Wins first pentathlon
Staff writer
Although track and field has been her favorite sport since middle school, Julia Zeiner did not have any experience throwing a shot put or a javelin when she joined the Kansas State University track team this fall.
She had not high jumped since junior varsity meets in high school. The 800-meter run is also an event where Zeiner lacks experience.
“It’s nice because I’m getting out of my comfort zone,” Zeiner said. “I really need to work on everything.”
With a full schedule of classes, the scholarship athlete’s education has extended to learning these events in her first semester at Kansas State University and the first two months of indoor track competitions. In December, she began competing in indoor pentathlons — 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, and 800-meter run. In March, she will add two events — 200-meter dash and javelin — with outdoor heptathlons.
Her first step was gaining speed and strength during the offseason. The team concentrated on weight lifting and conditioning. Currently, Zeiner practices every afternoon and participates in four days of weightlifting in the morning. This is in addition to competitions, on top of being a full-time student.
“There’s just no free time,” the freshman athlete said. “You need to be dedicated in what you’re doing.”
However, Zeiner has witnessed the outcome of the relentless schedule of a division 1 athlete. Despite her inexperience with many events, Zeiner won her first pentathlon Dec. 10 at a Wildcats’ home meet. She won the high jump and the long jump and finished second in the 60-meter hurdles.
Her coach, Cliff Rovelto, was impressed with Zeiner’s ability in the high jump.
“By no means was it pretty,” Rovelto said. “But to jump what she did at first was impressive.”
Over the course of her first season, Zeiner has added distance to her high jump and long jump. Although she has not done anything to improve on her triple jump, Rovelto hypothesized if she triple jumped tomorrow she would set a new personal best.
“She has tremendous room for growth,” he said.
Rovelto said Zeiner is blessed with the height — at 5-foot-10 she is one of the tallest women on the team — and form to excel in combined events. He compared Zeiner’s explosiveness to former Kansas State heptathlete Austra Skujtyte. Skujtyte won national championships in 2001 and 2002 with the Wildcats; the Lithuanian went on to earn a silver medal in the heptathlon in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
“If you watch her run, you don’t see great stride frequency,” Rovelto said of Zeiner. “But power is power. She has the potential to generate a lot of power. I think she can run faster than people think.”
The head coach for the Wildcats track and field team, Rovelto specializes in training combined events athletes. He has coached U.S. national team heptathlon and decathlon competitors. Along with Skujtyte, Kansas State has a history of producing successful combined-events athletes, including 2004 All-American JaNelle Wright.
“We’ve had people who have had great success, but at the same time we had people who were just as good or better, but they did not want to do the work,” Rovelto said. “There are a lot of Julia Zeiners.”
But, Rovelto also projected that if Zeiner continues to progress in her new events she could be on the fringe of scoring range — places 1 through 8 — in the Big 12 this season.
“That’s pretty significant in the Big 12,” Rovelto said. “There’s been years that beyond scorers would be ranked nationally. Our conference has been really, really good.”
Zeiner said one of the adjustments she faced on her arrival to Manhattan was joining a team where everyone lived, ate, and slept track and field.
“It’s a lot different,” she said. “Everyone is here to do track.”
The other adjustment for Zeiner is preparing herself for a grueling season. According to Rovelto, she has already had one run-in with injury, a quadriceps strain. It affected the KSU freshman for two or three days of training, she was forthcoming about the injury.
“She was smart with dealing with this,” Rovelto said. “That happens to everyone.”
Rovelto said Zeiner will gain durability and stamina from their training regimen.
“For sure with combined-events athletes, they’re all going to spend time in practice. Where really significant progress gets made is with the little things: getting more sleep, warming up and warming down, and eating healthy. I want them to have balance, but there’s certain things you can’t do on Friday nights.”
Zeiner has also taken advantage of training with Olympic-quality athletes at KSU. Bettie Wade was a heptathlete on a recent U.S. World Championship team. Two years removed from graduation at the University of Michigan, Wade is part of the Wildcat coaching staff and is competing unattached at Kansas State.
Zeiner said she has tried to duplicate Wade’s focus and determination.
“They get to see firsthand how committed these folks are,” Rovelto said. “If you spend as much time as they do, you’ll be pretty good too.”