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Tiger track athletes headed to nationals
5/26/2011
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
Fort Hays State University seniors Christa Bergmann and Mitch Sahlfeld have each followed similar career paths. Bergmann, a Concordia native, and Sahlfeld, from Beloit, each came to FHSU after high school. During their careers, the duo has each redshirted a year, broke school records and reached nationals under Tiger throwing coach Andreas Maheras.
Bergmann won the NCAA Division II national championship in the weight throw during the indoor season.
Junior Max Alonso, a native of Chile and a Barton County Community College transfer, joined the FHSU program this year and has set the school record in the discus and shot put.
This weekend, Bergmann, Sahlfeld and Alonso will be among several athletes Fort Hays qualified for the outdoor national championships in Turlock, Calif.
"He was not all mine, I didn't coach him from the beginning, whereas Sahlfeld and Bergmann have been coached by me since the beginning in all of their events," Maheras said.
"Alonso already has an established technique and an established pattern of throwing, so big changes were not easy to accomplish or desirable to accomplish because you can cause more damage than create any new benefit. Having said that, we have tried to alter a few items in a nice and progressive way, so he can improve the technique even better."
The left-handed Alonso will compete in the shot put and discus after he threw 59-93âÑ4 this year in the shot and 190-3 in the discus.
He is seeded fifth in the shot put and second in the discus, only behind Nick Jones of Abilene Christian (Texas) University, who threw 198-7 this spring.
"We are trying to work on the footwork, particularly as he wants to drive in the middle of the circle, so his right leg can plant a little bit more aggressively, so it can allow him to get a little more vertical velocity," Maheras said. "During the release, he had the tendency to throw quite a bit horizontally."
Sahlfeld, who reached nationals in hammer and discus last spring, qualified seventh in the hammer throw (school record 204-3) and 18th in the discus (171-7) this year. Bergmann qualified in the hammer throw and discus. She set the school mark in the hammer this spring when she threw 179-8, good for 15th-best in Division II. In discus, Bergmann is ranked 15th at 152-10.
"Mitch's progression was very steady over the years," Maheras said.
"This year has been his best. With Christa, it has culminated in this year. That was because Christa was a little bit less developed once she first came in here and that's where she worked and she kept improving. We added one turn in her hammer technique this year. She used to be a two-turn. Now she became a three-turn in the weight and the hammer and that easily added some extra feet."
In addition, senior Darcie Schmitz, the 2010 indoor long jump national champion and a five-time All-American, qualified in the long jump and the triple jump. She holds the school mark in the triple jump and is the lone Tiger woman to ever clear 40 feet. Schmitz, also the school record holder in the long jump, is ranked 11th in that event after jumping 19-6.
Senior Amy Wilson, a Hays High School graduate, will make her second career appearance at nationals in the javelin. She is ranked 12th with a throw of 141-2.
Junior MaKayla McPhail, a starter on the volleyball team for the last two years, would have also made the javelin field this year. McPhail was ranked eighth, but suffered a knee injury at the MIAA Championships. Freshman Anna Eigbruber also qualified in the long jump, qualifying 14th overall with a leap of 19-31âÑ2.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| 2/18 | SW Baptist | L 66-53 | |
| 12/1 | Oklahoma - Panhandle | L 66-60 (OT) | |