Cade Odell was down to his very last throw in the Class 2A IHSA State shot put finals.

He was ranked 10th and only the top nine place-finishers medal. He was about to go away empty-handed.

The Princeton High School junior not only made it to the medal stand, he jumped an incredible six spots on his last throw all the way to fourth place, improving his throw by more than 3 1/2 feet at 53-9 3/4 (16.4 meters).

It was a PR by 1 1/2 feet (43 centimeters).

Odell came in right behind senior teammate, Payne Miller, who finished third with a throw of 56-8 1/2 (17.28).

“It was an amazing experience coming out fourth especially only training for three months,” Odell said. “On my second to last throw I felt everything go into place, but had a bad release and I ended up fouling the throw so I knew I had it in me.

“So as I was coming to the ring I was praying that the outcome would glorify God and to just be smooth and it ended up being a great throw to bump me up to fourth place.”

The Miller-Odell medal pairing in the shot is the best in PHS history since Eric Foresman and Pat Pence finished 1-2 in Class A in 1981.

Odell’s best effort on his first five throws came in Friday’s prelims was 50-3 1/2 (15.33), before he uncorked his fourth-place medal winning toss on his last throw on Saturday.

“A lot of times in finals you don’t see a lot of movement in the standings. Cade certainly proved otherwise,” said Dan Foes, who is retiring after 19 years as PHS’ head coach.

“He came into finals in 10th and going into his last throw he was still 10th. At that moment it was just about getting into a medal position. For him to make a jump from 10th to fourth was amazing. Cade stole the show in finals with that throw.”

Foes said was proud of all three of his state qualifiers,” including junior Ian Morris, who competed in the discus, but did not make the finals.

“They have done an outstanding job leading our team this year,” Foes said. “It was awesome for Payne to throw his season’s best in prelims. We knew that throw was probably going to keep him in the top three.

“A top three finish in that field is a great accomplishment. With that throw Payne showed why he was the MVP of our team.”

Miller and Odell are among 15 Tigers to medal in state shot put competition dating back Dave Rumley’s sixth-place finish 1980.

The Tiger tandem was joined on the medal stand by Bureau Valley junior Landon Hulsing, who placed seventh in Class 1A discus.

Hulsing became just the fourth Bureau Valley thrower to medal in the discus. Mike Behrens was the Class A state champ in 2001 and Josh Coyle (2005) and Adam Weidner (2012) both placed fourth.