Evan Yuzon

Sport: Indoor track

School: Glen Rock

Class: Junior. Age: 16

Accomplishment: Yuzon dominated the State Meet of Champions shot put at Ocean Breeze on March 8 when he threw the 12 pound shot, 60 feet 9½ inches, the longest throw in New Jersey this year, becoming the first Glen Rock athlete to win a winter SMOC title.

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If things had worked out exactly how Evan Yuzon planned, the junior would be playing football and lacrosse at Glen Rock High School.

Circumstances brought him to track and field instead and made him the top sophomore shot putter in the state a year ago. But he knew that using the traditional glide method was limiting his development as a thrower.

So after throwing a personal best 56-7 1/4 and becoming the only North Jersey shot putter to ever defeat Bergen County record holder and reigning state shot put champ Benji Shue, he spent last summer learning how to spin.

“He (Shue) had so much presence and I know he was hurt when I beat him,” Yuzon said of his former rival, now a freshman at the University of Texas. “But every time I saw him throw, he inspired me to be better.

“I watched a lot of tape on the internet and knew I could throw further with the glide in the short term but I needed to spin as almost all the great college and international throwers do, so I worked with my coaches and learned how to do it,” said Yuzon, the North Jersey Male Athlete of the Week, presented by HSS.

Yuzon had tried spinning several times in the past within the season and knew that in order for it to stick, he had to spend his offseason perfecting the technique.

“It wasn’t easy, but I think that it was probably harder mentally than it was physically to make the switch,” he said. “Of course its similar to the spin in the discus but that spin is more rhythmic and requires more body control. Towards the end of the summer, my numbers started going up.”

Yuzon registered an indoor PR of 56-5 in his first meet at Garfield on Dec. 20, 2025 and two days later broke the school record set by former Army West Point thrower Kyle Patel with a throw of 58-0 1/2. A month after that, he grabbed the state lead by throwing 59-11 1/2 at the Bergen County relays, a lead he never relinquished.

Just over two years after he picked up the 12-pound high school shot put for the first time, and two-and-a-half months after using the spin in competition for the first time, Yuzon became Glen Rock’s first ever State Meet of Champions titlist in winter track with the only 60-foot throw of the season in New Jersey.

“I had played baseball and football before high school, but I gave up baseball in eighth grade,” Yuzon said. “I was going to try lacrosse in the spring, but my brother Hayden had a lot of fun doing winter track, so I thought I would try it.”

Evan had immediate success, placing fourth in the NJIC league meet as a freshman and just missing a bid to the Group state finals. He went out for spring track instead of lacrosse and won both the shot and discus at the John Gallione Bergen County championships, and finished 15th in state Group 2 with a best throw of 46-7.

A dislocation of his throwing shoulder early in his sophomore football season led him to give up the gridiron, and his progress has been remarkably steady ever since, except for a brief slump in early February when he went had four straight subpar (for him) meets, losing the Bergen championships and Varsity Classic and throwing a season low 52-5 1/2 in winning the Group 1 sectional.

“I missed 60 feet by just a half inch and then I started focusing on getting that extra half inch instead of on my process,” Yuzon said. “I had almost three weeks after losing counties to get it right.”

He did, dominating the Group 1 states, Eastern States and SMOC titles with great series and long throws including the 60-9 1/2 at the latter meet, finally breaking the 60-foot barrier.

He threw in both the New Balance Indoor Nationals in Boston and the Nike Indoor Nationals in New York, and while he came up short of the finals each time, learned a lot about his future.

“I’ve thrown in Nationals since freshman year and I knew these guys were the best in the country,” said Yuzon, who also had the fourth best sophomore discus throw in the state last year at 154-1. “This year, I realized that they’re all just like me. I know I need more hard work and raising my numbers in the weight room and I can be there too.”

Things may not have worked according to Yuzon’s plan, but sometimes a little detour works out just fine.