In only her second year of NCAA competition, Raven Saunders looks to be the woman to beat in the shot put, while Kelsey Card of Wisconsin could do some major damage in both shot and weight throw in her final season as a Badger. Catch up on the throws with our full breakdown of events heading into the NCAA indoor season. 

Shot Put

Saunders is now an Ole Miss Rebel after following her head coach, U.S. WomenÂ’s Olympic Coach Connie Price-Smith, from Southern Illinois. The American junior record-holder and NCAA Indoor and Outdoor shot put Champion has a target on her back, but her experience and maturity make her the clear favorite. After her record-setting 18.35m throw outdoors (she has thrown 18.62m indoors), Saunders won the U.S. Junior title and finished eighth in the senior competition. 

It makes you wonder, if she would have chosen to focus on the latter would she have qualified to compete in Beijing (Although it would have taken another record toss to advance)? Regardless, Saunders became a Pan American Junior Champion with a toss of 18.27m, almost three full meters ahead of the next finisher. That throw would have put her in seventh at the 2015 World Championships.

While WisconsinÂ’s Card (fourth indoor, second outdoor in 2015) and Oregon junior Brittany Mann will certainly be gunning for Saunders, neither have thrown further than 18m before, a feat Saunders (the first American junior to ever throw over 18m) has accomplished five times over the indoor and outdoor seasons.

Weight Throw

The five best throws from the 2015 indoor season belong to folks who have exhausted eligibility, so itÂ’s CardÂ’s time to shine. The Wisconsin Badger had the sixth-best toss in the NCAA last season with 21.82m, but she only finished 11th in Fayetteville. However, she earned two runner-up honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships (shot and discus) so she is clearly capable of putting together solid performances across two days. With so many of the top returners gone, including last year's overwhelming Champion Kearsten Peoples of Missouri and the rest of the NCAA top five finishers, we'll surely be introduced to new faces throughout the season. Beckie Famurewa of Kentucky threw 21.61m in 2015 and has a 2016 mark of 21.19m to her name. Though it's unlikely that shot put star Saunders would put more focus into a different event during an Olympic year, she did recently throw 19.50m in her Ole Miss debut. It's a far cry away from 21m, but still almost a full two meter improvement from her 2015 best.