BEREA, OH – Somewhat on a whim, the day before registration closed, I decided to enter the 54th Sparky Adams Invitational at Baldwin Wallace University. Last year’s version of the meet was my first time competing in 17 years, and my first time competing as a master’s aged athlete. If you happened to have read that post, it didn’t go well. I recorded no marks, only three fouls for my effort (2 flat landings & 1 out of sector). With the Pan-American Masters Games coming to Cleveland in July, and this venue being the site for track & field, my goal was to erase the memory of that poor performance.

As fate would have it, this meet would have a better outcome. Despite being off on my time estimate of when I would throw, forgetting my back brace, having a crosswind, and using a new javelin… I was satisfied with my result. The 36.34M throw ranks as my 3rd best of the 8 times I have competed in the past year in masters. If any of the above variables would have been different, I may have had a bit more success.

Adding to the fun of the day, was an old college friend and teammate who showed up to support me. He was nice enough to get some pictures as well. A huge thank you needs to go out to Baldwin Wallace, specifically Coach Eby who allows masters/open athletes into competitions. I also want to acknowledge Throws Coach Russelburg who makes me feel welcomed and not like some ‘oddity’. Congratulations to BW for taking the first two places in javelin and actually would have taken the top three places if athlete Joseph Barnes (45.24M) had not been competing at The Jesse Owens Track Classic at Ohio State.