University of Minnesota Athletics
Decia Agnew Stenzel - M Club Hall of Fame
Decia Agnew Stenzel
Class of 2010
Track & Field: 1987-91
Decia (Agnew) Stenzel ushered in an amazing decade of javelin throwers in Golden Gopher women's track & field history. As a senior, Stenzel placed fourth at the 1991 NCAA Championships becoming the first of seven Minnesota javelin throwers to garner All-America honors in the decade of the 1990s. She marked the best toss of her Gopher career at the NCAA meet - 168 feet, 9 inches - a distance that ranked second in Minnesota history at the time and is still among the top 10 at No. 8.
Stenzel is one of just four athletes in Minnesota history to capture three Big Ten titles in the same event at the Conference Championships. She was the Big Ten champion in the javelin in 1998, 1999 and 1991. Gophers won the event at the Big Ten meet seven times during the 1990s.
Stenzel was a four-time letterwinner from 1987-91. She missed the 1989 season after reconstructive ankle surgery.
After her collegiate career, the Bethel Park, Penn., native excelled at the sport of Olympic-style weightlifting. Stenzel won the 1991 U.S. weightlifting title in her weight class. She broke American records in two categories, the snatch lift (204 pounds) and the clean and jerk (242 pounds). Stenzel went on to win consecutive U.S. titles from 1993-97. Though women's was not yet an Olympic sport, Stenzel did have the opportunity to compete internationally traveling to Greece for the 1994 World Cup. In 2006, Stenzel was inducted into the Minnesota Weightlifting Hall of Fame.
Stenzel graduated from Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in human physiology in 1991.