The Path to Success Is Not Always Clearly Marked
Muzzio, Dawson find alternate routes to NCAA Outdoor Championships
They continue to chase something, even though they believe it is a futile attempt.
The perfect toss. It’s out there, though discus throwers under the direction of Colorado State track and field coach Brian Bedard will tell you it’s impossible to achieve.
Yet they try. Constantly. So they work on form and build their bodies tirelessly. Then they step back in the ring and let ‘er rip.
“I feel I can get better with my technique; you always can,” Adam Dawson said. “But at the NCAA West Preliminaries, I definitely did feel more comfortable with my throw. I always feel like I can get better.”
This process works. Bedard’s record speaks for itself. The Rams have had 26 females qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships for a combined 41 appearances, most of them (14) in the discus. Nine different women have qualified in the event, including Maria Muzzio’s appearance this year, earning 13 All-America honors.
For the men, it’s the same story – 50 have qualified for the championships to account for 84 appearances, most of them (16) in the discus, including Adam Dawson this season. The group has accounted for 16 All-America honors, led by Casey Malone’s national title in 1998.
When one pursues perfection with the realistic notion it will not happen, the stumbling blocks along the way don’t pose too much of an issue. At least they didn’t this year for Muzzio or Dawson, neither of whom had a perfect path the meet, which begins Wednesday in Eugene, Ore.
The event runs June 9-13 at a venue known as Track Town USA – home of this year’s US Olympic Trials – with teammate Eric Hamer also in attendance, competing in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
Naturally the goal was always to get there. It is why Muzzio returned for a sixth season, made possible by the global pandemic. It naturally was for Dawson, who had qualified two years ago as a freshman. But at one point this year, it just didn’t seem likely to either of them.
Muzzio had to be convinced to return. She only needed six credits to graduate, but that was going to happen in a pandemic. She was also signed up to attend a farrier school in Penrose, basically during the indoor season, which would tax her to the core in terms of long days of school and finding time to train.
The setup was far from ideal.
“With that, my school was Monday through Thursday for eight weeks,” Muzzio said. “Basically I would drive back on Thursday nights, practice and lift on Friday, then practice on Saturday. Then drive back on Sunday. Only being able to practice twice a week was kind of crazy. I honestly think my practices weren’t going that bad. I think it was kind of nice to have the rest between, but I definitely didn’t feel as prepared as I have in the past, being able to practice five days a week. I got a gym membership down in Penrose, so I was able to get all my lifts in, so I would lift three days while I’m there, and the fourth day I would lift while I was here.”
She studied equine podiatry at the Equine Lameness Prevention Organization Farrier School, covering pathology and anatomy, learning what types of steel shoes can be made and manipulated. It was a mixture of lectures and hands-on training, leading to 12-hour days of study, graduating in March.
The three-hour drive down I-25 wasn’t always fun, but it was less of an adventure than going to the gym. As she puts it, it was in a rather “sketchy” part of town, and when she signed up, the owner told her it would be best if she carried mace with her, especially with her late-night sessions. For good measure, she toted what was basically a club she used in training, as well as her pocket knife.
Looking back, she said it was definitely worth the sacrifices. She threw 181-8 to place 10th, that coming off her Mountain West Championship throw of 184-2, a personal record (and eighth best in CSU history) to win the title for the second time in her career.
She didn’t have the maximum practices, but she felt she maximized her time. That really impressed Bedard, who understood she had a lot more on her plate than normal.
“It was a lot of self-motivated stuff she had to go through. The schooling she did was long days, then she had to go lift after and do drills when she could, then make the commute to get a couple of days with us,” Bedard said. “It was exhausting for her. To see her get through that is a testament to her internal drive to make this a successful year. You don’t know how things are going to work out, and senior’s years, especially coming back from a COVID season, is the athlete going to start losing motivation and start to think about their future, and then you see performance and energy level drop. I didn’t see that from her. In fact, I only saw momentum as the season went along.”
I definitely need to relax in my upper body when I throw. When I get in that ring now, it’s all out of my head. I’m there, I have to trust myself with my throw and know it’s going to happen.Adam Dawson
Dawson was looking for momentum all year. His season felt at times like bouncing from one injury to another. A hamstring issue cost him the indoor season, and at the front end of the outdoor campaign he was confronting shoulder issues.
Considering it wasn’t an extended schedule, it didn’t leave him with a lot of wiggle room when he wasn’t able to compete until the Rock Chalk Classic in Kansas on April 30, just 13 days in front of the Mountain West Championships.
“That was kind of the start of when I was able to get things going,” Dawson said. “It was kind of a shocker for me, but at the same time, it was nice. I didn’t have that pressure of I have the big mark, I have to go prove it kind of thing. I just went out and threw how I could.”
Which wasn’t up to his liking. He came back and took second at conference with a toss of 181-11, and while he felt he was getting back into the flow, he knew something was off. So did Bedard.
What he was doing wasn’t bad. It did qualifying him from the preliminary meet, but both he and his coach knew it wasn’t going to be enough to go further. And 10 days before a big meet isn’t an ideal time to change things.
But they did anyway.
“At that point, I figured we had nothing to lose. Doing what he was doing was not going to work,” Bedard said. “He was going to continue to be frustrated and the results were not going to be there. I introduced it to him, and you kind of evaluate how well is he going to buy into it, how does he receive it, can he latch on to it pretty quickly, which he did from the first training session.
“That gave me hope, but sometimes that’s a one-time thing. You come back a day later and they can’t do it. He responded to the cues really well, but then it’s still practice, we’ll see when they call his name up at competition to see if it would stick. It did.”
Dawson said his issues were coming in the back of the ring, leading him to rush his throws. He wasn’t being patient, but he had to be in the course of retooling his motions leading into the meet. He knew he didn’t feel comfortable, so was basically grinding his way through the season. He had to relax his upper body, and stay focused on what was happening with his lower body, the result of picking up a bad habit from the hamstring issues.
That’s why he was so agreeable to the late change. His injuries had led him in one direction without a lot of time to create a flow. So the focused training on a few particulars made sense. All of the sudden, he had his big mark.
To the tune of a throw of 186-3, putting him in third place with a flight to go. His effort would hold up to place him eighth and send him back to the NCAA Championships for the second time in his career.
As the Rams’ duo heads off the final meet of the year, they do so with a bit of confidence. Dawson has had more time to refine what he and Bedard worked on, and Muzzio has hit a good flow and worked through a mental issue. Hitting a personal best at conference worried her, as she says the norm is to plateau back around the old personal best before really starting to move forward.
The fact she was so close to it at the West Preliminaries gives her a good feeling, and for good reason. Her final collegiate meet will take place on the biggest stage.
Now, all they have to do is relax. They both pretty much figure that will be the last word spoken to each of them by Bedard before they throw.
It’s a fine line, because at big meets Muzzio says she feels like she’s hooked up to a charger, her adrenaline is so high. Her father always told her to focus on technique and energy, and at this meet, the latter will already be in place.
“I try to relax, and that’s the thing Bedard tells me all the time, because I do get really amped,” she said. “Basically every throw he’s like, ‘relax, feel your technique,’ which is the same thing I was saying – technique and effort. The biggest thing for me is to relax and breathe. My body knows what to do. I just have to let my body do it.”
Listening to her speak, Dawson just nodded in agreement. Getting to this point was the hard part. The way his season began, it was even unexpected. Then he hit a point where he tossed doubt out of the window and decided to cut loose. At this meet, that will work – to a point – which he realizes.
He has now had extra time to smooth out what he’s been working on – which put him in the neighborhood of his PR of 187-7 -- so he feels confident another big throw is on the horizon if he approaches everything correctly.
“I definitely need to relax in my upper body when I throw. When I get in that ring now, it’s all out of my head,” he said. “I’m there, I have to trust myself with my throw and know it’s going to happen.”
Amazingly enough to both of them, they get that chance at the national meet. Against the best in the country. One more chance to seek the perfection they’re convinced will never be attained, but that’s no reason not to seek it out.
The way they’re wired under Bedard, they may never get there, but the closer they come, the bigger the rush. For a multitude of Rams before them, getting close led to some pretty amazing results.