In the Midwest, the javelin is something of a middle child to track and field. It’s an overlooked and underappreciated event, one that gets no support at the high school or college level for reasons known only to those who inhabit the region.
So, if nothing else, Lebanon native Hayley Falzarano, child of New England, showed folks in Illinois a little of how it’s done.
Having gotten away from the javelin through her first two years of college, which included a transfer from Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University to Illinois’ North Central College, Falzarano got back to her successful ways as a junior and senior. She concluded a truncated competitive career in late May by participating in the NCAA Division III national championships in Waverly, Iowa, accomplishing a goal she’d set when she returned to the sport in 2015.
“When I got to North Central, my roommate introduced me to some new friends who are all actually my best friends now,” Falzarano said in a recent phone interview. “I kept telling her, ‘I miss sports; I miss being competitive.’ … In the spring of my sophomore year, (those friends) we like, ‘You should come out for the team.’ I emailed the coach, she gave me a training guide, I worked out extremely hard and came back for junior year and competed the last two years. It was awesome.”
North Central, a school of 2,700 undergraduates in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Ill., linked with Falzarano out of chance. A 2012 Lebanon High School graduate, Falzarano learned of the school from a friend when she was seeking a change from Quinnipiac, which was proving too expensive. The Illinois school offered programs in psychology and neuroscience that proved attractive, and Falzarano made the move.
Kari Kluckhohn, the Cardinals’ 13-year women’s track and field coach, is glad she did.
“I heard through the grapevine there was a javelin thrower on campus,” Kluckhohn said last week. “You don’t find that because we don’t have it around here, so I met with her and talked to her about coming out. She told me her marks, so I knew she knew what she was doing. … To have that understanding coming in is a relief and refreshing.”
At least 95 percent of Kluckhohn’s roster comes through recruiting, she said. Still, javelin throwers are hard to find because only 15 to 20 states – very few, if any, in the Midwest – support the sport at the high school level.
New Hampshire and Vermont both do. Falzarano took to it in high school when friends on the Lebanon High girls soccer team noted how far she could heave a soccer ball on throw-ins. Turns out the motion – with one hand instead of two – transfers well to tossing a javelin.
“Some people try to compare it throwing a baseball, but it couldn’t be more different,” said Falzarano, who played defense on Lebanon’s NHIAA Division II state girls soccer championship team as a junior in 2011. “Throwing a soccer ball is similar. There’s a lot of core strength, not upper body. … I kind of had that from soccer for so many years. So when I picked up the javelin and did the motion, it didn’t feel different for me.”
Falzarano competed in track for all four years with the Raiders, mixing the triple jump and shot put into her routine. She had her best success in the jav, however, with two thirds and a fifth at D-II states and two trips to the Meet of Champions.
Making NCAA nationals was another matter entirely. Only the top 22 women based on distance make the field. Falzarano came up short as a North Central junior, which only made her want it more as a senior.
“I decided to focus on my best event for college,” she said.
Circumstances did their best to work against her. Two early-season meets were lost to weather, and Falzarano missed a third while presenting neuroscience research at a conference in North Carolina. Despite competing in just “three or four” meets, by he count, Falzarano tossed the javelin 134 feet, 10 inches, at the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) championship on May 6 to make the top 22 for nationals by less than a half-foot.
A left-side oblique injury – Falzarano is right-handed – limited the senior at the NCAA meet at Wartburg College. Her best throw of 124-3½ left her in 21st place and well below the cut to make the top-nine final round.
“It’s different than any other meet that I had ever been to; we were warned ahead of time that it would be very different,” she said. “It’s easy to get distracted because there’s so much happening, but it was really exciting. If anything, I wish I could go back one more time. I know what to expect, and I would do much better. But I got the opportunity to go, and I’m happy with it.”
Javelin is only an outdoor event, so Falzarano essentially trained 10 months for two months of competition. Kluckhohn didn’t insert Falzarano into other disciplines so as to limit her potential for injury.
“I was so thankful that she found us and was willing to give us a chance and be able to contribute to our team,” the coach said. “I wish I’d had her for all four years.”
Falzarano will be staying in the Midwest for the immediate future. She has a gap year planned as she lives with three friends in a suburban Chicago house and thinks about what her future might entail.
“I wouldn’t trade any of it, injuries regardless,” said Falzarano, whose throw at the conference finals now ranks second in the Cardinals’ program history. “I wish it had been a little bit longer, if anything, to keep competing. I’ve always been a super-competitive person, and I feel like I’m going to miss that part of life.”
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.