Mostly, Ruby Jordan remembers walking into the facility, which looked like something out of a horror movie. Buried under Utah State’s basketball arena was its track and field throwing area, a room complete with bare concrete walls, an archery net and a message to those who use it, spray painted on the wall like a ghost had scrawled it: Throw far or die.

“And at that moment,” Jordan said, “I knew that’s where I belonged.”

Jordan, who signed with Utah State on Tuesday afternoon, felt so at home because that facility reminded her of the one at Highland. That one, which she and fellow throwers have nicknamed The Dungeon, is tucked away in a batting cage, a basement unit at the high school. Jordan called it “janky,” and apparently, the more janky, the better.

For Jordan, it’s all beginning to pay off, starting with her official pledge to the Aggies’ program.

“When I was younger, I used to watch the Olympics,” Jordan said, “and I used to just dream of being out on the podium and having my national anthem played behind me and just understanding what all of that hard work means, that it all meant something, you know? That all that hard work you put in, day in and day out, you got something out of it. And today’s the first step towards getting something out of it.”

If you know anything about Jordan, you know she’s already one of Highland’s most decorated throwers in recent history. Last spring, she won district titles in both the shot put and discus, and she took third at state in both events. As a sophomore, she won districts and placed fourth at state in the shot put. In discus, she carded a second-place finish. And to think: She hasn’t played her senior season yet.

The weird part is that, as her high school accolades stacked, the offers didn’t exactly come pouring in. Utah State was Jordan’s only offer. She kept in touch with a couple other schools, but neither extended an offer. It may seem like a strange development — who gets a DI offer as their only one? — but Jordan isn’t asking many questions.

Here’s the best evidence she was OK with that: On that October day, when Jordan visited Utah State’s campus in Logan and she saw that throwing room, Aggies coach Matt Ingebritsen asked her a question: Do you want to be an Aggie?

“And I didn’t even hesitate. I just said yes,” Jordan said. “I just said yes, because I just knew. Follow the path of least resistance, I guess.”

That room may have sold Jordan in the end, but she liked other parts of her visit too. She loved USU’s weight room. She really took a liking toward Ingebritsen, a funny and warm coach. “That’s real important,” Jordan said, “that’s he’s just a real straight shooter.” She also liked that the Aggies have some prestige in their program, that they hold themselves to a high standard.

After all, she has done the same at Highland. As a junior, she recorded seven first-place finishes in the discus, six in the shot put. She never finished worse than fourth in either event. Checking out her resume on athletic.net is like checking out a bunch of copied-and-pasted 1s.

Outside of those finishes, though, Jordan says she’ll remember lots about her time at Highland: The time her 6-foot-3, 300-pound friend practiced shirtless. “I will never forget that,” she laughed. One time, raw sewage leaked into the weight room.

Then she brought up one story that had more to do with her throwing savvy. For much of last season, she led the state in the discus, then advanced to the state meet, where she wound up for her last throw, a chance to separate herself. “And I threw it and I watched it fly out of sector,” Jordan said. “I just stood in the rain, and I just watched it. The disappointment I felt in myself, I’ll never forget that. That’s a huge driving force for me.”

She may have felt disappointed back then, but now Jordan is headed to Utah State — so maybe it was worth it after all.