MITCHELL — With every throw of a tennis ball or launching of a long piece of PVC pipe, the Mitchell Kernels are starting to get the hang of the javelin.
Nobody has caught on quite as well as Kellan Odell.
The Kernel sophomore had never thrown the javelin until this season and now he ranks in the top-10 in state history in the young event thanks to a top throw earlier this month. This week, he heads to the state track and field meet with a solid chance to land on the podium.
Everything changed for Odell on April 27, when he won the First Dakota Relays in Yankton with a throw of 154 feet, 11 inches, breaking the relatively new Kernel record on his first try.
“It’s not something I really had any plans of doing,” he said. “We talked a little about it last year and I just tried it at a few practices and got to throw in the first meet and broke that record and we’ve been off and running since then. … It’s been a great experience.”
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Odell has competed in sprints and he’s still a talented long and triple jumper. But javelin is now his main track and field priority.
“It’s fun. I was in a bunch of events but I didn’t feel like any of them were really my event,” he said. This is something that’s been great to embrace and really grow into.”
He’s won the event three times this season and his best throw came on May 13 at the Eastern South Dakota Conference meet, where he reached a personal-best 163-foot throw.
“I’ve played baseball forever and it’s a lot of the same motions,” Odell said. “A big part of it is being flexible and a big part of it is creating a lot of tension and torque and knowing how to use the strength in your body.”
There is a different element to the state javelin competition. At Howard Wood Field, the javelin is contested on the rubberized-throwing surface similar to the track in the stadium. Nearly every high school in the state doesn’t have a facility at that level, meaning most regular-season competition is on grass.
This week in practice, Odell expected to work on his footwork in the stadium at Joe Quintal Field because it will more closely replicate the throwing surface in Sioux Falls.
“I kind of prefer the grass because out here, you can sink your heel into the grass. On the track surface, you can’t really do that.”
The javelin for high school boys weighs 800 grams, or 1.76 pounds but the sport hasn’t been contested at the prep level for years because of its potentially dangerous reputation and liability concerns with metal-tipped javelins. South Dakota high schoolers compete with rubber-tipped javelins, and this is the third year where javelin has been available to athletes to try, although it remains only a state championship event in Class AA. (An unofficial state championship was contested on May 15 in Canton for Class A and B javelin throwers.)
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The Class AA javelin will be contested at 4 p.m. Thursday at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls. Odell brings in the sixth-best throw into the Class AA field.
Mitchell throws coach Sterling Dockweiler said the team will frequently practice with PVC pipe because it’s easy to simulate the long nature of the javelin and then will use tennis balls because the throwing motion ends up being similar.
“We’re trying to develop the throwing motion and they’re good ways to reduce the stress on the arm,” Dockweiler said. “And with javelin, safety is always a top concern.”
According to Odell, one of the Kernels’ best coaches is his teammate Thadan Milliken-Auch, who said the junior has been one of the most important sounding boards for him to improve his form.
“There’s no question I wouldn’t be where I am without him,” Odell said. “He’s a great person to talk to and bounce ideas off of. He’s been going to camps since before javelin was even introduced.”
Dockweiler credited Chris Aschemann, the former Dakota Wesleyan University throws coach for helping Mitchell get on the right path with javelin, including handing down some equipment.
“There’s just so many good things developing around javelin in the sport that makes it fun to be on that leading edge of something new,” Dockweiler said.
The top-three javelin tosses in the state are all from Class AA throwers in Harrisburg’s Carson Barnett, Sioux Falls Jefferson’s Griffin Wilde and Sioux Falls Roosevelt’s Damon Roggenbuck. Barnett won the state title last year with a throw of 173-9 but getting on the podium and making more Kernel history is a goal for Odell.
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“I’m really excited to go compete and see where everything ends up,” he said.
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