Area’s best wrestler headed to college to be a shot putter

Casa athlete will shot put for Cal State Northridge|

Lillian McCoy, perhaps the best girl wrestler ever in Petaluma, is headed for Cal State Northridge to throw the shot.

A state meet qualifier in both track and wrestling, she said she chose track for the very practical reason that more scholarships were available in track, although she also acknowledged, “My body needs a break.”

McCoy’s wrestling career at Petaluma High School was the stuff of legend - four years of varsity wrestling resulted in four trips to the state tournament and enough awards and honors to fill a memory bank. She was league champion of both the Sonoma County League and the Vine Valley Athletic League.

Her only disappointment came in this year’s state tournament, where she had high hopes of a state tournament but finished third, an accomplishment that would have thrilled most athletes, but left McCoy “not feeling good. This year I really wanted first,” she said.

Her qualifications were equally credible in track. Last spring, she didn’t just win, but dominated the shot in the first VVAL championship meet with a put of 39 feet, 3 inches, almost 6 feet farther than the second-place finisher.

She went into the North Coast Section Meet of Champions seeded third, but muscled up for a winning effort of 40 feet, 5 inches, almost a foot farther than her previous personal best, to win and advance to the state meet in that sport.

When the colleges came calling, they all were interested in Lillian McCoy the shot putter.

Athletics have always been a part of McCoy’s life, but there were other considerations when it came time to choose a college. For one, she will be the first person from her family to go to college, and she wanted to make sure she found the right college. She is convinced Northridge is the place.

“I like the college,” she said. “It is away from home, but not too far away.”

She plans to study athletic trauma or perhaps child psychology, but she has also developed an interest in coaching.

“I definitely want to come back to help coach the high school teams,” she explains.

After working and training so hard for so long, McCoy finds it strange to be pretty much confined to her home with no summer wrestling tournaments or track camps.

“What can you do?” she asks, and then answers her own question. “People just have to listen to the scientists.”

She is trying to stay in shape by working out and trying to stay motivated, but she does feel disappointed.

“It is difficult to work so hard to go through high school and do all you need to do and not get to walk through graduation,” she explained.

McCoy has had a lot of help along the way to becoming a state-quality athlete in two sports. She credits wrestling coach Isacc Raya and other Casa wrestling coaches for her help on the mat and Gaucho throwing coach Ray McClintock for aiding in her track career.

McCoy is the daughter of Nolan and Tasia McCoy and has two younger brothers and a younger sister.

She said she is ready for the next step.

“I’m really excited, but also nervous,” she said. “I’m pretty much a home body, but I’m ready for what the world has in store for me.”

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