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get to the game? Don't worry, we've got ya covered.
McCormick yields personality, chance at national title
4/7/2008
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
Junior Lindsay McCormick, a javelin thrower for the Fort Hays State University track and field team, displayed her incredible talent and outgoing personality in a two-hour stretch on Saturday afternoon at the FHSU Quadrangular.
McCormick is constantly moving, constantly smiling.Between her six throws, she mingled with several people, including walking over to talk with a friend and her dog that jogged by to watch the competition.
She also met with Tiger throwing coach Andreas Maheras and discussed form and technique.
After she won the competition, McCormick gathered her warmups and stopped several times on a 25-yard walk from the javelin pit to a fence for conversations with friends, fans and visitors.
She is asked the same questions multiple times from three different groups of people: "How long is the best throw of your career?," "How's your health?," "What was your longest throw of the day?" McCormick answered each one with a smile.
"She's really outgoing, happy-go-lucky person," Tiger head coach Dennis Weber said.
"She is a social person, that is for sure," Maheras added.
The likeable personality is part of McCormick's bustling lifestyle that features a semester in California and several school activities -- "she is always on the go," Weber said -- and helps her in the javelin, an event that could yield a national championship this spring.
"I know she likes the javelin and that makes it easy to convey my message," Maheras said.
That message is simple. While few are as outgoing or personable, few also have an arm like McCormick's.
"She has what we call a javelin thrower's arm, it is specific ability that a javelin thrower has to have," Maheras said.
The unique arm, coupled with sprinter's speed, helped McCormick finish second at the NCAA Div. II outdoor nationals last spring.
This year, she won the first two javelin events of the outdoor season, including the quadrangular on Saturday with a throw of 42.76 meters (140 feet, 3 inches), the second best of her career.
McCormick is ranked among the top eight in the country and has already qualified provisionally for the NCAA Div. II championships later this spring. However, she has only been competing in the event for several years, including just two at the collegiate level.
She was recruited as a sprinter out of Valley Center High School, but stress fractures ended her freshman season. McCormick couldn't run, so she started to spend more time throwing the javelin.
Since then, she has run very little (usually on relays) and focused mainly on throwing.
"It bothers me because I really haven't gotten to run that much, but I want to practice things that I excel more in and I find myself excelling more in jav," she said.
Her success comes from her speed and right arm, an arm that is completely natural.
"It is something that you are born with, she came here with that arm and threw," Maheras said. "When I saw that, I knew she could go somewhere."
"If you have that quickness in the arm that is very important and she obviously has that characteristic," Weber added. "I just took coach Maheras' word that she would be a great javelin thrower."
According to Maheras, the arm has to have elasticity to whip the javelin quickly upward and outward.
"The elbow comes a little bit on top of the wrist," he said. "Javelin throwers who have nice and flexible shoulders can do that and then you create this catapult effect. ... You apply force through the shaft of the javelin. You just don't throw it like a ball."
The arm helped McCormick progress in her redshirt season and convinced Weber to move her from the track to the javelin. She worked hard in practice and got consistently stronger.
"She follows instructions and she doesn't have an attitude," Maheras said. "She is a competitor, a tough cookie."
Her sophomore year, McCormick finished third at the conference meet when she uncorked a throw of 129 feet, 11 inches and took second at nationals with 144-10. The runner-up marked the highest finish by a javelin thrower in Tiger history.
However, McCormick, though, wasn't content to stay in Hays during the fall. A communications major, she spent last semester in California and didn't return until January. McCormick also is involved in several school functions.
"Sometimes you wonder how much competitiveness she has just because of the extra activities that she is involved in," Weber said. "Someone that successful, you wonder if that is all they think about, track, track, track.
"She is not one of those individuals," he added.
Once McCormick came back, she concentrated plenty of time on throwing the javelin.
The practice with Maheras helped her overcome a sinus infection that has plagued her and her roommates for several weeks.
"It doesn't help that I live with six girls and they are all sick, too," she said with a smile. "Because when one of us gets better, then the other one gets sick, it basically recycles."
On Saturday, McCormick kept coughing between throws. After a first-round throw that left her in second place, she talked with Maheras about staying back and pulling the javelin through.
She uncorked her winning toss in the second round and won the event by nearly 10 feet.
Then, McCormick returned to her bubbly personality, talking with friends and her coach.
Just like she has always been.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| BB | 5/11 | Central Missouri | L 4-2 |
| BB | 5/10 | Missouri Western | W 4-3 |
| BB | 5/09 | Emporia State | L 6-5 |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | W 17-5 |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | L 4-3 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 15-7 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 5-4 |
| SB | 5/02 | Central Missouri | L 3-1 |
| SB | 5/02 | Missouri Western | W 3-2 |
| SB | 5/01 | Pittsburg State | W 6-0 |
