June 16, 2000

Imagine yourself at a major track and field meet. The skinny, fast runners can be found competing on the track, right in front of the bleachers. The long and lanky jumpers get to strut their stuff inside the oval, where they too can be easily seen. Then there are the throwers.

	Travis Pendleton, a top discus competitor, accepts the relative obscurity of his sport.

This weekend's Foot Locker National Outdoor Track & Field Championships, to be held at NC State in Raleigh, will be much like many other major scholastic track meets. The throwers - teens who compete in the discus, the shot put, the hammer throw and the javelin - will compete far away from the main excitement.

"They send us out to these vacant lots away from all the action," says Esperanza High (Calif.) senior Travis Pendleton, who owns the state high school discus record at 203 feet, 5 inches. "We don't get as much publicity. I don't think anyone knows what we're doing out there."

This spring, scholastic throwers from all over the country have been turning in some record-breaking efforts. But few high school track fans and athletes have heard about them. Take, for example, last weekend's Golden West Invitational (GWI), the longest-running all-high school track and field competition in the nation.

Jeff Chakouian of Seekonk High (Mass.) won the boys' shot put competition with a distance of 67-6 1/2, the second-best throw by a high school athlete this year. Kathryn Polansky of Eugene, Ore., won the girls' javelin competition at the Golden West Invitational with a meet-record distance of 164-4, while Joshua McCaughey of Warwick, R.I., also set a meet record, in the hammer throw, with a distance of 229-7. But who can honestly say they heard about any of it?

"It all comes down to visibility," says former Yale University track athlete and current Brookline High (Mass.) head track coach Dave Counts. "They're just not given the opportunity to throw in front of people."

Pendleton, who won't be flying from his home in California to North Carolina for the Foot Locker nationals, agrees.

"I think it was at a Master's meet or something, and we were all getting introduced before our throws," recalls Pendleton, who is already starting to chuckle. "So I turn to the guy next to me and say, 'Who are they introducing us to, our moms and dads?' "

While Pendleton can laugh off the repeated slights, he and many of the other top scholastic throwers want the public to know that their feats are just as impressive as some 5-foot-4, 130-pound milers'.

"People don't realize how complicated it is," says Sean Furey, a senior at Methuen High (Mass.) who owns one of the best high school javelin throws this season (227-3). "It's not something most people do on a daily basis, but they've been running and racing since the second grade."

Furey has a point. It's simply easier to understand a race than a throwing event. On the track, the gun goes off and any casual observer can see who's the front-runner. But at a throwing event, it's much more difficult to follow the action.

If a shot put travels 60 feet as opposed to 60 feet, 6 inches, who can tell until they measure? The excitement just isn't there, which causes fan support to be low.

Another reason throwers take a back seat to their swift-footed counterparts is that most field competitors have just one season to shine, while track athletes have all year to train. Even those who casually follow high school track on a national level know of Dathan Ritzenhein and Renee Gunning thanks to their accomplishments throughout the cross country and indoor track seasons. But for those who compete in the javelin, discus or hammer thrower, there is but one season per year.

But according to Pendleton, it really doesn't matter in the bigger picture of things. Fame is relative.

"Well, it bothers me a little bit," says Pendleton of the lack of attention throwing events receive. "But you know, I couldn't tell you who won the mile at the state meet, either."