The Saint
Martin’s University track team lost a lot last season after Sam Washington
graduated. Not only was Washington a GNAC champion, but he was also the only
All-American on the team. This season, the Saints group of throwers is trying
to do big things and have another one of their athletes earn the coveted
All-American status. “We don’t have any All-Americans on this team. We don’t
have any NCAA champions on this team and until we do I don’t think anyone in
this group should be satisfied,” stated throwing coach Adam Midles.
With this in
mind, don’t think the Saints are slacking by any imagination in the throwing
events. A track meet in late April in California proved that what SMU has been
working on all season is paying enormous dividends. Redshirt freshman Kalli
Walker shattered the previous school record by 10 feet as her javelin throw
sailed 150’-5”. To start the year off, her mark was 122’-8” after the first
meet. But it isn’t just Walker improving. Angel Rodgers broke the hammer school
record for a second time this season after her toss of 158’-10” flew three and
a half feet further than the record she broke earlier in the season. It isn’t
only the women showing improvement, the men have done their fair share as well.
Freshman Mitch Wilkens had personal records of 47’-10” in the shot put and
141’-1” in the discus on April 26th. In the same meet, teammate
Vincent Fualefau increased his mark in the hammer throw after a heave of 156’.
“Coach really stresses
competitiveness with us,” said sophomore Ali Wick. Ali and her sister Ami would
know best; they have been working with Midles for almost six years now after
having him as a coach at Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon. “You have to be
mentally tough. In practice he will continually push us to show us what it is
like in a meet and if a situation arises where we get thrown off our game in
the middle of a meet, then we will know how to respond to it appropriately,”
added Wilkens. “One of the reasons we compete so much in practice is because we
hope that if we do that and we compete with each other then we will be mentally
tougher at the end of the day,” said Midles. An important reason for this
constant push of competitiveness is because it allows the athlete to know how
to personally get through it and overcome struggles.
Although the
group of throwers might be excelling now, Midles noted that some pretty drastic
changes were made when he and the new coaching staff arrived. “We wanted to be
a group who was competitive on a national level and we didn’t want to settle
for anything less than that.” One aspect that has allowed the coaching staff to
have so much success is that amount of success they as coachers had themselves in
the sport. Midles and all three of the volunteer coaches who focus on the
throwers were NCAA All-Americans, including Washington who was hired this year
to help the squad. Not many teams have a staff with a resume that could stack up to that.
“Coach has a
very solid plan,” said Ami Wick. “I competed against his players while I was at
Willamette High School and when I came up here and saw what he did, it makes
total sense how he was able to make a program such a power,” continued Wilkens.
“A lot of what has happened really comes down to if the kids are buying in and
executing on meet day. It’s when things get really intense and the pressure is
on you can really tell who has bought in or not, and these kids have done a
great job,” stated Midles.
With the
Saint Martin’s home meet approaching this weekend and conference right around
the corner, don’t be surprised to continue to see more school records fall. An
important thing that the coaching staff has implemented to the team is that
improvements should mostly happen in the last three weeks of the season, which
when mentioned to the team brought up some laughs because they know what they have
accomplished as a team. It isn’t just the ones mentioned here that have shown
improvement from the beginning of the season, all of them have. You can look up
and down the roster and stats and see PR’s being broken every week. “If you’re
not motivated by constant improvement, you’re someone who gets easily
satisfied, then you’re not someone who should be a NCAA student-athlete. You
know it’s kind of hokey but there is the Adidas say ‘There is no finish line’
and it’s the same thing with college athletics. None of these guys should be
satisfied yet. They should keep pushing themselves to be better students, be
better athletes and better people,” claims Midles. Luckily for this group of
student-athletes the finish line of school work and classes is almost complete,
but the finish line for the track season is far from over.
