ORJI SETS VARSITY RECORD WITH ALL AMERICA PERFORMANCE IN SHOT PUT
May 29, 2004
By Todd Chamoy (assistant coach)
MIT sent a small contigent of athletes to compete at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships last weekend. Uzoma Orji had qualified for the hammer throw and shot put, while Nate Ball had qualified for the pole vault.
Seeded 15th of 15 athletes in the strongest field ever in the hammer, Uzoma had nowhere to go but up. For the first time ever, the flights were seeded with the bottom half of the athletes in the first flight and the top half in the second flight. This would mean Uzoma would be throwing right away, then waiting to see how the second flight turned out to determine his place.
He opened with a safe throw around 165', which we knew would not be good enough to make the finals. On his second attempt, he started off in good position, but did not counter sufficiently as he picked up speed, so the hammer pulled him over and he hit the circle with the ball and fouled the throw. On his third attempt, he put together a solid, but painfully slow three turns to throw 171'9", leaving him in fourth place in his flight.
Considering there were eight athletes yet to throw who all had qualifying marks over 180', with only nine athletes making the final, we were not optimistic. We watched the second flight in anguish, almost hoping the other throwers would just put us out of our misery, but in an improbable turn of events, two of the athletes in the second flight tied Uzoma's mark of 171'9", and part way through the third round, the three throwers remained tied for 9th place. Unfortunately, the struggling thrower from Willamette came through on his third throw to knock Uzoma, et al, down to 10th place and out of the finals.
Earlier in the day, Nate Ball began vaulting in his second national championships, a meet which has not gone well for him in the past. His freshman year, he qualified as the 16th of 16 in the field, then proceeded to no-height for a disappointing end to an incredible season. His sophomore year, he qualified again, but came down with mono late in the season and was forced to withdraw from the meet. A series of injuries had kept him from qualifying for the indoor national championships, so he entered this meet hoping to reverse an incredible spell of bad luck.
Nate's day started as well as possible, clearing 14'7"
and 15'1" on first attempts. After knocking the bar off on his first
jump at 15'7", he gathered himself for a great jump to clear the height
on his second attempt. Six athletes had cleared the height on their first
attempt, and Hans Schmidt, the national record holder, had yet to start jumping,
leaving Nate unofficially in eighth place. The coaching staff was supremely
confident that Nate would end up at worst in eighth, but we had discounted
a freshman from Wilmington who had miraculously scraped over 15'7 1/4"
on his third attempt. After most of the field, including Nate, missed at 16'1",
the freshman from Wilmington again miraculously scrapes over the bar, moving
him from 9th place to 3rd, and moving Nate from 8th place to 9th, assuming
the defending national champion does not no-height.
Hope was held out a little longer than it should have been, as Hans missed
his first attempt at 16'7". He barely cleared on his second attempt,
but a clear is a clear, and Nate was now officially ninth. Sadly, the single
miss at 15'7 1/4" cost Nate a tie for 4th, but after all the drama he
experienced in the last three years, we were all very happy with his performance.
We returned to the track on Saturday for Uzoma's best event, the shot put. After having won the meet by three feet indoors, we had high hopes. We were not as confident this time around, as he was only seeded 4th, and the previous weekend had nearly fouled out. Also, the top seed,Cody Brotherton from McMurry, happened to be the defending outdoor champion. After sitting through a weak first flight (the entire first flight would not have qualified for last year's championships), Uzoma started his warm-up and showed that today would be a big day. His stand throw hit around 53', farther than anyone in the first flight had thrown, and his second full warm-up throw hit the 60' line, eliciting "oohs" and "aahs" from the crowd.
On his first throw, Uzoma throws a casual 56'5" to take a big lead, but Brotherton responds with a 57'4" on his first throw. The second time through, Uzoma hits 58'10 1/4" to take an even bigger lead, and Brotherton begins his traditional long string of fouls. As a spinner, Brotherton is fairly inconsistent, but when he does hit one, it goes a long way. Uzoma does not improve on his mark in the third round, but still throws the second farthest throw of the competition so far with a 58'7". Meanwhile, John Schuna, the third former national champion in the competition, had thrown 58'6" to move into second place.
In the finals, Uzoma and Schuna continued to throw far but not improve on their marks from the preliminaries, while Brotherton continues to foul. Finally, at the end of the sixth and last round, when we can finally start to taste the victory, Brotherton throws 59'1" to take the lead. Schuna and Uzoma are unable to respond, and the day ends with Uzoma in second place.
Obviously we had hoped for victory, but considering he threw a two foot season best, and he did not even qualify for last year's outdoor nationals, we had to be satisfied with his performance. Uzoma will have his work cut out for him in both the hammer and shot next year, as five of this year's hammer All-Americans are returning, as well as Cody Brotherton on the shot put.