BELLINGHAM — Monika Gruszecki doesn’t flummox easily.
Gruszecki won last year’s NCAA Division II women’s javelin throw largely because she didn’t fret, as many of her competitors did, about the allowable length of spikes, about the hot, muggy conditions, about the importance of the meet itself.
She was there to chuck the spear. Pretty simple, really. On that day, the Western Washington University freshman and Meadowdale High School grad did it better than anybody.
“She’s a very competitive person,” said coach Pee Wee Halsell, now in his 21st year at Western. “She’s a very composed person. She was at the right place at the right time.”
It makes absolutely zero difference that Gruszecki’s toss of 145 feet, 8 inches is the shortest winning attempt in the history of the NCAA II outdoor championships. No one else matched it that day, which made Gruszecki, the meet’s fifth seed, WWU’s first NCAA individual track and field champion since the school changed national affiliations in 1999.
She’s an unapologetic champion. She doesn’t need to ask for forgiveness for the winning length. Or because the top two seeds were injured. She heaved the winning throw, which is all she needed to do.
“I’ve never once discredited myself,” she said. “It all comes down to who can perform that day. It’s also being able to adjust to the circumstances. We were all in the same place. We were in the same conditions to throw in. Some people just couldn’t adjust mentally.”
Gruszecki’s mental hardiness may well be her optimum weapon next weekend, when she defends her national title in Walnut, Calif. Seeded seventh, Gruszecki’s season best of 144-9 is more than 13 feet shorter than that of the top seed, Linda Brivule of Abilene Christian.
Which means Gruszecki has them where she wants them.
“We throw in the rain here all the time,” she said. “We throw in a lot of stuff. There’s snow and a blizzard. You learn that the elements shouldn’t matter. You need to get over it. I think that’s what makes a better athlete.”
Gruszecki is used to knocking down obstacles, real or imagined. It starts with her height, or lack of same. Name another national javelin champion who stands 5-foot-4.
Think of the laws of physics. Long and lean throwers have leverage on their side. The higher the release point, theoretically, the longer the throw.
Gruszecki trashes the notion.
“I think I have some shortcomings,” she said, “but tall, lanky people are slow. I’m not intimidated by taller people.”
In a way, Gruszecki’s excellence in the javelin is simply a matter of extending her childhood. She grew up in a neighborhood with kids who played all day.
Although she admits soccer is her first athletic love, she excelled at throwing the javelin the first time she picked one up — as a Meadowdale freshman — perhaps because of the times she and her buddies threw water balloons and skipped rocks all day long.
“I was a tomboy,” said Gruszecki, who claimed no dolls ever darkened her playpen. “I was very competitive at an early age. I think I learned to channel my energy into certain things.”
Gruszecki’s foes have only this coming national meet to extract revenge. Next fall, she is off to Phillips University in Marburg, Germany, to attend school. Nearly fluent in German, she hopes to attain her doctorate and possibly teach English there.
Gruszecki’s parents are Poles who immigrated in the 1980s to Germany, where she was born. The family moved to the U.S. when she was 2 years old, all of which may explain the adventuristic and fearless side of their daughter.
“I have two different passports and a chance of getting a third one if I live in Germany for another two years,” she said. “I can do it.”
If she says she can, don’t make the mistake of doubting her.
She’s been down that road before, mostly with taller people who carry long, sharp objects.
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. For Sleeper[`]s blog, “Dangling Participles,” go to www.heraldnet.com/danglingparticiples.
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