Daily Pilot High School Athlete of the Week:

During a track and field meet about four months ago, an argument ensued at the check-in table for the shot-put event.

There was Jaycee Olsen, a Corona del Mar High senior, not budging from her stance. She wanted to compete. But the person at the table did not think Olsen looked like a thrower.

The person clarified the area was for throwers, and sprinters checked in at a different table.

Olsen didn’t back down. She wanted to throw.

The person reiterated. Olsen, once again, said she was there to compete in the shot put.

“It’s really cool because I ended up winning,” Olsen said. “It was like an in-your-face kind of thing.”

Olsen may not have the stereotypical build of a thrower, but she’s putting her success right into the faces of those who think she can’t compete in the discus and shot put.

Just five months ago, she started to compete in the discus. Last week, she broke the 30-year-old school record in the event. And just as a bonus, it came against Back Bay rival Newport Harbor.

Olsen won with a mark of 132 feet, 10 inches against the Sailors March 10. The former record was 120-8, set by Joan Tsai in 1980, according to CdM throwing coaches Jim Driscoll and Isaias Morales. But Olsen did not stop there with the record breaking. She broke her own mark just three days later to win at the Irvine Invitational. This time she threw 139-7 in the discus event. The Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week also won in the shot put against Newport Harbor and at Irvine High.

The mark in the discus puts her at No. 4 in the state, according to dyestatcal.com. She’s seventh in the L.A. City-Southern Section rankings in the shot put (38-5), the event she began competing in nearly a year ago.

“I was out of my mind,” Olsen said of breaking the record in the discus against the Sailors. “I was thinking, ‘There’s no way I did this.’ I was just really excited.”

Against Newport Harbor, after competing in the 100 meters, she ran over to the discus results where she was told she broke the school record. She then sprinted to head coach Bill Sumner to tell him the good news.

Olsen is used to running around all over the place at track and field meets. Truth be told, she really is a sprinter. She competes in the 100 and 200, as well as the 4x100 relay in addition to the throwing events. Her best time in the 100 is 12.6 seconds and her best in the 200 is 26.1.

In the relay, she usually thrives in her role as the anchor leg.

“That’s the greatest leg because all the pressure is on you,” she said. “I love pressure. It makes me perform.”

The pressure was on Saturday at the Irvine Invitational, competing against the favorite Margarita Matiks of Irvine High.

But, Olsen just kept thinking, “I have to beat her.”

Olsen hardly cared she is relatively fresh in the throwing events. She also brushed aside the thought that she’s only into her second year at CdM.

She started high school at Northwood in Irvine, but moved to CdM before her junior year. She said she enjoys the high expectations that come with competing for the Sea Kings, who won five CIF section titles this past decade.

She knows competing at a high level will only help her in her quest to compete at a NCAA Division I program. She has applied for USC and UCLA, and said she will want to compete in track and field if she is accepted at either school.

Morales and Driscoll have already seen Olsen’s success and realize the potential the athlete can reach with even more work.

“She can sprint, run and throw,” Morales said. “She did 15 [feet] in the long jump without even really knowing how to do it. She has the potential to be a heptathlete maybe even a decathlete. If she works as hard as she does now she can do anything she puts her mind to.”