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SEATTLE – A deal's a deal – and
Brittany Aanstad has more than fulfilled her end of a big one.
Come Saturday morning, the Seattle Pacific senior will be the women's javelin favorite at the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships in Pueblo, Colo. That lofty status has been hers since April 7, when she unleashed a throw of 161 feet, 11 inches at the War V meet in Spokane.
But eight years ago, as a freshman at Lake Stevens High School about an hour north of Seattle, Aanstad and the javelin weren't exactly buddy-buddy.
“It's funny, because when I was a freshman and sophomore in high school … I probably quit (the jav) more than once,” the 23-year-old Aanstad said. “But my high school coach saw the potential and made me sign this contract. It said if I wasn't a state champion as a junior, I could quit it.”
Sure enough, at the 2006 Class 4A (large school) Washington state meet in Pasco, Aanstad flung it 141 feet, 4 inches to claim the crown. The following year, she won it again as a senior with a toss of 139-11.
That she's heading to Colorado as the national leader doesn't surprise Lake Stevens head coach Jeff Page – who still had that contract in a folder in his office when asked about it late last week.
“Here it is – April 28, 2004. “It says, 'When all is said and done, in the spring of 2007,
Brittany Aanstad's best event will be javelin,” Page said, quoting it verbatim.
“I remember that all she wanted to do was the high jump – that was her event,” Page said. “We knew she had an arm, and we kept trying to get her to work on the javelin. But she was so reluctant. She was in my classroom one day, and I told her, “I'll bet you by the time you're done with high school, it'll be your best event, and she said, 'No way.' So I said, 'Let's put it in writing.'”
FLYING HIGH – THEN A TOUGH BREAK
After pondering several NCAA Division I schools before selecting D-2 Seattle Pacific, Aanstad picked up with the Falcons right where she left off at Lake Stevens.
As a freshman in 2008, she won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship with a throw of 147 feet, 10 inches. It was just slightly off her personal best of 148-3 a few weeks earlier – a mark that was among the top five in the country and well above the cutoff line to make the NCAAs.
But at that GNAC meet, Aanstad injured her elbow. Even so, she made the trip to Walnut, Calif., for nationals with every expectation of competing. The meet doctor recommended against it, and while Aanstad still was convinced she could throw, Falcons head coach
Karl Lerum, thinking long-term, said no.
“We didn't have a clear diagnosis, but it was fairly certain,” Lerum recalled. “I was worried about other injuries that could have occurred because of it.
“It was definitely a hard thing to deal with,” said Aanstad – better known as 'B'-Rit to friends and teammates. “I had heard a lot in high school about being an All-American, and if I could do anything, that was what I wanted to do – and that was my first opportunity to do it.”
But it turned out to be more than just a minor injury.
Aanstad wound up having Tommy John surgery – more commonly associated with baseball pitchers, and in fact named for the former Los Angeles Dodgers star left-hander who, in 1974, was among the first to have that specific procedure in which an entire ligament is removed and replaced with a ligament from elsewhere in the body. In Aanstad's case, it was replaced with a ligament from a cadaver.
“It's like the ACL in your leg – it's a very long, extensive recovery,” Aanstad said. “I didn't throw a jav for nine months. I threw a baseball, a football – anything I could throw.
“It was hard not to compete. But I think that year I took off made all the difference. It gave me an opportunity to grow as an athlete and as an individual.”
RETURNING TO FORM
Following a medical redshirt in 2009. Aanstad was back at it in 2010 – and how. A PR of 149-10 gave her second place at conference, followed by an All-American fourth at NCAAs with a 145-8 – far enough to finish ahead of Western Oregon's Carolanne Powers by 11 inches after Powers had beaten Aanstad for the GNAC crown.
Last year, in spite of a back injury that also had been an issue, Aanstad came to NCAAs in Turlock, Calif., with the nation's top mark of 159-4. But Western Washington's Monika Gruszecki let loose with a 164-3 – a throw that Aanstad didn't even see because she and other throwers in the second flight were not allowed into the stadium to watch the first flight.
“I heard over the loudspeaker while we were warming up that Monika had set a new stadium record,” Aanstad recalled. “I wasn't ready for that.”
Indeed, Aanstad, in a catch-up mindset, did not throw well for most of the day. She was the ninth (and last) qualifier for the finals at 132-0. She finally past 140, to140-10, on her penultimate try. Then, with just the one throw left, she landed a 151-0 that pushed her all the way up to the silver medal.
“I went in first and came out second. I want to make sure I do everything in my power to come out better than I came out last year,” Aanstad said.
SPU javelin coach
Duncan Atwood has no doubt Aanstad's ready to go – especially after several solid practices last week.
“Just recently, she has really come into a great feeling of the throw,” Atwood said. “It wouldn't surprise me if she did really well. Two weeks ago, I wouldn't have said that. The feeling for javelin can come and go, and it has come strongly for her just lately. … She has a very unusual technical sense of the throw – very high-level. She's one of the few women throwers I watch these days who can really fly the javelin.”
Aside from that, it's all mental.
“I'm definitely as ready as I can be for this,” Aanstad said. “It will come down to who's the most focused.”
“I know the difference between now and last year is that I have to be ready to throw no matter what happens.”
Being ready to compete, no matter what. That's part of the deal at the NCAA meet.
And if there's one thing
Brittany Aanstad knows for sure …
… a deal's a deal.
