Miller Previews 2020 Throws

MINNEAPOLIS -- Assistant coach Peter Miller breaks down the Gophers' throws squad for 2020, looking at key returners and newcomers heading into the indoor track & field season along with looking ahead to the outdoor season.

Men's Shot Put
Key Returners: Jonathan Tharaldsen, Eric Rousemiller
Key Newcomers: Kevin Nedrick, Kyle Atkinson, Carter Hughes

Miller: We return one of the best shot putters in school history, Jonathan Tharaldsen, who had a really good fall. His testing has been really impressive, and it's been good to have a summer and fall together. He's had a good fall, and we have high expectations. The Big Ten is going to take a step forward with the return of some people who red-shirted or were injured last year who are very high-level shot putters. The challenge of remaining in the top two or three is large, but I think Jon has done what it takes to stay at that level and hopefully progress and push for a Big Ten championship.

Eric Rousemiller returns, and he had a great outdoor meet. He's transitioning still to being a full-time track kid, instead of football and track, and we're trying to make some changes to his technique and his body this fall. He's had a solid summer and fall of training, and I think he's on the cusp of competing at the Big Ten level, making a final, and scoring some points.

We have a transfer who will compete for us right away, Kevin Nedrick. He opened up at SDSU right at 60 feet, and his PR is a little bit over 61 feet. Kevin is an extremely talented athlete and needs time to figure out how to use the resources at this level. He was a 71-foot high school shot putter, he was top-three in the world at the Under-20 level, so he's extremely talented, but he needs some time to transition to Power Five track & field. He's also a great discus thrower, and we're excited about where he's at there.

We are redshirting two freshmen who are both really solid high school throwers. I think Kyle Atkinson will be our best shot putter after Jon, Eric, and Kevin graduate. He's very talented and very raw, with not a ton of high school development in the rotation, but his testing numbers are really good coming in. Carter Hughes is the other one. He's more of a hammer and weight guy, but he is trying out shot put. He opened up at SDSU pretty solid right at 48 feet; you're supposed to drop about 10 feet from the high school implement, and he did just about that. He's had some training throws that are better than that, just needs to compete.

Women's Shot Put
Key Returners: Nayoka Clunis, Tess Keyzers, Shay Nielsen
Key Newcomers: Devia Brown, McKenzie Duwenhoegger

Miller: We're very excited with how we started at SDSU. I think we had the second and fourth best marks in school history and first and fourth best marks in the NCAA right now. Obviously it's only one weekend in. It's hard to say who's leading the way; Tess Keyzers has the outdoor school record, Nayoka Clunis would be second all-time if she hadn't redshirted last year and her indoor PR is now better, and we have a transfer whose PR is better than both of them in Devia Brown. She came in with some injuries, but we worked through those in the fall and she's healthy now. She's working her way back and will hopefully open up January 11 at home. On top of that, we have fifth-year senior Shay Nielsen, who has made four Big Ten finals and is top-10 all time, too.

If there's a better shot put group in the country, I'd be excited to coach that group, but I'm obviously super excited to coach this group and see what the future holds. Every day in practice is as good a meet that they're going to get, so they compete all the time, but they train really well together and support each other really well. It's exciting to see what that will bring about when we get to championship season. The expectations are really high, but it's just a matter of taking it day by day and trying to get better each practice.

McKenzie Duwenhoegger is redshirting, another athlete who is more of a hammer/weight/discus kid, but is also throwing the shot. She's picking up the rotation better than I anticipated, so we'll stick with the shot through the year and see how it goes for her.

Men's Weight Throw
Key Returners: Kieran McKeag, Jon Nerdal, Kaleb Siekmeier, Connor Rousemiller
Key Newcomers: Kyle Atkinson, Carter Hughes, Kostas Zaltos

Miller: On the men's side, we return a national qualifier and top-15 NCAA athlete in Kieran McKeag. He was sixth in the Big Ten and 12th at the national meet last year, and Jon Nerdal was fifth in the Big Ten and just missed the national meet. He was 20th or so on the list at the end of the season. Jon opened up with a PR already and is training really well. Kieran has dealt with injury stuff. He had a long season as he competed with the U.S. National Team all the way into July. We may have not taken a long enough break, but he opened up well at SDSU as well. Kaleb Siekmeier scored for us in the Big Ten last year. I think he was tied for seventh and lost a tiebreaker, but still scored a point for us. He opened up just short of his PR already. Connor Rousemiller has one more indoor season and has been top 11 in the Big Ten two or three times now, and he's looking to break in.

On top of that, we have a freshman, Kostas Zaltos, coming in at semester who is an international athlete who has never thrown the weight before, but has thrown the hammer really far, so hopefully he will help us. Both of our freshmen are really talented weight throwers; Carter will be a hammer/weight guy, and Kyle Atkinson will be a shot/weight guy, but both of them are doing things already that none of the others did in their first year. It's exciting to see them. Their testing numbers have been great, they're healthy, and they have no bad habits, which is good.

Women's Weight Throw
Key Returners: Tess Keyzers, Nayoka Clunis, Erin Dunning, Emily Stendel
Key Newcomers: Devia Brown, McKenzie Duwenhoegger

Miller: We return the Big Ten runner-up as well as a national qualifier from two years ago. Tess Keyzers was Big Ten runner-up last year, threw just short of 70 feet. She had a rough opener at SDSU but is trying to make some technical changes, and things are coming together. She'll be fine. She threw a little further this year than she did at SDSU last year. Then Nayoka Clunis opened up just short of 70 feet, and she is throwing from four turns for the first time in her life in the weight. She has some rhythm stuff we need to work on but is super talented. Devia Brown was the junior college national champion last year in the weight, as well as setting the junior college national record in the shot. With the injuries, she's kind-of behind, but she's talented. Erin Dunning was one of the top freshman in the country last year for us, and she is looking to do good things. Emily Stendel opened up with a huge PR, made the final at SDSU, and has also had training throws that are significantly better than that, so we're excited to see her development. Two years ago when we won Big Tens in 2018, we had four in the top seven. I don't know if we're at that level, but we definitely have five people who are Big Ten level athletes who are competing to make the bus. Two or three of them are probably NCAA-level athletes if they can line everything up. McKenzie Duwenhoegger is a freshman who is going to redshirt, but she opened up as far as any freshman I've ever coached and has shown things in training that's better than anyone I've ever coached in their first year, so we're super excited about her development as well.

Men's Hammer Throw
Key Returners: Kieran McKeag, Jon Nerdal, Kaleb Siekmeier, Connor Rousemiller
Key Newcomers: Kyle Atkinson, Carter Hughes, Kostas Zaltos

Miller: We probably won't redshirt Kostas outdoors, but we most likely will red-shirt indoors. He's a freshman but starting late, and he is top-ten in the world for his age group. His PR would be the fourth or fifth-best PR returning in the Big Ten at 66.11 meters, so we have expectations there. Then we have Kaleb and Conner. Conner made the regional meet last year, and Kaleb developed a ton and has changed his technique. In hammer, we expect to be at least four or five deep at the regional level and hopefully at the Big Ten level.

Women's Hammer Throw
Key Returners: Tess Keyzers, Nayoka Clunis, Erin Dunning, Emily Stendel
Key Newcomers: Devia Brown, McKenzie Duwenhoegger

Miller: Looking ahead to outdoors, hammer is relatively the same as weight throw, other than Devia, who has had a little bit more success on a Big Ten scale. Her hammer PR is better than her weight PR, so we have some expectations there that we don't necessarily have in the weight. Erin Dunning is a better hammer thrower than weight thrower, so we expect her to be pushing to score at the Big Ten level.

Men's Discus
Key Returners: Jonathan Tharaldsen, Kaleb Siekmeier
Key Newcomers: Kevin Nedrick

Miller: We return two top-six Big Ten guys. Jon was sixth and Kaleb was fifth last season. Kevin Nedrick was junior college national champion and is fifth or sixth all-time in junior college history. He's extremely talented. We are super excited about what this group can do and we have some high expectations.

Women's Discus
Key Returners: Nayoka Clunis, Erin Dunning, Emily Stendel,
Key Newcomers: Devia Brown, Mckenzie Duwenhoegger

Miller: We have a bunch of really good athletes, so it will be interesting to see who steps up. Devia Brown and Nayoka Clunis have both been junior college national champions, Erin Dunning was 11th in the Big Ten last year, and Emily Stendel was a state champion in Wisconsin and has had a good training season. Discus was McKenzie Duwenhoegger's prime event in high school, so we're excited for her though she will mostly likely redshirt outdoors. In discus we haven't had a great Big Ten performance in a few years, so I expect this group to push each other. They're all in the same range. I wouldn't be surprised by any of them having a breakout year, but I think Devia, from what I've seen in training, is set up to throw the discus really far this year. She could surprise some people there. The Big Ten is the deepest conference in the discus. The NCAA champion returns, and there are a couple other All-Americans returning in the conference so there will be some big challenges there.

Javelin
Key Returners: Ryan Crotty, Hailey Poole, Ayesha Champagnie, Hannah Arason
Key Newcomers: Candesha Scott, Camryn Huggans

Miller: We don't have any javelin throwers on the men's side, but on the women's side, we are returning Ryan Crotty and Hailey Poole, who were 11th and 12th in the Big Ten last year. Both were a little disappointed by that after coming in ranked a little higher than that. We had some expectations. It was their first Big Ten meet with expectations. Hailey was coming off surgery a year prior, and she's got all of her strength back and has been training well. Ryan Crotty is training like a rockstar and is the most confident I've seen her in a long time. We also have Candesha Scott, who red-shirted last year and is another junior college national champ. She is a great person and has been an international level javelin thrower at the Under-20 and Under-18 levels, so she brings some different experience. Ayesha Champagnie is also coming off a redshirt year. She was eighth in the Big Ten for us but has a PR that would place much higher than that. She is the Jamaican national champion in the javelin now, and she is training at a level where we expect some big throws out of her. Our women's javelin squad should be at least four deep. Then we have Hannah Arason, who is a great javelin thrower and is going to do the multis for us. We have a freshman in Camryn Huggans, who will most likely redshirt just because we are so deep, but she is talented and we are excited about her development as well.

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Players Mentioned

Hannah Arason

Kyle Atkinson

Devia Brown

Ayesha Champagnie

Nayoka Clunis

Ryan Crotty

Erin Dunning

McKenzie Duwenhoegger

Camryn Huggans

Carter Hughes

Tess Keyzers

Kieran McKeag

Kevin Nedrick

Jon Nerdal

Shay Nielsen

Hailey Poole

Connor Rousemiller

Eric Rousemiller

Candesha Scott

Kaleb Siekmeier

Emily Stendel

Jonathan Tharaldsen