grades, they’d be on us. If we didn’t perform well, they’d be on us.”
During her senior year, Williams took three Advanced Placement classes: government, economics, and literature. Her favorite assignment was an argumentative essay she wrote about the First Amendment.
“I wrote about the First Amendment and the use of the First Amendment can be used negatively,” Williams said. “I got 100 percent on that one.”
