Track and Field Championships: Piperi prepared to power his way to shot put title

By Riley Zayas
Horns Illustrated Contributor

This week, from June 5-8, Mike A. Myers stadium will play host to the biggest event in college track and field — the NCAA National Championships. It will be a showcase of the best of the best in the NCAA with athletes competing in a variety of different running and field events, from the 100-meter dash to the 10,000-meter run, the high jump to the javelin.

Considering that the 2019 Texas track and field team has enjoyed so much success over the course of the outdoor season, it’s no wonder that 20 different Longhorns will be representing the host team this week. Out of all 20, four have stood out over the course of this journey to the championships. All four have different backgrounds, different stories and run different races, but all stand proud in the Eyes of Texas. Horns Illustrated profiles those four athletes heading into the big meet — Sam Worley, Tripp Piperi, Ashtin Zamzow and Teahna Daniels.

Tripp Piperi

Heading into his second NCAA Outdoor Championships, All-America thrower Tripp Piperi has one goal in mind: win.

Piperi got his throwing career off to a early start when he began the sport as an 8-year-old boy. Always showing a knack for getting the disc or shot further than his fellow competitors, The Woodlands native found himself quickly ascend to the top and earned a scholarship offer from Texas, an offer he knew he didn’t want to pass up.

“When I was choosing a college I had three factors,” he said. “First was the academics, second was the ‘do I feel like I’m at home there?’ and third was the track team itself. Obviously, the academics at UT are fantastic and the track team has been historically amazing.”