BROOKINGS — If you walked into the Brookings Athletic Complex last Saturday, you saw plenty of fans watching the Eastern South Dakota Conference Track & Field Championship Meet. There were all sorts of field events happening from shot put to long jump but if you walked across the street, you may have seen their best-kept secret.

Led by Logan Smidt and Alex Wainman, the Bobcats have enjoyed a record-breaking year in the javelin toss and the Brookings duo has its eyes set on new heights in the final weeks of the season.

The javelin appears to be a simple competition. A thrower lines up behind the foul line arc and makes strides like a pilot on a runway. Once they arrive at the foul arc, they must throw the javelin as far as they can with one arm and have the javelin make a mark into the ground for measurement.

But while it seems like a simple movement, there are several aspects that go into a successful javelin toss.

“It’s not your typical event,” Brookings javelin coach and track & field assistant Lisa Bahe said. “You want some speed. You want someone with some height and some long levers. It’s kind of like the discus but you need that speed on the runway because you have more of an approach. You have kind of a running into crossover approach and so speed and power are two of the big things that you look for.”

Bahe competed in javelin at South Dakota State and became an assistant coach at the middle school level. While Bobcat alum Gracie Adamson threw for the Bobcats and several other athletes worked with Bahe to try the event, the javelin toss didn’t become a sanctioned event until three years ago. 

Bahe began to work at the varsity level once the javelin toss was adopted and Smidt was one of the first athletes recruited to try the event.

“There was a lot of challenges my first year just because it was so new,” Smidt recalled. “I’d never really tried anything like it.”

The learning curve was steep for Smidt, who threw out her rib while trying out the event during her freshman year. When she recovered from her injury, she bounced back to finish 25th in the section and just below the cutoff line for a spot in the State Meet.

Smidt continued to improve and broke the school record previously held by Landree Wilson (115-02 in 2022) with a toss of 127-05 at a home meet in Brookings during her sophomore year. Smidt went on to finish sixth at the State Meet a few weeks later with a toss of 118-06 and built momentum for her this year where she had a season-high toss of 121-07 at the Brookings Quad on Apr. 15 and set a meet record on the way to winning the ESD Championship with a toss of 111-06 last weekend.

While Smidt also plays volleyball and basketball, she also felt like her success in the javelin toss was rewarding due to her lack of experience.

“It’s really cool just because I haven’t been doing it that long,” Smidt said. “With my other sports, I’ve been doing them for a while and when you get those rewards, it still feels good. But with javelin, I haven’t been doing it for a long time and it just makes it even better.”

While Smidt has three years under her belt, Wainman is finding success in his first season. A sophomore, Wainman was recruited for the javelin toss thanks to his long frame and speed developed during football season. While Wainman had the build to succeed, it was the technique that provided an initial obstacle.

“I was trying to get too high or too low,” Wainman explained. “My arm was all the way back but otherwise, Coach Bahe told me I was just naturally good at it.”

Wainman eventually refined his technique and started strongly to begin the season. After finishing 10th with a toss of 127-08 during the Huron Invitational on Apr. 5, Wainman finished fourth at the Brookings quad on Apr. 15 with a toss of 146-05 and set a school record with a toss of 153-08 at the Sioux Falls Jefferson quad on Apr. 23.

Wainman’s toss took down Robert Wilson’s record of 146-06 which was set back in 1927 but the result didn’t take Wainman by surprise after he came close a few weeks before.

“I was kind of expecting to break it going into that next meet…but it felt pretty good,” Wainman said. “I had a lot of my family members and teachers congratulating me which was pretty cool. It was definitely very rewarding.”

Wainman said one of the challenges he’s facing now is consistency but he still managed to finish with a throw of 126-07 at the Howard Wood Relays on May 4 and finished eighth in the ESD Meet with a toss of 141-02.

Just a sophomore, Wainman has high goals for the end of the season to get over 160 feet while setting his sights on the state record of 193 feet by the time his high school career is over. Meanwhile, Smidt hopes to qualify and place for this year’s State Meet.

Both throwers have their eyes set on big things in the final weeks of the season and are continuing to reach toward becoming two of the best javelin throwers in school history.

“I think they’re just very good athletes and they’re really aware of what their body is doing,” Bahe said. “They’ve picked up the technique very quickly.”