Jun 17, 2025
Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes McDonald junior Emma Bundy competes in the Division III girls discus, earning bronze at 133-3 feet. The three time state qualifier also qualified for and competed in the shot put this season.
COLUMBUS — While the McDonald Blue Devils found plenty of success on the track, across the street, the throws area became a place for a junior duo to make their mark at the Division III meet.
Emma Bundy and Cierra Shiley are both veterans to the state scene, Shiley having earned seventh in Dayton last season.
Bundy had previously made the finals her freshman year, but finally added a medal to her resume, taking home the bronze during the girls discus, marking 133-3 feet. Shiley also showed great improvement, earning fourth place, tossing a mark of 40-4.25 feet in the girls shot put.
After earning a trip to state for the third consecutive season, the feeling of earning points and walking away with a medal Bundy was thrilled.
“It feels pretty amazing.” Bundy said.
Naturally, it came following an hour-long lighting delay that interrupted competition.
“You still do your warmups, and you might have loosened your shoes a little bit, but everything is so routine at this point that you can’t let stuff like that bother you,” Bundy said. “The ring can be really intimidating because it has a hammer cage, it has the big netting on the side, just learning that it’s not like any other ring, it’s nothing new. It’s the same form you’ve done a million times. You don’t have to try harder at state, just do what you keep doing.”
Bundy previously had the guidance of her older sister, Grace, at the state meet, having made the discus finals her freshman year before qualifying in the discus yet again her sophomore year. During this year’s competition, Bundy qualified in the girls shot put as well, earning 16th at 35-9 feet.
Now with her own time to shine, Bundy gave plenty of credit to her throwing coach, Mary Domitrovich.
“At McDonald, we’ve got such a strong lineage of throwers. You’ve got a ton of support from the community. There’s a lot of McDonald shirts out here today, they’re really amazing,” Bundy said. “It’s amazing. People ask what’s in the water in McDonald, and it’s not that at all, it’s the coaches. You look these past years, the Domitrovichs have taken over this program, and they’ve done an absolutely incredible job. I wouldn’t be a good thrower if I didn’t have an amazing coach in Coach Mary.
“I came out here and tried to do the best for my poppa, who just passed away, so I was really doing this for him, and I’m really glad I was able to get third and I know he’d be proud of me.”
Shiley also made a massive improvement, jumping up three spots on the podium.
“It was very sunny out, so it was kind of draining, but we were all able to push through and just compete to the best of our abilities because here was a lot of competition,” Shiley said. “It pushed me a lot. I really feel like competition is where I can strive for, everything that I work for, and really there’s so much competition that it pushes me to the best of my abilities to show what I can do.
“I’ve been throwing since seventh grade. My teammate Emma actually got me into it. She told me I should do it and I just kept with it and I loved it.”
Placing back-to-back seasons at state is much easier said than done, a fact not lost on Shiley.
“I’m so proud of us. We’re all just able to work hard, we’re such a small community, but we have so much love and effort that we give toward everything. I love being a part of it,” Shiley said. “No matter who’s here, who’s competing, we’re all here to support each other and give each other love and just support each other to improve.
“This will give me a lot of momentum. I really want to strive for more, and I know I’m just going to continue to work with my teammates and give it my all my senior year.”
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