Aug. 19—LANGDON, N.D. — Langdon's Fenja Lawson and Fargo Shanley's Addison Larson spent the summer trading places atop the discus standings.
On July 11, Larson captured first place in the discus 15-16 age division at the USA Track and Field Region 8 Junior Olympic Championship in Gretna, Neb., with a throw of 132-0.
Lawson placed second with a throw just two inches short of Larson's.
"We're really close," Lawson said. "We've been close in competitions quite a bit, so it's just a really fun competition with her. ... It's just fun being able to experience the same things as her, and we just talk about it all the time."
The roles were reversed less than a month later.
Lawson edged Larson by two inches for first place in the discus with a throw of 133-8 at the USATF National Junior Olympic Championship in Norwalk, Calif., on July 31.
"It was a really cool experience," Lawson said. "I wasn't going into it expecting too much. There's a lot of things that I wasn't expecting that I had to adapt to, but I really liked the way it worked out. It was really fun to do."
In addition to the two USATF events, Lawson competed at the AAU Junior Olympic Games in Des Moines, Iowa, in August. Competing in the 15-16 age division, she placed sixth in the shot put (38-9.75) and fourth in the discus (145-11) while earning All-American honors.
Though Lawson has found success at the prep level, this was her first summer competing in national events.
"It was a lot different than I expected," Lawson said. "There are a lot of different rules and things you wouldn't expect, but it all went pretty smoothly. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but it went a lot better than I expected."
Lawson is entering her sophomore year at Langdon Area High School, looking to build off two consecutive appearances at the North Dakota Class B state meet.
Lawson placed third in the discus (134-1) and fifth in the shot put (38-9.5) at the Class B state meet this past season. She finished ninth (37-3) in the shot put as an eighth-grader in 2025.
"It was really crazy my eighth-grade year," Lawson said. "I never really expected to qualify for shot put. It was my goal for the next year, I didn't realize I could get it that year. And then going from there with a huge PR at state, it was really exciting. I never thought it would take me as far as California within the next year or so."
Lawson is a member of Dinius Track and Field, a club based in Bismarck. Between her work with the club, her prep career and this summer's national events, Lawson has made plenty of progress since joining track and field in seventh grade.
"It's crazy to see how much I've improved in just three years," Lawson said. "A huge portion of it was mental, figuring everything out in practice and carrying it on to a meet. But a lot of it was just narrowing down the little things and working on the technique and getting a lot of reps, everything to make it all come together at the meet."
Lawson plans to continue competing at national events next summer. For now, her sights are set on the coming prep season.
"I'm very excited to see how I start off my sophomore year," Lawson said. "I'd prefer to get top three at state for discus and maybe top five for shot put. But it's just week by week, hopefully getting better and going up instead of jumping around."
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