East Aurora librarian competing in Highland Games world championship

Friday, March 18 2016 - UEC Girls Indoor Track Championships

A librarian at Gates Elementary School will be competing in the Highland Games world championship

An East Aurora elementary school librarian is spending her weekend throwing hammers, stones and other large, heavy objects.

And she'll be doing at least some of it while wearing a kilt.

Elissa Hapner, a library resource assistant at Gates Elementary School, is competing in a Highland games women's world championship this weekend in Phoenix, Ariz. She'll compete in events involving stones, weights, hammers, a long pine pole, and a bundle of straw and a pitchfork.

Hapner, 27, was ranked seventh among women competitors in 2015 on the North American Scottish Games Athletics website. She said she is projected to win the world championship.

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"I love that it's exhausting," she said. "That might sound weird, but it's six to eight hours of nonstop action."

Hapner, who spent most of her childhood in Aurora, has participated in Highland games competitions for three years. She started competing in track and field in high school and college, and was going to compete professionally in discus or shotput, she said, but realized the necessary training and sponsorships would be expensive.

Instead, an Aurora University coach introduced her to the Highland games, she said. At first, her track and field background was an advantage, but as she moved to higher levels of competition, she had to retrain her muscles.

She sometimes still competes in discuss and shotput, she said, but she can only work on one sport at a time.

She practices for two hours every day before school and another hour after school, often at public parks. When she is not practicing, she coaches soccer, basketball and softball at Gates, volunteers with the throwers on the East Aurora High School track and field team, runs a kids' mentoring group and travels.

"It's a lot of discipline for sure," she said. "Especially going to bed early and getting up at 5 a.m. or earlier to be able to fit in the two hours before work."

Hapner loves to push herself, and wants to break into the top five women competitors. She was disappointed when she missed out last year on the women's world competition, which she said is typically open to only the top competitors, by three slots.

She wants to encourage others to get active and involved in a new activity. At events, she sees kids competing and women in their 60s or 70s, she said.

But one of the downsides to competitions for Hapner are the kilts. They are just another, uncomfortable layer, and she said she is known for not keeping hers on.

"They try to make me keep it on as much as possible," she said. "But it's extremely hard for me."

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