Sieg Giving All She Has to One Last Shot
Before her final year, she's already produced a storybook career
Transitioning is nothing new, not for Tarynn Sieg.
A handful of years back, she had to adapt from being a two-sport standout at Eaton High School to focusing on one pursuit – throwing – at Colorado State. She’ll go from one ring to another, from one season to the next, indoors to outdoors.
Through it all, the one constant was focusing on herself. Her only goal was to be the best version of herself, not worrying about boundaries or limitations, just output. She became stellar at pushing injuries to the side, as well as any doubts.
Now, in her final season with the Rams’ track and field team, she’s beginning another transition, one in which a few months from now she will be a former Ram. For the first time in more than a decade, Sieg will work on her personal self.
“I think peace is a strong term in the sense of, yes, I’m at rest with my decisions and I still struggle with what could have been, just because of everything that’s gone on in my career here – surgery, COVID and the idea I chose track because I have a higher ceiling,” Sieg said as the outdoor season is set to begin this weekend in Pueblo at the Spank Blasing Invite. “My ceiling came closer than what I wanted it to. I think I am, mainly, also being in my master’s program, I’m going to be doing 20 hours a week with that. Being torn between two loves and passions is very hard. I wouldn’t be able to give track 100 percent next year.”
The most versatile female thrower in Colorado State history will call it a career after this season, even though she would have a pandemic year if she wanted. The decision to bypass an extra year was easier to make, as she will be limited in her final season due to a lingering elbow issue. It came after many discussions with coach Brian Bedard, as well as her new husband, Austin Bown.
The Rams may not have the full range of Sieg at their disposal, and because of it, she even wondered if she should return. What Bedard told her was her value extends well beyond her school-record abilities in the shot put, or the fact she is the only female in program history to rank in the top 20 of all four outdoor throws.
“It's encouraging, because I had that talk with coach at the beginning of the year -- do I even compete?” she said. “He said you make our team better. It’s encouraging, because I had people like that -- Kelcey Bedard, Aimee Larabee -- talked to me about more than just track. This is something so small. Twenty years from now, looking at my kids, yes, this matters, but no, it doesn’t.”
What helps right now is being able to see the future so clearly. She had plans for her life -- as a 7-year-old girl – which didn’t foresee an outstanding track career in college. At a young age, she already knew she wanted to be a good mother. She and her husband, married this past summer, have already decided they want to have four children.
In her professional life, she wants to help college athletes in career planning, starting in their school years and helping them see what’s next before it comes and teach them how to get there. All of these things invigorate her.
She’s also very excited about one last year with Colorado State track. What it will look like, she’s not sure. Neither is Bedard. They both know not to count on anything. Or count anything out.
“Who knows with that girl,” Bedard said. Which pretty much explains her entire career.
She has the ability to flip that switch and have no fear in that situation of the ramifications and go for it, which is a testament to her.Brian Bedard
Bedard wasn’t entirely sure what he was getting when he recruited the local product. He knew she was an outstanding athlete, that was clear. Be it on the volleyball court or a raw thrower in track, there was no secret about her talent or athleticism. He was pretty sure she was going to be a leader, too.
He suspected she would be coachable, but one never really knows. He also knew she’d be feisty.
He had no idea.
“We’ve knocked heads on occasion. I think she’s earned it, for one,” Bedard said. “I think athletes who have done a great job in the program, I let them have a little more voice in what’s going on and what direction we’re going, because they’ve earned it. We’ve traveled a lot and been to the big meets, so I think our relationship is further along. I saw it in recruiting. I saw her put her dad in his place, and was, OK. He was getting too involved and asking too many questions. She said, ‘hey, I’m being recruited here and not you, so step back.’ I’m like, that’s a girl I want.
“I don’t know that I would want a team full of Tarynn’s, but she adds some toughness. I don’t shy away from that as a coach when I’m recruiting. I’d much rather have assertive, confident, outspoken females who want to compete over a wallflower. Every day of the week. I’m not afraid of working with those athletes. Kiah Hicks was that way, and my daughter to some degree and Gabi McDonald. I like big personalities.”
Even Sieg admits that would be a touch too much. But she comes by it naturally, stemming from her parents, especially her mom, Teri, who has been her primary female role model.
If somebody asks her to do something, she naturally wants to know why. And if there isn’t a good response, she’s not about to dive in headfirst.
So most of her head-butting with Bedard through the years has been about the why. She doesn’t keep track of how many times each of them has been correct, just that, for the most part, a mutual accord has been reached.
“I think right is also a strong term. I think there are different perspective we come from, and in that sense, we’ve always come to an agreement,” Sieg said. “As a child, when my parents told me no, they would let me go figure out a different plan, come back and negotiate. Whenever coach would tell me, no, I don’t want you doing that, I’d go back, process, think why he said no and would come back and say, ‘I understand what you’re saying, and from this perspective, I also see this.’ I think he finds me slightly annoying. In a roundabout way, we will both get our decision, but I will keep nudging.”
Sieg being Sieg is annoying, to some, at least, but in a good way to Rams. She’s just good at whatever she does when she first does it. Volleyball, of course, growing up. But also wakeboarding – she was up on her second try.
She competed in track in high school, but never actually focused on the sport. She just went out and did it and was a two-time state team champion in 3A, winning three state titles in the shot, two more in the discus and the classification record holder in both. This is what enticed Bedard about her potential most, just exactly what she could achieve should she put all of her focus into track.
They were looking at the three primary throws – shot put, discus and hammer – and while Bedard wasn’t sure which one would become her best, he figured she’d be pretty good at least a couple of them.
“She’s good at everything, and also really elite in a couple of them, which is really insane,” teammate Gabi McDonald said. “We talk about it with our weights coach, and it’s astonishing how powerful and athletic she is. She makes the weight room look so easy. I lift with her on the same rack because she pushes me every day. She’s always a little bit ahead of me, and it’s amazing how easy she makes it look. She does that with every event. She’s not overly technical, but she’s really good at learning technique. She’s just powerful and athletic, so she can hit a throw really well.”
Being natural isn’t enough for Sieg, and it never has been. She has two older brothers, who through their actions, showed her a little extra will pay off. Tyler would come home and throw a baseball in a garage every day after school, the thud interrupting her cartoon watching. Trent, now the longsnapper for the Las Vegas Raiders, would come home every day and snap about 40 extra balls.
It stuck with her. A little bit more will pay off in the end, and she’s always sought it out.
Her brothers also made her competitive at everything. Even eating. Every Thanksgiving the trio would weigh themselves before they ate, then again after. Whoever gained the most weight won. Which Tyler always did, except once. Tarynn actually gained the most, but when she threw up in the bathroom, she was disqualified. It helps explain why Bedard describes her the way he does.
“She’s sick competitive,” he said.
Tarynn’s favorite personal attribute is her perseverance, which, considering her injury history, makes sense. McDonald is in Bedard’s camp with the competitive nature, but for Bedard, Sieg’s pushes the needle further than most.
“She just has the ability to flip the switch and do some special things that you may not see in training, which is a good thing,” Bedard said. “The last throw in a conference meet, she’s been in third or fourth and then moved to first in one throw. She has the ability to be fearless in those times, which a lot of athletes don’t have the ability to say, ‘I’m going to turn it loose, not worry about what happens, but I’m going to go all out and hold it all together.’ She has the ability to flip that switch and have no fear in that situation of the ramifications and go for it, which is a testament to her. She’s been in that position before and sent shockwaves through a competition.”
As for her throwing development, one can rank them by the numbers. She holds the outdoor shot put record at 57-2.75, and ranks third in the event indoor. Outdoor, she ranks sixth in the hammer, ninth in the javelin and 15th in the discus; indoor, her weight throw stands tied for fifth.
She is a four-time Mountain West champion (outdoor shot put once, indoor shot put twice, indoor weight throw once). She is a three-time NCAA Championships qualifier. But in her mind, peak Sieg came at the 2019 Mountain West Championships when she stepped to the plate for her team and threw the javelin.
It is a good place. There’s so much of life you don’t understand until afterwards.Tarynn Sieg
It was one of those times when she and Bedard did not see things the same way. He didn’t want her to throw it and risk injury. Her feeling was she could get injured on any throw, so, why not? So she worked with a teammate on the side, and Bedard told her she had to throw it 120 to prove it to him.
She came up 10 centimeters short, but she proved her point.
She had placed fourth in the shot put and seventh in the discus, but her hammer wasn’t as good as she wanted it to be. Then she went to the javelin and placed third.
Little practice, massive production.
“I wanted to do it because I felt I could and I wanted to score points for our team,” she said. “Scoring third place and not knowing was awesome. I wanted to do everything I could do, because I also didn’t do as well as I wanted to in other events. Coach made me earn my spot off of three practices, he was like, you could probably do it.”
What Sieg does wrestle with heading into the season is her storybook ending.
With her elbow issue, she’s not as sure she’ll be as good as she could be. She still has confidence she can beat her current personal record in the hammer throw, but she’s already wondering if it will travel as far as it would have if completely healthy.
These same feelings, however, have made her a better teammate and mentor to a younger group of throwers, going back to Bedard’s point of her overall value for the season.
Her first two seasons, just learning herself, she was very interiorly focused. Now, she’s more than willing to pass along what she’s learned, and she has always been supportive of the efforts of her teammates. She wants them to beat her throws, then try to take the mark back.
McDonald’s career has already seen benefits from her tutelage. Morgan Stewart can learn from her, and so can Klaire Kovatch. She’s eager to fill the role.
“She’s a mentor in everything. She was a multisport athlete – she and I have a lot of parallels growing up in life – local kid, good at multiple sports,” McDonald said. “She just made the decision from two sports to one sport earlier than I did, so she was really helpful in that transition for me. Then the differences in a team sport to an individual sport and the mentality of how to compete and compete well. She’s an amazing, super-competitive person. She’s a good role model, because we have similar body types, only I’m a little bit shorter, so a lot of our throwing goes hand-in-hand, and she helped me with a lot of technique stuff as well as the mental game of it, so it was super helpful.
“I love Tarynn. I think she’s always been a really good competitor, and that’s what I’ve always admired most. But also, I think she’s improved every part of being a teammate and an athlete, a well-rounded teammate. She’s excelled at being one the best mentors and teammates I’ve ever had.”
What Sieg does have in her back pocket, however, is a storybook career, one she never envisioned. Even still, she wouldn’t turn away from another chance to produce a shockwave at a big meet.
“It’s true, and however this spring will end, I’m wanting to make nationals again,” she said. “I’ve always been that person. Talking to my mom, she said you’ve never done anything just because it’s fun, you do it to win. I don’t understand you and your brothers for that.
“It will be difficult, and I want to pour more into my team and succeed in what I can in hammer, and when it comes to discus and shot, I’ll try my hardest.”
One can see where the position would be hard on an elite athlete. Not being at 100 percent when she steps into competition is an idea Sieg has contemplated at length, but the fight in her isn’t looking for premade excuses. Like always, she will give everything she has in the moment, and she’ll even try for a little more in the bigger moments, when all the chips are in the center of the table.
More than the titles she’s won or the marks she’s hit, she said she will remember her teammates, her coach and the memories. That will matter most down the road. Better yet, being able to her future self makes anticipating the next step so much more intriguing.
“It is a good place,” she said of her here and now. “There’s so much of life you don’t understand until afterwards.”