Mississippi State scored a rare 1-2 in the NCAA spear event, and that was without ’16 collegiate champion Curtis Thompson, who redshirted this year while rehabbing from injury. The 22-year-old New Jersey native—sans his foreign-nationality teammates—made his ’18 debut in Des Moines and it was a winning one.
“I came in with the plan to compete and try to win like any other time,” he said. “But I was really looking to get back out there pain-free and just do all I did the whole year in practices to let it pay off.”
Thompson took the lead in the first round at 244-7 (74.55) and never trailed. He extended his lead with a second effort of 248-7 (75.77), but eventual runner-up Capers Williamson made it interesting in the third stanza by coming within inches with a 248-4 (75.71) that would end up his best. Defending champ Riley Dolezal mounted his best challenge in round 4, coming close to the top pair at 246-5 (75.10), but that was as far as he would throw. Thompson responded with his best of the day, 249-3 (75.99). Yearly list leader Michael Shuey was almost 20ft shy of that mark with 239-3 (72.93) in 4th.
The winning distance was the shortest in meet history since the introduction of the new-spec implement back in ’86, but Thompson was pleased with the win. “It feels good; feels good to know that all the things I’ve been doing this whole year are starting to pay off,” he said. “Since there were no really big meets this year it was just a good idea not to push through any pain that I was dealing with last year. I started to train smarter, not harder.”
USATF MEN’S JAVELIN RESULTS
(June 23)
1. Curtis Thompson (unat) 249-3 (75.99)
(244-7, 248-7, 236-2, 249-3, 233-5, 231-10) (74.55, 75.77, 71.99, 75.99, 71.14, 70.67);
2. Capers Williamson (unat) 248-4 (75.71)
(233-3, 236-0, 248-4, 234-8, 230-5, f) (71.09, 71.95, 75.71, 71.54, 70.25, f);
3. Riley Dolezal (unat) 246-5 (75.10)
(243-2, 229-5, 226-10, 246-5, f, f) (74.13, 69.93, 69.14, 75.10, f, f);
4. Michael Shuey (Vel) 239-3 (72.93);
5. Tim VanLiew (Iron) 236-4 (72.04);
6. Aaron True (Wich) 232-8 (70.93);
7. Michael Brazzel (Shore) 230-9 (70.34);
8. Michael Biddle (PennSt) 230-5 (70.24);
9. Nicholas Howe (unat) 227-8 (69.41);
10. Trevor Danielson (Stan) 222-8 (67.87);
11. Lars Tenglin (unat) 219-11 (67.05);
12. Justin Carter (Aub) 217-0 (66.15);
13. Tzuriel Pedigo (LaHS) 216-10 (66.10);
14. Taran Taylor (Wich) 215-6 (65.69);
15. Andrew Bloom (Whitw) 213-5 (65.06);
16. Cody Walton (Nb) 211-1 (64.35);
17. Seth Nonnenmacher (GFox) 210-1 (64.03);
18. Tom Carr (Shore) 207-11 (63.37).
