Alex Porlier Langlois didn’t have much occasion to practice her English before she enrolled at the University of Hawaii, although her speech now only hints at her French Canadian roots.

Josh Aydlette arrived from Charleston, S.C., last August to coach the Rainbow Wahine track and field team’s throwers and peppers his instructions with distinctly southern imagery, comparing a loose turn in the circle to a "blind dog looking for an acorn."

Over the last few months, they’ve come to speak a common dialect when it comes to throwing.

"One of my favorite sayings is ‘hit it and git it,’ " Aydlette said. "She knows what it means, as soon as her right foot hits, fire the right hip through. She knows what to do. It’s just simple."

Seemingly simple cues trigger an explosive chain of movements that have propelled Porlier Langlois to the top line of UH’s shot put records and a place among the nation’s best early in the outdoor track and field season.

Porlier took ownership of UH’s indoor and outdoor shot put records this spring and enters the week ranked first in the event in the Big West and ninth nationally.

Not that she’ll take those figures into the circle when UH hosts Charleston Southern — Aydlette’s employer for the past decade — in the Rainbow Relays set for Friday and Saturday at the Ching Complex.

"Personally I’m an athlete when I go to a meet I don’t look at the rankings, I don’t look at the girls that are going to throw there," Porlier Langlois said. "I just go out there and I know what I have to do and I just do what I know."

A gymnast in her youth in Quebec, Canada, Porlier Langlois’ awareness of body position and the power she’s packed into her legs, core and torso fueled her progression in college with an eye on international competition.

She set the UH indoor mark at 16.03 meters (52 feet, 7.25 inches) on Feb. 28 while capturing the bronze medal at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships in Seattle, Wash. The outdoor mark fell at the Trojan Invitational on March 21 in Los Angeles, her throw landing at 16.04 meters (52-71⁄2) to win the event.

All of which adds up to "a good start."

"It was just a very satisfying moment and just knowing you broke it at the beginning of the season," Porlier Langlois said. "I know I have a full season to break it and I know I’m going to break it again."

Porlier Langlois’ personal best entering the season was 15.25 meters and given her progress so far, Aydlette sees her putting considerably more distance on the record.

"We still have six weeks to go before (the Big West championships) so I think she can go 17, at least," he said. "There’s just some little things we work on and we try to put together, and when she does put those together it’s going to go really far."

Porlier Langlois has also qualified for the Big West meet in the discus and hammer throw (an event she hadn’t attempted prior to this season) and is aiming for a berth in the NCAA championships after reaching the West preliminary round last year in the shot put and discus.

She’s also targeting a spot with Team Canada for the second straight year and a trip to the Pan American Games or the Summer World University Games in Korea. Beckoning a bit beyond is a trip to Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games.

"When I started track I knew that was my sport and I knew I wanted to push myself the furthest I could just to see if I could actually make it and represent my country," she said.

"It’s a dream every athlete wants to pursue. It’s just how much work you’re willing to put and I’m willing to put everything."

Porlier Langlois pours an equal amount of dedication into her pursuit of a degree in Animal Science. She was one of UH’s recipients of the Big West Scholar-Athlete of the Year award along with men’s tennis player Nils Schuhmann.

"I’ve wanted to be a vet since I’m 5 and my mind hasn’t changed," said Porlier Langlois, who grew up in a farming community. "I wanted to become a vet because I loved animals and … I found out about the medicine behind it and it’s just so interesting and you can save lives."

WARRIOR PROFILE

THIRD BASE/OUTFIELD/CATCHER RACHEL LACK

Through nonconference play, Rachel Lack was off to a sluggish start to her UH career. Once the Big West schedule opened, the versatile freshman bolted out of the gate.

Lack enters this week’s Big West series against Long Beach State hitting a team-high .412 (7-for-17) with four RBIs over the first two weekends of conference play. Lack homered twice in UH’s series at Cal State Fullerton last week and delivered an RBI single in the eighth inning of UH’s 8-6 series clinching victory last Saturday.

Lack joined the program as a contributor to the Australian national team — playing alongside former UH standouts Stacey Porter, Justine Smethurst, Clare Warwick and Kaia Parnaby — but struggled over her first 31 games, hitting .145 in the nonconference season. She opened league play by leading UH at the plate in a series win over UC Riverside and stayed hot against Cal State Fullerton.

She’s started the past four games in left field but also has 19 at third base, three at catcher and one in center.

The Rainbow Wahine (23-16, 4-2) return home to host LBSU (16-21, 3-3) in a three-game series starting Friday. Saturday’s doubleheader will be "Power in Pink" day at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

‘BOW NOTE

Following a senior night win and before hosting the conference tournament, the Rainbow Wahine water polo team heads to Southern California within reach of the Big West regular-season title.

The sixth-ranked Rainbow Wahine (13-7, 2-1 Big West) close the schedule with a three-match road trip, starting with a meeting with fifth-ranked and league-leading UC Irvine (16-6, 2-0) on Saturday. They play at No. 12 Long Beach State (15-10, 0-1) in their Big West finale on Sunday and face Occidental later that night to cap the regular season.

UH played at the Anteater Aquatics Complex earlier this season in the UC Irvine Invitational. The Wahine closed the tournament with a 3-2 loss to UCI — the defending Big West regular season and tournament champion — in a nonconference matchup on Feb. 22.

"Irvine is a great team," UH coach Maureen Cole said after UH’s 7-3 senior night win over UC Santa Barbara last Saturday. "They’re super solid defensively and really fast and Long Beach is the exact opposite, they play a zone. It’s two completely different teams to prepare for and we only have three days of practice."

When the Wahine return home, they’ll have two weeks to prepare for the Big West championship set for April 24-26 at Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.

ON THIS DAY: 4/9/10

Freshman Kelly Majam hits her 22nd home run to break the UH softball program’s single-season home run record in a 15-1 Rainbow Wahine victory at Boise State. Majam’s three-run homer in the second inning broke a tie with Kate Robinson, who set the previous mark in 2008. UH hits a total of five home runs in the five-inning rout, raising the team’s season total to 94.