Feb. 22, 2004
AP Story via ESPN.com | This Story from Columbia Daily Tribune
Published Sunday, February 22, 2004
COLUMBIA, Mo. - There are no assists recorded in track and field, but Missouri thrower Conrad Woolsey gave himself one yesterday anyway.
Woolsey set a personal best in the shot put with a throw of 62 feet, 1 inch yesterday at the Missouri All-Comers meet, setting off cheers all around the Hearnes Center Fieldhouse. But it was just the opening act.
Minutes later, with the crowd still buzzing, Christian Cantwell stepped into the thrower's circle and did Woolsey one better - eight feet better.
Letting out a thunderous roar, Cantwell began celebrating before the shot landed. With a throw of 70-5?, the former MU All-American set an indoor personal best and recorded the longest throw in the world this year.
He was hardly done.
On his next attempt, Cantwell exploded again, this time throwing 72-? - the fourth-longest throw by an American indoors ... ever.
Woolsey, Cantwell's successor on the MU track team, marveled at his longtime buddy's feat and gave himself a little credit.
"It's awesome," Woolsey said. "That's about a foot off the world record, so I'm glad I was a part of it. I think when he saw my big throw, it pumped him up."
Cantwell's throw was the longest thrown indoors anywhere in the world since 2000. It was the 12th-longest indoor throw of all time. And it was the longest thrown indoors by an American since 1989.
Not bad considering Cantwell woke up yesterday with no plans to compete.
"I wasn't even going to throw today," he said. "I woke up this morning and thought, 'Well, I'll just go and mess around.' I told myself if I throw 21 meters, I'd be happy. Then I was warming up, and I felt pretty good."
After Cantwell's first attempt traveled farther than 21 meters - about 69 feet, 11 inches - he was convinced.
"Then," he said, "I thought, 'Hey, maybe today's the day.' "
"That's pretty extraordinary," Missouri assistant track coach Brett Halter said. "I'm thrilled for him. He's very deserving for it. He's dialed in, and he just knows what he wants to do each time."
Of the eventual record-setter, Cantwell said: "I knew it was good after I turned it loose. You get that feeling in practice sometimes, and as soon as I let it go, I knew it was going to be a bomb."
As for Halter's other star pupil, Woolsey capped a painful weekend with the best throw of his career. Woolsey, who graduated from Northwest Missouri State last year and competes at MU as a graduate student, suffered a back injury last week that kept him out of practice for a few days. Like Cantwell, he didn't think he'd be competing yesterday.
"I'm pseudo healthy," he said after finishing second to Cantwell in the men's college/open division. "I twinged my back on Wednesday, but fortunately we have unbelievable trainers. They worked some magic on me today to get me ready to go. I didn't lift Thursday or Friday because of my back, but whatever they did allowed me to throw today."
Woolsey is no stranger to pain. He's undergone five major knee surgeries since 2000 plus operations on his foot and ankle.
"He's a walking miracle of science," Halter said. "Very few people in the world can throw 62 feet, and he's doing it on a bum knee. He knew coming into today he was going to get it done.
"This is the longest he's been able to do track without being hurt. It's fun to see it all come together."
Woolsey hopes to carry the momentum into the Big 12 Indoor Championships next week at Nebraska. Training alongside the world's fourth-ranked shot putter should pay off, he said, when he arrives at his first Division I conference meet.
"It's fun to throw with him every day, because it really makes you numb to the competition," Woolsey said. "It used to be when I'd go against someone that threw 65 feet, my performance would go down. Throwing with Christian every day, you just learn, and it's good to have that in practice, because then no one can intimidate you. Who's going to intimidate anyone on our team when we already train with the best in the world?"
Also representing MU, Holly Scherder won the women's college/open division weight throw, throwing 60-1?, and Bjorn Sommerfeldt beat out MU teammate Marcus James in the 60-meter hurdles by eight-hundredths of a second.
Other winners for the Tigers: Chris Horn, men's long jump (23-6?); Greg Bracey, men's 200 (22.24 seconds); Merry Uchiyama, women's mile; Kristin Hansen, women's 800; Jenny Bybee, women's high jump; Jesse Sims, men's high jump; and Jennifer Bennett, women's pole vault (12-6).