Meet Rosemount's Hayden Bills, the Metro Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year

Rosemount senior Hayden Bills won the Class 3A track and field meet's shot put competition on June 8, then drove to North Mankato to support the Irish softball team at the state tournament.

He returned for Friday's championship game, once again driving the Dodge minivan he customized with two black racing stripes on the hood.

"We had told him a few years ago he could have a vehicle to drive but it would be his mom's old minivan," said Kurt Bills, Hayden's father. "He didn't complain; he just started planning."

Bills made historic plans for his final high school track and field season. Earlier in the spring, Bills smashed the state's 11-year-old shot put record with a mark of 66 feet, 8 3⁄4 inches. One goal down; one to go. Bills only needed to reset the 22-year-old discus throw record to become the best thrower in Minnesota high school history.

He did it in dramatic fashion June 10. On the final throw of his prep career, Bills hurled the discus 207 feet, obliterating the record of 201-7 set in 2001 by Karl Erickson of Rochester Century.

"I knew I hit it when I was done celebrating and saw the discus was still going," Bills said afterward. "It's the best way I could imagine going out. That's what I worked for my whole career, to do that right there."

Bills is the Star Tribune Metro Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

He's heading to Arizona State having left his mark on the record books and discus-throwing sectors throughout the metro area.

Before the True Team State Meet held at Stillwater High School, Kurt retrieved a folding saw from his truck and pruned a few trees at the edge of the sector. Sod was applied to Rosemount's sector this spring, extending the landing area to 205 feet.

Hockey goals used for summer dryland training sit just beyond the Rosemount sector. Target practice for Bills.

"Last year," he said, "I scored seven goals."