Category Archives: Interviews

Badgers have fun in the California sun

Whenever I’m at a museum that has a collection of Ancient Greek vases, I like to play a version of Where’s Waldo where I look for images of people chucking the jav or discus. It validates me and makes me feel less weird to see that the folks who invented philosophy and theater and gyros loved the sport of throwing as much as I do. 

One thing I’ve noticed about the athletes depicted on the vases, though, is that they are never wearing three layers of sweats or thick woolen gloves. Nor do they appear to be freezing their asses off. 

That’s not how it goes for modern throwers, at least not those living and training in the American Midwest where typical spring weather makes frostbite a real possibility.

Luckily, the US has its own version of the Mediterranean climate in a place called California. There, throwers can compete in comfort and snack on avocado toast as did Coach Dave Astrauskas’ group from the University of Wisconsin earlier this month.

The result? Fourteen PBs and two school records. Here’s some deets.

A pack of Badgers is called a “clan” or a “cete.”

Cal State LA Twilight Invitational  April 12

Chloe Lindeman  won the hammer at the LA Twilight Invitational with a PB toss of 64.52m. It was the beginning of a  successful week made possible, according to Coach Astrauskas, by a conversation he had with Chloe a few months ago that went something like this:

Astrauskas: Chloe, I think you should stop throwing the shot put. Weight and hammer are the way to go for you.

Chloe: Coach, what are you talking about? I’m a shot putter! 

Astrauskas: We all think we are a certain thing until we are not.

It’s hard to argue with logic like that, and Chloe’s performance since ditching the shot–a fourth-place finish in the weight at the NCAA Indoor Championships, a cavalcade of hammer PBs this spring–has been promising. 

Olivia Roberts, also coming off a successful winter with the weight (13th at NCAA Indoors), took second in the hammer here with a best of 57.30m. Olivia is a reformed jumpaholic who came to Madison as a potential multi then briefly tried the javelin before taking up the ball and wire full time in 2021.

Her introduction to the hammer involved several months of throwing light implements into a net. As fun as that sounds, Astrauskas was impressed with Roberts’ stick-to-it-iveness. 

“At times, she was like, ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be good at this,’” Astruaskas recalls. “But she was always fun to work with, always asked good questions. And she showed up every day with a smile on her face ready to try something that was completely foreign to her–throwing into a tarp and lifting a lot of weights.”

Roberts threw 54.84m that first season, then improved to 60.61m in 2022. 

Coach A says that her performance in the weight (22.32m PB) shows that she has the “horsepower” to make the hammer go. After this year, she’ll have two indoor seasons and one outdoor season of eligibility remaining, and Astrauskas is excited to see how much more she can improve.

Sam Coil won the Twilight  men’s hammer comp with a 67.00m PB. Sam, a grad student who transferred from South Dakota State in 2021, came to Madison as a three-turn hammer thrower and struggled as he transitioned to four turns. After throwing 61.35m during the 2021 season, he topped out at 61.20m last year. 

Just before the California trip, however, Sam experienced what Coach Asttrauskas describes as a “lightbulb moment.”  

That conversation went something like this

Sam: Coach, I don’t need to try so hard on my throws. I can kind of let the ball pull me through my first three turns.

Astrauskas: Yep.

Sam’s practice attempts improved immediately, and a five-and-a-half meter PB at the Twilight followed.

Chloe Lindeman, Coach Astrauskas, and Josie Schaefer celebrating big throws with big smiles.

Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Invitational April 13

Lindeman threw 62.88m at the Pacific Coach Intercollegiate to pick up another win. This was the third consecutive comp where she surpassed her PB from last season (62.66m), and Coach Astrauskas says  bigger throws will come as Chloe stops relying so much on the “ballistic finish” that helped her launch the weight 23.77m this winter. 

Josie Schaefer, entering the final leg of a magnificent Badger career, tossed her best-ever outdoor season opener (18.18m) to win the women’s shot. Astrauskas says that besides scoring tons of points, Josie–second at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships and again at the 2023 Indoor Champs–serves as the “master motivator and leader of the team.”

Josie herself is highly motivated to improve her discus PB (57.22m) during her final season, but she came up a little short here, finishing sixth with a throw of 55.04m. The conditions, according to Astruaskas, were favorable, and Schaefer hit solid positions during her throws, but the discus gods are fickle and a slight glitch in her release cost her some distance.

Jason Swarens put the shot 19.11m to take the win. Swarens (6’4”, 300lbs) is a big man with a big future, according to Astrauskas. “He threw 64’ with a glide as a junior in high school,” says Coach A. “So, he has some pop. He also has two more years of eligibility, and with his passion for the event, he can be one of the best we’ve ever had here.”

Another contender for best-ever Badger is Andrew Stone, who finished third in the men’s shot with a throw of 18.36m, well below the PB of 19.97m he produced in May of 2022. 

Andrew’s struggles this season can be traced back to a biceps tendon strain he suffered in his left arm indoors. Astrauskas says Stone was in a lot of pain at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, but with the Badgers in the hunt for the title, insisted on going for broke on his final attempt. Stone produced his best put of the day (18.63m) and picked up important team points by jumping from seventh to fourth place. 

“Putting that kind of effort out there might have set him back with the injury,” says Astrauskas. “But he told me recently that he felt like it was worth it to help the team. He is a tough son of a gun.” 

In spite of some lingering discomfort, Stone produced a 55.04m PB in the disc at the PCI, which moved him to number ten all time for the Badgers.

They say fish is brainfood, so look for this group to do well on their final exams.

Beach Invitational April 14 – April 15

Chloe Lindeman hammered a PB of 64.90m to take second at the Beach Invitational. Astrauskas described that throw as “the most fluid in her first three turns. There was no big gap between turns three and four, and she didn’t pause to load up before her delivery. We don’t want to take away her violent finish, but we don’t want that to be the sole focus.” 

Chloie was, he added, “pretty excited” after that throw, and understandably so. With it, she broke the school record.

There was more excitement for Astrauskas’ crew in the women’s hammer as Olivia Roberts climbed to number four on the all time list with a 61.44m toss that has the Badgers looking solid in that event.

There are no brats here, and we’re okay with that. Olivia Roberts and Chikere Oduocha enjoying Cali.

Sam Coil’s light bulb continued to burn bright at the Beach as he backed up his recent PB with another fine effort, this time 65.89m to finish tenth. After learning to stay more relaxed through his turns, Astrauskas says Sam now has to adapt as the implement moves faster.

“He had so much ball speed, it pulled him off the ground,” observed the coach. “When you make a change and it works, you then sometimes have to adjust to the fact that you are creating greater force. But that’s a good problem to have.”

Jason Swarens made a huge statement at the Beach with a 19.86m blast to take the win. Keep in mind, this young man’s outdoor SB in 2022 was 18.74m.  

“His technique is just starting to get better,” Astrauskas explained. “Covid wiped out his senior season in high school, then when he got to Madison I redshirted him, so he had two years of not competing. Now, he’s finally starting to see the results of all the hard work he put in.” 

Swarens is now number two all time at Wisconsin behind Stone, who was a DNS at the Beach in both the shot and disc as, unfortunately, his biceps issue resurfaced. 

“Andrew has one more outdoor and two indoor seasons after this,” says Astrauskas, “and I hope we can keep him healthy because he has the ability to do special things. Every year he’s been here, he’s had some kind of nagging injury, probably because of the way he’s built. He’s wound kind of tightly, which is fine for shot putting but he needs to learn to listen to his body more and to do the stuff outside of the ring that will make him more durable. If he can stay healthy, he has a great future.”

We can’t help it, palm trees make us happy! Abby Peeler and Danni Langseth hugging it out.

Mt. SAC Relays April 15

Chloe Lindeman launched another fine throw, 64.67m, to finish ninth in the Elite Invitational division at Mt. SAC. Her performance came in spite of some miscommunication that had her and Astrauskas thinking she would be throwing early in the day in the Collegiate division. 

“At first,” according to Astrauskas, “she was put in the Collegiate competition, then she got moved to the Elite section. Then, they moved her back to Collegiate, so we showed up at 9 a.m. on Saturday but found out she was moved again, and wouldn’t throw until 2 p.m.”

Lindeman remained untroubled by the fuss, and her consistency in the 64-meter range has Astrauskas excited about her future. As with Stone and Swarens, she’ll have one outdoor and two indoor seasons remaining after this year.

Josie Schaefer finished tenth in the Mt SAC Elite Women’s Disc, launching an SB of 56.70m in what Astrauskas describes as a “nice wind.” She fell short of her season’s goal of 200 feet (60.96m), but was likely tired after smashing the school record in the shot put that morning.

Josie’s shot PB had been stuck at 18.29m since the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships, but on this day Astrauskas could tell right away that something was brewing. 

“The first time she got in the ring during warmups,” he says, “the ball was going. I don’t think she was under 18 meters on any throw.”

 Once the comp began, she went 18.12m, 18.98m, 18.54m. 

Never wanting to pass up an opportunity to ice a thrower on the best day of their career, the officials took their time reordering the flight before the final three rounds, and once things finally got rolling again Schaeffer was understandably low on gas. Adding 69 centimeters to your PB can be quite a jolt to the system. Her final throws went 17.74m, foul, 17.11m.

What caused the breakthrough? 

Astruaskas attributes it to the work they’ve put in smoothing out Josie’s entry. “Our focus has been on out of the back, ” he explained. “Making sure to make a good job of coming around the left, staying out over the left, and keeping the right shoulder down. Today, she did that very well.”

The 18.98m throw vaulted Schaefer to fifth on the World Athletics performance list for 2023, and has inquiring minds wondering if she’ll turn pro after this season.

“Josie,” says Astrauskas,” is not one to hang on without good reason. She has certain distances in her mind, and if she hits them she’ll probably continue throwing. Otherwise she’ll call it a career.”

Whatever that number is, shot put fans can only hope she achieves it. Yes, the United States is currently flush with top female putters, but there’s room for a competitor who is, according to Astrauskas, “Fierce, focused and always ready to go at the big meets.”  

The next “big meet” for Josie and the Badgers will be this weekend’s Penn Relays where temperatures will be in the low ’60’s with lots of rain and no palm trees. Just like home.

Chloe Lindeman, Coach Astrauskas, and Olivia Roberts showing no signs of sun stroke.

Bears Golden at Mt. SAC

Looks like Mo Saatara’s Cal Berkeley throws squad–aka Mo’s Maulers, aka the Berkeley Bangers, aka…sorry, I’ll stop–is the real deal. After showing up huge at the Brutus Hamilton Invite on April 8th,  Mo’s group–the Cal Crushers?–performed prodigiously once again at last weekend’s Mt. SAC relays. Could this be a developing trend? Let’s examine.

Men’s Hammer–Collegiate Division

Kegan Schroeter won the Men's Hammer--College Division at Mt. SAC. Photo credit: Ron Sellers
Kegan Schroeter won the Collegiate Men’s Hammer at Mt. SAC. (Photo Credit: Ron Sellers)

Kegan Schroeter broke the 70-meter barrier for the first time to take the win. His series (66.71m, 69.20m, 69.03m, 70.21m, foul, foul) showed that Coach Saatara’s emphasis on developing consistent technique is paying off. 

Mo is not an advocate of the haul ass and hope for the best style of throwing. “It all comes down to stability,” he explained. “If you are steady and consistent, then one of your throws is eventually going to go.”

It’s a good sign when your old PB (in Kegan’s case 69.33m) becomes a routine throw. It’s also a good sign when you break a school record that has stood for thirty-seven years.

Keegan is going to have to work to keep his spot on top of the board though, as Mo’s hammer group includes another potential 70-meter man in  Ivar Moisander (69.05m PB), who finished fourth at Mt. SAC with a toss of 66.33m. 

Ivar Moisander took 4th in the Men’s Collegiate Hammer at Mt. SAC (Photo credit: Al Sermeno/KLC fotos)

Mo says that Ivar showed solid technique at Mt. SAC, but lacked some of his usual explosiveness due to a recent illness. He predicts though, that Ivar will be ready for the championship season (PAC-12s, regionals, NCAAs). According to Mo, Ivar “loves the big meets” and is a solid bet to hit 70 meters when it counts the most.

Michael Gupta is part of a solid men’s hammer trio at Cal. (Photo Credit: Catharyn Hayne)

A third Golden Bear hammer thrower, Michael Gupta (63.69m PB) also competed at Mt. SAC, finishing fifteenth. Mo credits Michael with contributing to the healthy chemistry that exists among the hammer folk at Cal. A computer science major, Michael “sets a great example of how to balance academics and athletics” and possesses a “deep understanding” of the event. Anyone looking for a solid theoretical conversation about hammer technique should, according to Mo, give Michael a call. 

Tempting!

Men’s Discus–Elite Invitational

Young Mykolas Alekna, is on track to become one of the best ever in his event. Mykolas, the 2022 World silver medalist and European champion, shook the Brutus with a 68.39m bomb, and then followed that up with a 68.35m toss at Mt. SAC to take the win.. 

Wunderkind alert! Mykolas Alekna won the Elite Men’s Discus at Mt. SAC. (Photo Credit: Shawn David Price)

The lanky Lithuanian looked solid in warmups but, according to Mo, began pressing a bit once the comp began. Hitting the cage on his “best technical throw” did not help matters, and Mykolas was never quite able to find his rhythm.

Lord knows what will happen once he does, but one NCAA opponent who will try to provide some competition is Arkansas’s Rojé Stona, a transfer from Clemson who broke the Razorback school record at Mt. SAC with a toss of 66.64m. 

Great Britain’s Lawrence Okoye finished third here, as he did the last time he faced Alekna–at the 2022 European Championships. 

Okoye–large, strong, explosive, large–is legendary for his physical gifts and inconsistency. During warmups, Mo told his kids to keep an eye on the bulging Brit as he is always capable of hitting a big throw. His series–foul, 66.15m, foul, 62.58m, foul, 59.00m–was a typical all-or-nothing outing for Okoye. Alekna, by way of comparison, backed up his 68.35m with three additional throws over 65 meters, and all of Stona’s five measured throws were between 64.41m and 66.64m.

Iffy Joyner finished 7th in the Elite Men’s Discus as Mt. SAC. (Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne /KLC Fotos )

Cal’s Iffy Joyner finished seventh with a best of 59.23m. As described in an earlier piece on the Brutus, Iffy has been plagued by a knuckle injury on his throwing hand, but Mo believes they have finally found a way to tape and pad the swollen joint that will allow him to throw normally. During the week leading up to Mt. SAC, Iffy was able to resume training with heavy discs (2.5-3.0 kilos), which was an integral part of his routine in the past. Mo says that Iffy “feels like he is getting back to where he needs to be,” which is perfect timing with PAC-12s less than a month away.

Women’s Hammer–Elite Invitational

Cal grad Camryn Rogers, now representing Canada as one of “Mo’s pros,” began her professional career at the Brutus by launching 77.30m to take the world lead. She extended that mark at Mt. SAC with a 77.84m opener.

Camryn Rogers showing there is more to Canadians than maple syrup and politeness. ((Photo Credit: Ron Sellers)

Mo appreciated the bomb, but was even happier with Rogers’ series (77.84m, 75.61m, 76.79m, 76.03m, 75.37m, 77.14m), which displayed the level of consistency he deems critical to anyone wanting to climb the podium at an international championships.

“If you look at the great champions,” he says, “they had stable technique that they could repeat. That allowed them to produce big throws multiple times in a competition. And with the level  they are at right now in the women’s hammer, you’ll very likely need to throw  79.00-80.00m to contend for a medal.”

Speaking of major championships, Camryn approached Mt. SAC as if it were the final at a Worlds or Olympics. 

After performing a general warmup away from the track, she sat down and chilled for an hour as athletes are forced to do when confined to a call room at the big comps. She then took only two warmup throws in the cage prior to her flight.

Mo says that the “environment at a championships is very different than at a normal comp. You have the call room and very limited warmups in the ring, and athletes need practice in dealing with that. If you get used to taking a bunch of warmup throws at all your other competitions, it can be a shock when you only get two at Worlds. You have to use each competition to develop the skills you’ll need to throw well at the big ones.”

Anna Purchase made a huge breakthrough at the Brutus, launching a 73.02m missile to take the NCAA lead by nearly three meters. You can probably guess Mo’s advice going into Mt. SAC. 

Anna Purchase sits atop the NCAA leader board in the women’s hammer. (Photo Credit: Don Gosney)

“Let’s pepper the 70-meter line this week,” he told her. “Keep building stability. There will be more peak throws coming if you can keep raising the level of your average throws.”

Mission accomplished. Anna took second at Mt. SAC with a series–69.25m, foul, 69.97m, foul, 69.29m, foul–which represented an improvement over her marks at the Brutus–66.57m, 73.02m, 68.15m, 68.80m, pass, pass–with the exception of the big blast. 

Mo and Anna will work to elevate her “average” even more with the hope that she can unleash another corker at the NCAA Championships in June.

Men’s Shot–Elite Invitational

Cal’s Jeff Duensing (19.39m PB, 18.91m SB) came to Mt. SAC looking to get some experience at a high-caliber meet. He threw 18.06m and finished twelfth, but Mo believes the trip was fully worthwhile. “This was his first big invite,” he explained. “Jeff has only done college meets before this, and he needed to get a taste of how you have to step up if you want to compete against the best.”

Jeff Duensing placed 12th in the Elite Men’s Shot Put at Mt. SAC. (Photo Credit: Al Sermeno)

The “best” in the men’s shot turned out to be Arizona’s Jordan Geist, who seems to be following the advice I would give to all college students–Don’t leave! 

Geist was the 2018 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, has scored several jillion points for his Wildcats during the intervening years, and hopes to end his NCAA career with an outdoor shot put (and possibly hammer) title to match the indoor crown he won this March.

He grabbed the top spot here with an NCAA-leading toss of 21.25m, and Mo says Geist is in excellent form.

 “Jordan,” he surmised, “is learning to manage his speed across the circle. Camryn had to go through the same process in the hammer. She can turn really fast, but at one point I said to her ‘That’s nice, but nobody cares how fast you can move. They care how far the hammer goes.’ Jordan creates a tremendous amount of rotational power, and sometimes maybe he struggled to use it properly, but he’s figuring that out, which will make him very hard to beat.”

Women’s Discus–Elite Invitational

Cal volunteer assistant coach Elena Bruckner broke the 60-meter barrier for the first time at the Brutus, then surpassed it twice more at Mt. SAC, producing a series–57.29m, 60.79m, 57.24m, 61.51m, 59.87m, foul–that suggests bigger throws might be coming soon.

Elena Bruckner,, Camryn Rogers and Anna Purchase showing off their Mt. SAC hardware. (Photo courtesy of Elena Bruckner)

This is Bruckner’s second year as one of Mo’s pros, and the 60.26m she threw at the Brutus was her first discus PB since 2019. 

That’s a long time to persevere, and Mo gives Elena credit for enduring a painstaking technique renovation last year when she first began training in Berkeley. 

Mo says that even with an accomplished thrower, a coach must always start with the basics. “You don’t want to get complicated or get weird right away. If you try to change too much at once, none of it will happen. The first stage is to develop balance. The next stage is learning to carry the disc through the ring without losing your connection to it.”

Once they made progress on those fronts, Bruckner also needed to shore up her mechanics during the release phase. 

“She was,” Mo recalls, “just pivoting her knee into the throw, which doesn’t create force. You need to anchor your block and then move the hip (in Bruckner’s case her left hip–she’s a southpaw) around it. Then you generate force.”

 The methodical approach was not easy for Bruckner, who came out of high school in 2016 with a 55.67m PB and some big expectations. 

“She had a lot of pressure when she was younger,” Mo explained. “And that is not necessarily a good thing. If a kid is talented, they don’t need people hitting them on the head with it. They need guidance, someone to say, ‘If you want to accomplish these things, here is how you do it.’”

Bruckner improved to 57.40m during her time at the University of Texas, and after exhausting her NCAA eligibility sought a fresh start in Berkeley.

She showed a lot of moxie as she and Mo went through the often tedious process of drilling fundamentals in 2022. “It was not easy,” recalls Mo. “There was a lot of trial and error, a lot of work, and a lot of not knowing if we were on the correct path until we got it right.”

Bruckner’s best mark in 2022 was 55.79m, but she found a nice rhythm during fall practices and has been able to build on that this spring.

Her 61.51m at Mt. SAC was good enough for third behind two highly accomplished throwers, Oregon’s Jorinde Van Klinken and former Iowa Hawkeye Laulauga Tausaga-Collins

Those two will likely be competing at the Worlds in Belgrade this summer, and if Bruckner continues to climb, she just might join them.

In the meantime, don’t sleep on Mo’s Monsters! The Clubbers of Cal? The Berkeley Bashers? I’ll work on it.

A Super Day for Cal Throwers

I’m old enough to remember a time when really smart kids spent their weekends building robots or arguing about which is the coolest prime number. These days, they seem focused on establishing total dominance over the world of NCAA throwing. Last week, I detailed the exploits of Harvard’s huckers at the Florida Relays. Now, we turn our attentions to the brawny brainiacs of Cal Berkeley who dominated the recent Brutus Hamilton Invite held at their home stadium.

Men’s Hammer

Kegan Schroeter takes the win at the 2023 Brutus Hamilton Invite. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

Cal throws coach Mo Saatara described the Brutus Hamilton as “kind of a test meet,” and hammer thrower Kegan Schroeter set the curve early with a 67.86m toss for the win. Schroeter, a transfer from Brown whom Coach Saatara describes as a “big talent and a great guy,” came close to his 69.33m PB in spite of the fact that the hammer guys were still in “heavy training” in the weeks leading up to the meet.

Cal’s other 69-meter hammer dude, Ivar Moisander, sat this one out due to a bout with the flu. 

 Max McKhann of Stanford, took second behind Schroeter with a toss of 65.39m.

Women’s Hammer

Camryn Rogers, who won three NCAA titles for Cal, began her pro career at the Brutus with a world-leading throw of 77.30m. 

2022 World Championships silver medalist Camryn Rogers in her professional debut. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

After an incredibly successful 2022 season–NCAA title, NCAA record, World Championships silver–Camryn and Mo sat down to figure out what they could do to make 2023 even better. “We decided,” Mo says, “that she needed to make her technique more stable so she could easily replicate it. She also needed to start performing better in early rounds to take some of the pressure off during qualification at the major championships like Worlds.”  

Camryn’s series–77.00m, 76.04m, 77.30m, Pass, Pass, Pass–suggests that they are already making progress.

The three passes look odd on the stat sheet, but Mo explained that they were part of the plan going in. “We wanted to treat this like a qualification round, where you know you only have three throws to hit the standard or at least put yourself in the top twelve. Qualification rounds have caused her a lot of stress in the past, so If we can make her more confident in her ability to produce big throws early, it will be easier for her to feel comfortable going into a final.”

And as Mo sees it, Camryn will need all the comfort she can muster at the Worlds this summer in Belgrade, which he predicts will be “amazingly competitive,” in part because  Anita Wlodarczyk (3x Olympic, 4x European, and 4x World champ) and DeAnna Price (2019 World champ, second to Anita on the all time list) should be healthy after suffering derailment-by-injury last season.

The field will also include 2022 World Championship gold medalist  Brooke Andersen, who will receive a bye into the 2023 Worlds, and likely Janee’ Kassanavoid, the 2022 bronze medalist, provided she makes it through what promises to be an extremely competitive USA Trials in July.

With a lineup like that, Mo says he would not be surprised to see “multiple” throws over 80 meters in Belgrade.     

Cal’s Anna Purchase took second on Saturday with a huge 73.02m PB that might set her up to join Rogers in Belgrade. Purchase represents Great Britain internationally, and is already close to the 73.60m automatic qualifying mark for Worlds.

Anna Purchase takes the NCAA lead. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

Mo attributes Anna’s breakthrough to the hard work they’ve put in strengthening and standardizing her throwing form the past two years. “It’s critical to be stable in your technique,” he explained. “Then you can go into a big competition and just throw as you normally do and not try to make a superhuman effort.” 

Purchase’s series–66.57m, 73.02m, 68.15m, 68.80m, Pass, Pass–showed that she still has work to do regarding her consistency, but a PB of nearly two-and-a-half meters is an encouraging sign. 

Mo intended to limit Anna to three throws as he did with Rogers, but promised her she could take a fourth attempt if she “did great” early on. 

“I actually thought her fourth throw was her best technically,” he says. “But she was completely gassed from jumping around and celebrating the 73.02m.”

And who could blame her? That toss put her atop the NCAA leaderboard for 2023 and moved her to fifth place all-time in her event.

Men’s Shot

Jake Porter winning the shot. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

Cal’s Jake Porter rolled his ankle earlier this spring, but relied on what Mo describes as his “blue collar” work ethic to get back into fighting trim. His best of 17.64m got him first at the Brutus over the “two Niks,” or possibly the “two Nicks.” That would be Nik Iwankiw, and Nick Godbehere, two talented redshirt freshmen for whom Mo has high hopes. 

His best putter, Jeff Duensing (19.39m PB) did not compete due to a case of food poisoning he picked up the previous weekend after finishing seventh at the Texas Relays.

Men’s Discus

However lousy Duensing felt after dining at the Austin Airport, the top men’s discus throwers in the world had to feel worse upon hearing that Mykolas Alekna opened his season with 68.39m– the second best throw in NCAA history. 

2022 European Champion and World Championships silver medalist Mykolas Alekna picking up right where he left off. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

Alekna, the World silver medalist and European Champion, started with a foul and told Mo that throwing in the ring where he practices every day made him forget for a minute that he was supposed to save these throws. His series also included a 67.89m effort and two more fouls, one of which landed beyond 70 meters. 

What’s the deal with this kid? 

Mykolas is, according to Mo, very engaged in the process. “People don’t realize how much of his technique is his technique,” he explained. “Mykolas is the driver there. He understands what he is trying to do and why. People think that because the dad (two-time World and Olympic champ Virgilijus Alekna) threw far, of course the son throws far, but if you want to be as good as Mykolas has been, you have to be committed, and he is.”

When the two sat down to decide how they might build on last season, one thing they decided to focus on was improving Mykolas’s finish–specifically, the double support phase of his delivery. 

Mo acknowledges that one of Mykolas’s strengths is the way he “catches the disc very early,” but believes they can find “more meters” if Mykolas can accelerate the disc better through the finish rather than just “slapping at it.”

In terms of physical qualities, Mo describes Mykolas as “extremely flexible” with a power output that is “crazy.” 

“I would compare him to Koji Murofushi. He is just very explosive, very good at throwing things. Because of his dad, people think Mykolas must be 6’9” or something, but he is more like 6’5”. He has long levers, but all the top discus throwers have long levers. What makes Mykolas special is that he feels and understands the movement very well, and can move things explosively.”   

When Mykolas asked Mo to recommend someone he might benefit from watching on video, Mo suggested Ryan Crouser, “because he is always under control, always balanced, always disciplined, never jumping out the front to throw far.” 

With another World Championships coming up in August, one challenge for Mo, Mykolas, and Mykolas’s Lithuanian coach Mantas Jusis, is to keep him healthy through both the collegiate and international seasons.  

Mo says that with an athlete as explosive as Mykolas, a coach has to be careful not to get “too crazy” during training. “You can’t go to the well too much,” he explained. “It’s better to be more conservative with volume and load so the athlete can keep training and getting better instead of missing time with an injury. Discus throwing is a highly skilled task, and the more time you can spend on it the better you’ll be.”

Iffy Joyner (62.17m PB) can attest to the truth of that statement. Since last season, Iffy has been struggling with arthritis in the middle finger of his throwing hand, which hurts, according to Mo, “in just the wrong spot.” 

Iffy finished seventh at the Texas Relays with a toss of 58.48m, and took second at the Brutus with 58.69m. The finger has forced him to give up shot putting, but Mo is optimistic that it won’t be too much of a detriment in the disc. They have a doctor’s note which allows Iffy to pad and tape the knuckle during competitions, and things are going well enough that Mo has encouraged Iffy to continue competing when his eligibility expires this spring. 

Women’s Discus

That is exactly what Elena Bruckner, currently a volunteer assistant at Cal, did when she graduated from Texas two years ago. Elena was not ready to give up throwing, so she moved back to her native California and began training at Cal. This weekend, she surpassed the coveted sixty-meter barrier, tossing 60.26m to take the win. 

Mo actually recruited Elena out of high school, and describes her talent level as “insane.” 

She is also, in Mo’s words, a “genuinely nice” person whose superpower is her rare combination of elasticity and explosiveness. 

Mine is knowing when to end a post. More to come after the busy weekend ahead!

Big throws at the 2023 Texas Relays!

As another weekend of NCAA competition heats up, here’s a quick look back at last week’s Texas Relays.

Hammer time

Pat Ebel’s Auburn throws squad had a great weekend.

Maddie Malone got the Tigers rolling on Thursday with a win in the women’s hammer. Her best of 68.45m topped Canadian Kaila Butler of the Kamloops Track and Field Club, whose top effort of 67.75m came on her final attempt.

Ebel says that Maddie’s training is going “really well. She competed in the weight at indoor nationals in early March, so we held her out of a couple of outdoor meets earlier this season just so she could get her rhythm back in the hammer. But she’s starting to find her feel.”

Malone opened her outdoor campaign with a toss of 68.79m at the FSU Relays on March 23. She set her PB of 69.66m in April of 2022, a mark that Ebel believes she will soon surpass. “We have been training hard in the weight room,” he explained. ”And we are also working on a couple of technical points, but I can see her going seventy meters soon.”

The women’s hammer comp was contested in a steady rain, which Ebel says did not hinder Maddie’s performance. “She’s thrown in that weather before. And I always tell my throwers, that as long as you are technically sound coming out of the back on your entry, rain shouldn’t bother you at all.”

Maddie’s 68.79m has her ranked second in the NCAA at this point, and when she returns to Austin for the NCAA Championships in June, she will try to improve on her eighth-place finish from 2022 

That will be it for her college eligibility, but she plans to stick around Auburn to train with Ebel while pursuing a pro career, a bold choice considering the current American dominance in the event.  Brooke Andersen and Janee’ Kassanavoid are currently ranked first and second in the world, with Annette Echikunwoke eleventh and Alyssa Wilson twentieth–and that list does not include Maggie Ewen (75.04m PB), who has focused on the shot put of late but plans to contest the hammer seriously again starting this season. And don’t forget about DeAnna Price, the 2019 World Champion who demonstrated she is once again in top form by breaking the World Record in the weight in February.

But Ebel looks forward to the challenge. “I’ve got a couple of post-collegiate javelin throwers training here as well,” he explained. “So it will be a nice environment for Maggie. And she’s got a lot left in the tank!”

The men’s hammer comp in Austin was won by Ethan Katzburg, teammate of Kaila Butler on the Kamloops squad. Ethan broke the meet record with a 77.12m bomb, and according to UCLA throws coach Sean Denard, “hasn’t even touched his potential.” Interestingly, Katzburg and the other Canadian hammer throwers are coached by Dylan Armstrong, a World and Olympic medalist in the shot who Denard says was a fine hammer thrower himself in his youth.

Ebel was proud of the performance turned in by his son, Erik, who wound up eleventh in a field loaded with post-collegiates. Besides Katzburg, the men’s hammer comp featured Diego Del Real, the fourth-place finisher at the 2016 Olympics, Erich Sullins (72.10m PB), Jose Padilla (73.36m PB), and Kieran McKeag (71.50m PB).

Erik’s teammates  Kyle Brown and Kyle Moison finished twelfth and fifteenth respectively,  and the elder Ebel believes all of his guys can get over seventy meters this year, in part because of the way they “push each other in practice.”

What is it like for Pat Ebel to coach his son?  

“It’s fun! We get to travel together, and he keeps me on my toes. When he was throwing in high school, I’d usually see him in only one or two meets a month, so we’re making up for some lost time now.”

Soak it all in

A compelling reason to make the trip to meets like the Texas Relays is that it gives college throwers a chance to be around some of the world’s best. The women’s disc, for example, featured Olympic champion Valarie Allman, who won with a meet record of 67.90m.

Ebel’s thrower Maura Huwalt threw 54.24m, which did not get her into the top nine, but Ebel encouraged her to stick around for the entire comp to observe Val. “I told Maura to just sit and watch and notice Val’s habits, her ability to focus and refocus. Learn from her, then use it when it’s your turn.”

Ebel believes Maura’s turn will come soon enough. 

She is nearly six feet tall, with “long arms” and a serious competitive streak. “Maura has taken full advantage of her time here at Auburn,” he says. “She’s one of those athletes where I have to tell her, “That’s enough for today. It’s time to go home!’”

Though there were no Olympic champions in the men’s discus, the field was fierce. ASU’s Turner Washington, the 2021 NCAA shot and disc champ won with a best of 64.01m. Behind him were BYU’s Dallin Shurts (second in the 2022 USATF Championships), LSU’s Claudio Romero (last year’s NCAA champ), Northwestern State’s Djimon Gumbs (who threw a PB of 61.21m in Austin), then Sam Welsh of Rice (a 63.26m thrower last year for Harvard), and Coach Denard’s guy Aidan Elbettar, who threw a meter-and-a-half PB of 59.91m to take fifth.

That was a big breakthrough for Aidan, who had struggled in the past against top competition. “Last year,” says Denard, “he caged all three of his attempts throwing against Mykolas Alekna at the conference meet and again at the regionals, so for him to throw well against Turner and Claudio and Dallin is a big deal.”

The difference this time?  “He was attacking. Aidan only had one fair throw, but it wasn’t because he was throwing scared. His fouls were good fouls. He was being aggressive.”

The conditions in Austin were championship level as well, according to Denard. “They can move the discus cage,” he explained, “so they were able to face it into an eight-to-twelve mile an hour wind. Plus it was 85 degrees, and there were lots of people there, so the energy level in the stadium was high.”

While in Austin, Denard’s athletes also got the chance to practice a bit with shot put world record holder Ryan Crouser, who was in town to serve as Honorary Referee. That session, Aidan’s breakthrough, and the presence of a chicken-shaped disco ball at a local restaurant made for a memorable weekend.

An auspicious start

The performance of the weekend came in the men’s jav when Auburn freshman Keyshawn Strachan went 84.27m on the second throw of his college career. It was a PB, a school record, a world lead, and the fourth best throw in NCAA history.

“That,” in the words of Pat Ebel, “was unexpected. Based on his training numbers and his practice PR of around 79.80m, I was hoping to see him open around 78-80 meters. Then he fouled his first attempt, which went about 82 meters, so I told him to move his runup back around half a jav length, and…”

Denard was not surprised. “I’ve seen Keyshawn throw before,” he said, “and he’s incredibly talented. To me, he’s the Michael Jordan of javelin throwing. When he hits the point, it goes.”

Ebel says that Keyshawn is “capable of throwing over 80 meters any time he steps on the runway,” and that he benefited from the atmosphere in Austin. “He was excited to throw in front of this crowd and to compete against guys like Curtis Thompson (87.70m PB). And, his mom, grandmother, and coach from the Bahamas all made it in to see him throw, so it was a special moment.”

The next step for Strachan?  Consistency. 

“His throw after the 84.27m went about 74 meters,” according to Ebel. “He blew through every position and fouled it by about ten feet. So our goal will be to get him regularly in the 80-meter range.”

Keyshawn’s bomb overshadowed a great performance by Chinecherem Nnamdi of Baylor, the bronze medalist at the 2021 World U20 Championships, and a nice 79.29m opener for Thompson. With two more collegiate throwers–LSU’s Tzuriel Pedigo and BYU’s Cameron Bates–over the 75-meter mark, and Virginia’s  Ethan Dabbs (the 2022 USATF champion) just under it, expect some fireworks this June when these fellows tee it up again on the same runway.

Like Coach Denard, I’m a lifelong Chicago Bulls fan, so I know who I’m picking.

The Force Awakens: Harvard Throwers Shine at the 2023 Florida Relays

Don’t underestimate the Force

A long time ago…last weekend, actually…in a galaxy far, far away…well, Florida…Coach Darcy Wilson’s intrepid group of Harvard throwers sent a tremor through the NCAA track and field world. By the time the 2023 Pepsi Florida Relays ended, it was clear that a New Order, one in which STEM majors throw far, had emerged.

Hammer specialist Stephanie Ratcliffe (neuroscience) started it all off on Friday morning with a round-three PB of 70.15m to take the win in her event. That toss–currently the leading mark in the NCAA– was her first beyond 70-meters and a massive improvement over her 2022 marks.  Coach Wilson says they “knew she would be chasing those types of numbers this year based on her practice throws. And she hit 66-meters at home in Australia in January, so she’s been climbing.”

Ratcliffe’s teammates Cammy Garabian (math) and Cara Salsbury (undeclared) finished eighth and eleventh respectively.  

Estel Valeanu (engineering) then took sixth in a discus comp won by Vandy’s Veronica Fraley. Wilson expects big things from Valeanu this season. Her 54.74m toss in Gainesville was not far off her PB of 56.07m, which is encouraging since she just finished her senior thesis–a strenuous undertaking that consumed much of her energy this spring. “Big things are on the horizon for her,” according to Wilson.  

Not to be outdone by Ratcliffe, hammer thrower Kenneth Ikeji (undeclared) breached the 70-meter barrier for the first time as well (72.48m) while finishing second to Miami’s Decio Andrade. Wilson admits to casting aspersions after Kenneth’s fourth-round toss of 69.99m, telling him, “You can’t let Stephanie get to 70 and you not!” That well-intentioned taunting, along with the many hours Kenneth spent this past year learning to be “patient on his entry” produced a nice PB which has him sitting fifth on this year’s NCAA list

Saturday was shot put day in Gainesville, and Sarah Omoregie (applied mathematics) proved that it does indeed only take one. Her series:  foul, 15.49m, 17.21m, foul, 15.64m, 16.10m. According to Wilson, Omoregie–a glider and former heptathlete–is “extremely athletic and wired with fast twitch muscles,” but has to “be patient in the middle and delay the shot” in order to make her best throws. She did that once on Saturday, and the result was a PB, with, Wilson says, more to come for “one of the best athletes I’ve ever trained.” That 17.21m captured second place for Omoregie behind freshman sensation Alida Van Daalen of Florida who reached 17.94m.

Alexander Kolesnikoff (economics) closed out the  weekend for the Harvard heavers by blasting a PB 20.05m on his sixth and final attempt to win the men’s shot, an achievement that “stunned him,” according to Wilson.  “He has been dreaming about this twenty-meter day for years, and the way it played out is exactly what we’ve been working on–open well and then continue to build.”  His series: 19.66m, 19.11m, 19.64m, 19.79m, foul, 20.05m.

Wilson loved the way her guy responded after South Carolina’s Dylan Taggart hit 19.80m in round six to knock Kolesnikoff temporarily out of the top spot. “He’s been working on how to compete,” she explained. “Alexander has been in some international comps, but not a lot of high-level NCAA meets, so this was a great experience for him. After Dylan hit that throw, I looked at Alexander and said, ‘Here is your opportunity. Use this!’” 

Wilson predicts that Kolesnikoff will have plenty more clashes against world class competitors. “Alexander is only the third Ivy Leaguer in history to throw over twenty meters,” she noted. “The other two are Augie Wolf and Stephen Mozia, who both made the Olympics. I can for sure picture Alex following in those footsteps.”

What makes Kolesnikoff such a good putter? “He is,” according to Wilson, “a huge human being and an extremely hard worker.” 

From left to right: Coach Darcy Wilson, Estel Valeanu, Cara Salsberry, Kenneth Ikeji, Alexander Kolesnikoff, Stephanie Ratcliffe, Sarah Omoregie, Cammy Garabian. Photo courtesy of Coach Wilson

Smaller in number are we, but larger in mind

According to the College Board website, Harvard accepts only four percent of applicants. Those who gain admittance tend to have an ACT score in the 34-36 range, and a GPA of at least 3.75 on a 4-point scale. 

That’s a small slice of the population from which to recruit folks with elite athletic potential. I asked Wilson how she does it.

“My pitch is that we are the best school in the country, so you can be number one academically and we can also take you as far as you want to go athletically. You don’t have to compromise in either area.”

One helpful factor is Harvard’s financial aid policy, which is the same for American  and international students. Harvard evaluates a family’s financial situation and meets one hundred percent of their “demonstrated financial need.” 

This makes Harvard more affordable and attracts younglings from across the globe who are blessed with brains that twitch as fast as their muscles. Kolesnikoff and Ratcliffe, for example, are Australian. Valeanu is from Israel.

Wilson says she “works a lot of American and international connections.” She had her eye on Ikeji, for example, and followed him via social media as he developed into Great Britain’s best young hammer thrower. “I loved his potential,” she recalls. “He was a city kid who had to get on a bus for an hour to go practice, so I knew he was committed to the sport. He also happens to be a brilliant human being.”

Once on campus, Harvard athletes face the daunting task of competing at a high level without cutting corners in the classroom. “The Ivy League has a stricter policy on travel and missed classes,” Wilson says. “So it takes a lot of planning and deciding which meets each athlete should attend. Luckily, the whole school is very supportive of these kids.”

Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose

Among the group Wilson took to the Florida Relays, several will be competing for other schools next season. Valeanu will be an LSU Tiger in 2024, Kolesnikoff a Georgia Bulldog. Ratcliffe, Garabian, and Omoregie are currently in the transfer portal looking for the right fit.

This exodus is the result of a strange combination of circumstances. The Ivy League does not allow grad students to compete in athletics, and the five athletes mentioned above will all be grad students next year. The reason they still have athletic eligibility is because the NCAA gave everyone an extra year after the 2020 season was shut down. In fact, Kolesnikoff, Omoregie, and Valeanu have two years of eligibility remaining because the Ivy League did not allow athletes to compete in 2021 either. Ratcliffe actually has three years because she took a leave from the Harvard team and competed in Australia during 2022. 

Saying goodbye to this crew will not be easy for Wilson, but she has done her best to help Kolesnikoff and the others find their ideal landing spot. In the meantime, she looks forward to what promises to be an epic season for Harvard throws.

Coach Paolo Dal Soglio to Present at the 2022 European Shot Put Conference

I always remembered Paolo Dal Soglio as the guy who crashed the party in the men’s shot put at the 1996 Olympic Games. When I turned on my television that July evening, I was expecting to see an epic battle between European gliders and American spinners, but was greeted instead by the sight of Paolo (an Italian spinner!) having the time of his life. He held the lead until round five, and though he ended up missing the podium by a centimeter, he stole the show with his high-pitched screams and unabashed joy at performing on the big stage.

Paulo, in his athletic prime.

Fast forward to the summer of 2021, and I found myself greatly entertained by the sight of another Italian spinner having the time of his life at an Olympic Games. At first, I thought there’d been a mix up and the officials had accidentally put a decathlete in the men’s shot final there in Tokyo, but it turned out that this guy Zane Weir could really throw! He ended up launching a PB of 21.41m to take fifth, and has since raised that PB to 21.99m.

Zane Weir, an inspiration for skinny people everywhere.

It also turns out that Paolo is Zane’s coach, and they will present together at the upcoming 2022 European Shot Put Conference to be held October 28th-30th in Tallinn, Estonia.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Paolo recently as we taped an episode of the Throw Big Throw Far Podcast hosted by my friend Joe Frontier, and I was impressed with his thoughtful approach to coaching the rotational shot.

Like most putters from his era, Paolo started out as a glider. His coach for his entire career was a man named Aldo Pedron, and at some point Paolo and Aldo sought advice from the German coach Peter Tschiene, who suggested trying the rotational technique.

“We trained one month with the spin,” Paolo recalls, “and Peter said if I throw within 50 centimeters of my glide PB, we would change.”

He did, and they did.

This was 1991, in the Dark Ages before YouTube, and there was not a lot of information available on how to make the glide-to-spin conversion, so Aldo, Peter, and Paolo set about finding their own way.

Paolo says that they tried many options and experimented with different approaches to each phase of the throw, including his setup at the back. “We tried starting with a very deep bend in the knees,” he says, “and also standing straight up. The hardest thing was changing where I held the shot on my neck. That took a long time to get right.”

A big breakthrough came one day when Paolo was training in a cramped indoor space and launching many throws out of the sector. Those throws were “destroying things,” so Peter suggested that Paolo move to his right on his setup.

Immediately, that adjustment felt “amazing.”

“I felt like I had a bigger circle,” he recalls. “I could get my lower body ahead and build torsion.”

Along with Zane, Paolo also coaches Leonardo Fabbri (21.99m PB) and both those gents use the offset setup. That does not mean, however, that Paolo tries to make them copy his technique, as many people assumed he would when he began coaching.

“People were worried. They said, ‘Paolo has a big kick. Not good!'”

But Paolo believes that each athlete has to find their own way to make the shot go far. One key, he says, is creating torsion.

“You have two different engines,” he explains, “the upper body and the lower body. They work separately for most of the throw then at the end together.”

He also emphasized the need for trust between an athlete and coach, and the importance of determination, especially once an athlete reaches a level where improvement comes slowly.

“When you start out,” he says, “every day is like Christmas. But after that, are you willing to work keep working? Are you able mentally to train one year for a little bit of improvement?”

At the upcoming conference, Paolo and Zane will demonstrate the approach they used to help Zane improve from an anonymous skinny dude with a 19.09m PB into one of the world’s top putters.

World champion Chase Ealey and her coach, Paul Wilson will also present, as will Paulo Reis, coach of Auriol Dongmo.

It should be a fantastic weekend! You’ll find registration info here.

2022 USATF Outdoor Champs Recap: Ari Ince, Tim Glover, Maggie Ewen

“Take that, self doubt!”

What’s my cue?

Going into last week’s USATF Outdoor Championships, Arianna Ince knew what she had to do to make the squad for Worlds: finish in the top three and throw 60 meters. 

That combination of results would give her a spot in the top 32 on the World Athletics Road to Oregon rankings and guarantee her a return trip to Eugene in mid July.

And it seemed eminently doable. “I knew I could nail 60 meters if I just hit two cues. I like to run down the runway as fast as I can, so it’s important that my left foot stays parallel to the foul line on my transition so my hips don’t open. Also, I have to leave the jav tip on my cheek as long as I can. That helps me keep the tip down and the jav back.”

Ari reminded herself of those cues often in the days and hours leading up to Saturday’s comp, and then when it came time for her first round throw, she promptly forgot them.

“I became obsessed with the distance,” she explained later. “And that usually doesn’t work.”

It certainly didn’t in this case, as Ari opened with 54.97m and a foul. 

Fortunately, this was not Ari’s first time throwing in a high pressure situation. She made the Worlds team in 2017 and 2019, and the Olympic squad last summer.

So before her third attempt Ari took a breath and went through her pre-throw routine. “I will tap the side of my foot,” she explained. “Then withdraw the jav back to my eye. That provides some tactile feedback for my body to rely on and helps me refocus on what I’m trying to do.”

That did the trick. She tossed 60.42m in round three, and followed that with 60.43m in round four.  That gives Ari confidence that she can make her first international championship final next month. “I went back to the cues and 60 meters came right out. Knowing I can do that after a shaky start, I’m really proud of that.”

Another confidence booster is the fact that she possesses the 15th best throw in the world this season–a 62.74m toss at Chula Vista in June. Even better, she is the only woman in the top 32 whose ranking points came almost entirely from competitions that took place during the past month. 

I asked Ari how she managed to get on a roll at just the right time, and it turns out there is a very specific reason. 

Aside from a few months during the peak of the pandemic when she went to live with Kara and Russ Winger in Colorado, the Elite Athlete Center in Chula Vista has been her training base since 2019. But, as of September, throwers will no longer be part of the Elite Athlete program there, so for the early part of this summer Ari spent a lot of psychic energy worrying about how and where she would continue her athletic career. Then, a little more than a month ago, she settled on a plan. I am not allowed to reveal the details of that plan here, but suffice it to say that Ari is now thoroughly excited about her future in the sport. 

She credits that decision, that “feeling of certainty” with freeing her up to focus on throwing far. “All I have to worry about now is what’s going on on the runway,” she says. “And for a professional thrower, that’s the easy part.”

“I’m not old, just sore.”

Too stubborn to quit

None of us will forget the cloud that fell over the world in March of 2020, but javelin thrower Tim Glover had been dealing with darkness for some time before the pandemic hit.

Tim, the 2011 and 2012 NCAA champion, had thrown well early in his pro career, but then suffered an elbow injury which required surgery and cost him the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Then, he was with his mother one day in the fall of 2018 when she received a call telling her that  Tim’s sister had been found dead in her apartment in Chicago. He threw again in the 2019 season but injured his shoulder and had to have another surgery. That spring, his mother suffered a fatal heart attack. 

Tim ended up moving to Virginia with his girlfriend, and started throwing a bit in the spring of 2021. “I was seven-stepping over 70 meters,” he says, “but I went back too hard too soon. My shoulder felt lousy, and after a while I knew there was no way I’d be throwing that season.”

He refused to hang it up, though. “I guess I was just too stubborn to quit. I didn’t want to let an injury take me out. I knew that my mom had wanted to see me get healthy and compete again, so I wanted to give it one more go.”

He had PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) therapy, rested his shoulder, and was finally able to experiment with a light jav this past March. After throwing 75.36m and 78.52m in two April comps, he showed that the “old guy” still had it by breaking 80 meters in each of his next two outings. It had been seven years since he last threw that far.

Even more remarkable was that Tim was surpassing 80 meters while rarely training with an actual javelin. “I only throw balls in practice,” he explained. “My shoulder still can’t take throwing a jav regularly. I pick once a week, but I never throw off a runway. You’d laugh if you could see how little I do in practice.”

He maintained that routine right up to the US Championships, where he finished fifth with a best of 76.37m. That was enough, though, to send him to Worlds. Entering Sunday’s comp, only Tim, Curtis Thompson and Michael Shuey had qualified (Shuey by hitting the standard, Tim and Curtis on ranking) but the University of Virginia’s Ethan Dabbs shocked everyone by tossing 81.29m for the win. That was enough to move him up forty places in the World Athletics rankings, so when the dust cleared, Shuey, who finished seventh on Sunday, was the odd man out. 

It will be Tim’s first international championships, and he says that it might come down to a “coin flip” as far as whether he’ll retire afterwards. “I’d love to go out on making a big team for the first time,” he said. “I know my shoulder will never be one hundred percent. But the next Olympics is only two years away, so…we’ll see.”

“Is that a hammer I see before me?”

What the heart wants

Maggie Ewen won the Diamond League shot put title last year, which earned her a bye into the 2022 Worlds. That made for a “weird” experience at USA’s. With no need to fight for a podium spot, Maggie did heavy cleans the day before the shot comp, and went in just hoping to road test some of the technical adjustments she’d been working on in practice.

She ended up finishing fifth with a toss of 18.79m, her best outdoor result since going 19.32m in Doha on May 13th.

The competition at World’s will be hellacious, with fellow American Chase Ealey, Canadian Sara Mitton, and Jiayuan Song of China all throwing past 20 meters in recent comps. Maggie has a PB of 19.79m, but going forward, will likely have to find a way to crack the 20-meter mark if she wants to get on an Olympic or World Championship podium.

Or, could there be another way?

During a wildly successful career at Arizona State that ended in 2018, she broke the collegiate record in the shot put (19.46m)…and in the hammer (74.56m). 

She continued throwing both during the 2019 season and did quite well, thank you very much. She just missed making the Worlds squad in the hammer when she nailed a PB of 75.04m at the US Championships, and not only made the team in the shot but ended up finishing fourth at Worlds. 

Things got complicated when the schedule for the 2020 Olympics came out and the women’s shot final was scheduled on the same day (and at the exact same time) as the women’s hammer qualification. 

“My agent told me they petitioned to have it changed but got turned down,” Maggie recalled, “so I had to pick one. Then Covid happened, and I didn’t have a place to throw the hammer, so Kyle and I decided to just go forward with the shot and get that figured out.”

Kyle is Maggie’s coach, Kyle Long, and when competition resumed during the winter of 2021, they did in fact seem to have “figured out” the shot. Maggie belted a PB of 19.54m in February and seemed a sure bet to make the team for Tokyo. Her fourth-place finish at the Trials was a shocker, but she shook it off like a champ and went on to win the Diamond League Final. 

When Maggie extended her PB to 19.79m at this year’s US Indoor Champs, most people probably assumed that she’d put the hammer away for good, but…

“Having a bye in the shot this year, we thought, ‘Why not pick up the hammer?’ Trying both again would give us a good idea of whether or not we can do this at an elite level.”

Maggie started tossing the hammer around shortly after the Indoor Worlds and integrated it into her practices as best she could when not on the road competing in the shot.

“We approached it a lot like during college days,” she explained. “We’d basically switch off every other day, and it really wasn’t that hard to find a balance. I was much busier in college when I was throwing the disc, too. Honestly, it’s been refreshing. I get in the habit of overthinking when I’m only doing shot, so it helps when I’m forced to take my mind off of it every other day.”

“And it felt great to be back throwing the hammer in that environment at USAs again and it was fun to be with the hammer girls. Each group of girls has their own little vibe, and it was amazing to be with them again.”

Make no mistake, though, Maggie did not enter last week’s hammer comp just to catch up with old friends. She had every intention of making the team, and came damn close to doing it. Her 72.70m in round six was a season’s best and a Worlds qualifier and left her one spot away from having to make a very interesting decision.

It turns out that women’s hammer and shot qualifying are scheduled for the same day at Worlds. If Maggie made the team in the hammer and was placed in Qualification Group B, she’d have had only a short break before reporting for the shot. That might be manageable at an NCAA meet, but probably not when going against the world’s best.

Maggie didn’t say which she’d have chosen, but says she believes her “top end” in the hammer is “way higher” than in the shot.

“I only threw it for four years and got it to go 75 meters,” she says. “I have so much untapped potential. But shot is where you make your money. It’s indoor and outdoor, and more meets host it. I would love to be throwing the hammer way more. I guess the future depends on how the world is going and how I’m going.” 

2022 USATF Outdoor Champs Recap: Jess Woodard and Josh Awotunde

Jess Woodard picked a great day for a breakthrough.

Finally

After taking third place at the 2022 USATF Indoor Championships with a toss of 18.70m this February, shot putter Jessica Woodard told me that she was “close” to some 19 meter throws. 

Ahhh, but the best laid plans. 

After hitting 18.77m in Walnut, California, in April, Jess traveled to Brazil for two meets. Unfortunately, when she arrived in Miami her connecting flight had been canceled. She got out the next day, but arrived in Brazil at 12:30am and then had to compete that evening. Exhausted, she went 17.98m and 17.94m in two meets in São Paulo, then returned home with a case of Covid.

Her best mark during May was 18.54m. In her final competition prior to the US Championships, she threw 17.65m. That was at a meet in Canada on June 8th.

Jess knew she’d have to find a way to get past the 19 meter mark at USAs to have any chance of making the team for the World Championships but felt stuck, she says, “in a little bit of a funk. It felt like everything was hard. Usually that time of year things fall into place and the ball starts going far, but the ball wasn’t going far and I felt like I was drowning a little bit going into the championship season.”

With the support of her coach, Ryan Whiting, and boyfriend/training partner Darrell Hill, Jess finally found some rhythm a week before the US Outdoor Championships, but then in her final squat workout a few days before the comp she “tweaked her back pretty good.”

She flew to Eugene shortly after, and was able to get physical therapy there while gutting her way through her final practices. 

With Maggie Ewen holding a wildcard as defending Diamond League champion, Jess needed to finish among the top three throwers without the last name Ewen in order to make the Worlds team.

That did not turn out to be easy.

She had her best opener ever, 18.79m, then fouled her next two attempts as Chase Ealey (20.51m), Adelaide Aquilla (19.45m), and Raven Saunders (18.95m) passed her. That’s a formidable trio, and in the past Jess might have wilted. “I had always struggled,”she says,” to move into that top group.”

A ten-minute break between rounds three and four seemed to last “forever,” and when the comp resumed she tossed another 18.79m.

A week earlier in practice Jess realized that most of her missed throws were the result of her not being aggressive enough, so she decided to “push it” a bit in round five. 

The result was a 19.40m PB. 

Some anxious moments ensued, as Raven–the Olympic silver medalist–still had two more whacks at overtaking her. But Raven went foul, 18.72m, and Jess was on the team.

How did that feel? 

“I kind of blacked out on that throw,” she says, “but afterwards, I felt joy. And relief!” 

A “rest the pec” strategy paid off for Josh Awotunde.

Back on the attack

Shot putter Joshua Awotunde finished fifth at the 2022 World Indoor Championships, opened his outdoor campaign with a 21.63m toss at Mt. SAC, then essentially disappeared from competition.

A strained pec was the culprit. 

It came during an April training session when he tried to “go for it” on his last attempt of the day. It turned out to be a serious strain, and when he resumed throwing after two weeks of rest and rehab, Josh had to content himself with using a 12-pound shot. It took him four weeks to work up to the 14, and he did not attempt a full throw with a 16 until early June. 

Josh missed two Diamond League comps during that span, which is not ideal if you are trying to eke out a living as a shot putter, but he did not want to risk aggravating the pec and possibly having to shut down for the season.

Two days before the Champs in Eugene, Josh threw a practice PB of 23.40m with the 14, an indication that he had not lost his pop, but two months without a competition left him wondering if he’d be able to find his rhythm in the heat of battle.

“I just wanted to throw 70 feet again,” he says. “ I just wanted to execute my technique.”

A 21.50m warmup throw made him think he might be in better shape than he’d thought, and a 21.24m opener put him in the hunt for the Worlds team. The situation for the dudes was the same as it had been for the ladies. One thrower–in this case Joe Kovacs–had a bye, so the US would be allowed to send four competitors to Worlds. That turned out to be a good thing, as Joe, playing with house money, opened with a 22.87m bomb.

Josh went 20.68m in round two, which left him in fourth behind Joe, Ryan Crouser, and Tripp Piperi. 

That was not a comfortable place to be, considering that Roger Steen, Jordan Geist, and Darrell Hill all looked capable of jumping ahead of him.

Josh needed to shake off the rust, pronto. He took a minute to confer with Crouser before taking his third attempt.

“I’m slow today,” Josh told him.

“Yeah,” Crouser replied. “You’re not attacking like you did indoors.”

Josh’s coach, Mike Sergent, agreed, so Josh entered the ring for round three with one thought in mind–push harder out of the back.

It worked. He went 21.51m, nowhere near his PB of 22.00m, but a satisfying result after not competing for two months, and good enough to move him into third. 

And there he stayed, in spite of a great day by Piperi (six throws over 21.00m) and Steen (a 21.14m PB). 

Meanwhile, Crouser and Joe waged a titanic battle for the title. Some have speculated that the way to beat a healthy Crouser is to throw a haymaker early to knock him off his rhythm. Joe did that and more when he hit 22.87m again in round two. 

But it didn’t matter. Crouser wasn’t able to extend his World Record of 23.37m, but check out this series: 22.42m, F, 23.12m, 23.01m, 23.11m, 22.98m.

Apparently, he can take a punch.  

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Darrell Hill situation. “Nightmare” might be more accurate. “Recurring nightmare,” actually, because a similar scenario unfolded at the US Indoor Champs. In both comps, Darrell got called for a questionable foul on a throw that might have put him on the podium. In both comps, he protested and was allowed to throw in the finals while the protest was being adjudicated. In both comps, his protest was denied and he was removed from the final. 

Friday’s situation contained a bizarre twist. Darrell was originally told that he’d fouled his first attempt by brushing the top of the toeboard on his reverse. After reviewing the video, though, the officials changed their mind. They agreed with Darrell that he had not touched the top of the toeboard, but claimed instead that he had fouled at the back of the ring.

The whole thing devolved into a huge mess with Darrell maintaining a running debate with the officials while also trying to remain composed enough to get off a solid throw. Afterwards, he posted an Instagram video in which he explained all the crazy and frustrating details. It’s worth watching.

I am told that he’s not going to let the matter drop and is intent on forcing USATF to find a more consistent way to determine fouls. If he succeeds, Darrell will have done the sport a great service. In the meantime, it looks like he will not make the squad for Worlds.

In his absence, the US will still send a formidable crew of putters. Crouser and Kovacs will likely resume their Godzilla v. Destoroyah battle, and Josh believes he can improve on his World Indoor finish.

“I know I need to work on reversing and confidently getting through the shot,” he says. “But my experience at Indoor Worlds will help me. And it will be great to have home court advantage. I know we are going to want to put on a show. I asked my coach, ‘Can we sweep?” and he said, ‘Yeah.’ We’ve got some work to do, but it would be fun to make history.” 

2022 USATF Championships Preview: Michael Shuey

Mike’s 85.67m toss from July 2021 puts him in good shape to make the WC squad.

Dammit!

It could have been any number of things.

He’d blasted a PB of 85.67m less than three weeks earlier, so there was no reason to doubt his fitness.

But sleeping on an uncomfortable bed and walking everywhere in the Olympic village made him feel a little tight in the hips. Having to wake up at 4:00am the day of the qualification round was not ideal, nor was the 90-degree temperature and 96 percent humidity that morning.

There is also a lot of sitting and waiting involved at a major championships. He felt good at the warmup track, but then had to chill out for nearly an hour in call room number one, and again in call room number two before being taken into the stadium.

Also, the runway was falling apart. The Tokyo organizers had installed a super special Mondo track surface designed to propel runners to Olympic and World records, which it did. But when subjected to the one-ton of pressure exerted each time a javelin thrower slammed his blocking foot into the ground, the spongy top layer of that surface shredded, creating a very dicey situation for the athletes.

It could have been any of those things, or none of them. The fact is that sprinting twenty meters then hitting the breaks while whipping a light spear as far as you can is none too good for the joints.

Whatever the case may be, Michael Shuey was not thinking about the hazards of his chosen profession last August when he stepped up to take his first throw as an Olympian. He was thinking about his technique.

 “My cue on round one,” he recalled recently, “was to run down there easy, then drop my right knee into the throw as hard as I could.”

That’s a common cue for javeliners, a simple way to make sure they get the most out of their right hip as they blast into the throw. But on this attempt Mike’s right heel got stuck, and his knee paid the price.

“I felt like I dislocated my kneecap,” he says. “All I could think about was that everyone back home just watched me blow out my knee.”

The kindness of strangers

“I went back to my seat and wrapped it. The Romanian guy, Novac, was like ‘Hey Mike, you need my tape?’ He lent me some, and one of the Finnish guys said, ‘Hey, I’m not using my knee brace. Do you want to use it?’ I really appreciated that. It was a cool experience. I just hope I never have to have it again.”

It has been a long road back from the injury he suffered in Tokyo.

Kindness, part two

“Getting injured at Olympics is a whole different realm. They scheduled me for an MRI, and I thought ‘Oh good, I’ll get to see some of Tokyo on the way to the hospital.’ But the hospital was right there in the village, next to the cafeteria. They had orthopedic doctors. Physical therapists. Even a dentist. I was talking to them, and they told me that since some countries don’t have access to health care, they let athletes get stuff taken care of at the Olympics. For example, a guy from Africa had a decayed tooth in back of his mouth that was completely hollowed out. They pulled it, and I asked him how long he’d been dealing with that tooth. He said two years!”

The road back

It turned out to be a posterolateral corner injury, which is Latin for “a really messed up knee.” Torn meniscus. Torn cartilage. Sprained lateral ligaments.

Once he arrived back home, Mike underwent microfracture surgery, which involves drilling small holes into the ends of the bones near the damaged cartilage. The holes are meant to stimulate the production of fresh cartilage cells.

After the surgery, Mike was told that he would need to rest his knee for six months. That meant rehab and walking throws only.

The knee swelled up a lot. He had PRP (platelet-rich plasma injection) therapy and did his best not to lose his feel for making a javelin go far.

“It was a lot of trial and error,” he says. ” I will definitely try to get my rehab plan published after this.”

And now…

Mike has competed once this season, producing a toss of 75.25m at the USATF Throws Fest in Tucson in May. Before that meet, he’d had a total of two practices during which he’d gone beyond walking throws and threw using a short approach.

His training continues to be a mix of rehab and throwing drills, with the knee a constant consideration. He uses a variety of javs when he throws, everything from a 1-kilo down to a 600-gram implement.

Mike says his knee feels “moderately okay” right now, and that he is working to find the feel on his throws.

“I have my footwork down now, I just need to get connected with the jav and hit solid, line drive throws.”

In terms of qualifying for the World Championships, Mike’s big toss from last July has put him in a great spot. He is currently the only American man to have hit the World Athletics qualifying mark, which makes him a virtual lock to make the squad. Tim Glover and Curtis Thompson are likely to join him on the Worlds team, based on their current WA ranking.

Mike feels ready going into this weekend’s USATF Champs.

What’s the meaning of this?

Assuming he makes the team, Mike says that qualifying for Worlds “will give me self validation that regardless of what hardships happen to me, I can come back better. It might not bring me fame and riches, but emotionally it will do a lot for me. My big goal is to make finals at Worlds, and I think I can do it.”

Ready to take a chance again

Mike is cognizant of the risk he will be taking when he once again unleashes his full technique at full speed. He says that a javelin thrower’s body has to be comfortable enough with that range of motion you need to make a big throw. “When you put yourself in that elongated, somewhat treacherous position, your body can be like ‘Noooo!’ and bail out of it. That’s why you always throw farther in a meet than in practice. You need that adrenaline to help you push your limits.”

Limit pushing time in the men’s javelin will take place on Sunday at 11:35am Pacific.

2022 USATF Championships Preview: Marcus Gustaveson

Not a bad start to Marcus’s pro career.

An inauspicious beginning

Marcus Gustaveson left his mark on Wheaton North High School in the suburbs of Chicago. Lots of marks, actually. The dents in the support post on the right side of the discus cage there bear silent testament to his ferocious and–in those days–uncontrolled power.

I coach the throws at Wheaton North, and was very excited when Marcus decided to try the shot and disc in the winter of his junior year. He was a super nice kid and, more importantly, had long levers and great pop.

But like a lot of young dudes still in the process of sprouting upwards, he struggled with footwork and timing, and in our two years together we were never able to harness his potential. His best discus throw in high school was 144 feet, although had there been no cage or foul lines he might have gone 200.

Our first winter together I started him off as a glide shot putter, so of course one day he decided to improvise a spin. I’ve never seen a giraffe caught in a tornado, but after witnessing Marcus’s first attempt at rotational putting, I never want to.

“Dear god!” I told him. “Promise me you’ll never try that again!”

After high school, Marcus enrolled at Concordia University, St. Paul, where he competed in both football and track. Participating in spring football practices limited his throwing to one session a week that first season, but he still managed to break the Concordia freshman record in the shot with a throw of 15.98m (Fun Fact: His coach that year was hammer thrower Sean Donnelly).

He spent very little time working on the discus. “I’d take maybe two throws each practice,” he recalls. “Then Sean would laugh at me because it was so ugly, and we’d stop.” His best toss that season was 43.32m.

The next year, Donnelly left to become a resident athlete at Chula Vista, and was replaced by former University of Minnesota javelin thrower Rachel Melum. Though still mainly focused on football, under Melum’s guidance Marcus was able to improve his discus PB to 50.78m.

Melum departed after one season, and was replaced by Lina Baker, a former DIII All-American in the hammer.  Baker recognized Marcus’s potential as a discus thrower, and encouraged him to shift his focus from football to track. Marcus took her advice and did not participate in spring football during his junior year.

With the clock ticking on his throwing career, Baker also convinced him to ditch his glide and try spinning in the shot in hopes that doing so would accelerate his progress in the disc. It was not the smoothest of transitions, and Marcus competed mostly from a half turn, but he threw 15.99m and the effort he put into learning rotational shot did seem to transfer to the disc.

He only improved his discus PB by a meter during that 2019 season, but he and Coach Baker could tell that he was on the brink of much bigger throws. The following February, he put the shot 16.98m and felt ready to do serious damage in the disc when…the world shut down.

A career lost then found

Marcus’s parents had moved to Colorado after he graduated from high school, and he joined them there while trying to sort out his future. When it became clear that the pandemic would wipe out the rest of the track season, he told Baker that he was calling it a career.

Later that spring, though, he came across a discus in his garage and decided to toss it around a bit. He ended up taking some full throws in tennis shoes on a sidewalk, launching the disc into an open field. It felt good.

He bought a pair of throwing shoes and a few more discs. Before long, he was throwing at a local high school track and sending videos to Lina.

In the fall of 2020, he returned to St. Paul and began working forty hours a week at Enterprise while also training and taking classes toward an MBA. He lifted with Lina at 4:00am, and threw with her at 7:00pm.

Their work paid off in the spring when he threw 61.53m at the Tucson Elite meet. That got him into the Olympic Trials, and while in Eugene he was invited to become a resident athlete at Chula Vista.

It turns out that the resident athlete program for throwers was about to be phased out, so he ended up renting an apartment with hammer thrower Autavia Fluker and javeliner Mike Shuey.

Marcus spent the fall and winter working, volunteer coaching at a local high school, and training at the center under the guidance of John Dagata. It was a grind similar to his final year at Concordia, but the payoff came this spring when he opened with a 64.46m bomb at a meet in Long Beach.

The Next Step

Now a certifiably world class thrower, Marcus enters this week’s USATF Championships as a longshot to make the team for Worlds. He will need to climb into the top 32 to qualify by ranking, and that is not likely as he currently sits at 63. That means hitting the performance standard of 66.00m.

If he can do that, the impact on his career would be significant. “Everything would change,” he surmises. “If you make an Olympic or World team, you get noticed, get more funding, maybe get invited to international meets. It just makes everything more achievable.”

Easy, Big Fella

Those are exciting possibilities, but possibilities are not something you want to be mulling over as you enter the ring. Marcus has surpassed 60 meters only twice since tossing that PB in Long Beach, and he attributes his struggles to being too focused on nailing the 66.00m qualifier.

His plan for Thursday is to start easy, with maybe eighty percent effort, knowing that when the adrenaline kicks in at a big meet, staying under control and feeling positions is more important than trying to generate speed.

His goal is to “build a good series, with every throw over 60 meters. Throw a little bit better each round and ignore what other guys are doing. If I get the standard, great, but I’d really like to finish in the top three. I’ve done a lot of learning this year, and a top three finish would be a big step for me.”

A bit more on Thursday’s discus comp

The only American in the top 32 right now is Sam Mattis. Sam also has the standard, having nailed a PB of 68.69m in May.

Andrew Evans, who did not post a mark in 2020 or 2021, reappeared this season and reached 66.74m last month. He has been over 63.00m in five of his six comps this year.

Brian Williams has had an up-and-down season with three meets under 60.00m and five over. His season’s best of 66.14m came in early May, but he’s a veteran of these championship meets and made the team for Doha by throwing a then PB of 65.76m at the 2019 US Championships. His experience will make him a contender to make this year’s squad as well.

My head says those three will make the podium, but in my heart I’ll be pulling for Marcus.

The men’s discus comp will take place on Thursday at 5:45pm Pacific.