NEXT LEVELMinichello wins national title and is ready to take on the world

Now that Marc Minichello has won his second collegiate national championship as a javelin thrower, he’s ready to set his sights on a career first: a spot on the United States Olympic team.

The Wyoming-area graduate, who won a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I championship for the University of Pennsylvania in 2022, won again June 5 in Eugene, Ore., while competing for the he University of Georgia, where he is a graduate student and attends law school. .

One day after celebrating his 24th birthday^th anniversary, Minichello was clearly the best of the field, taking the lead on his first attempt, extending it on the second and making both the best and third throws of the competition en route to the title.

“It’s great to see things through – to have a plan, to execute it, to make it happen,” Minichello said in a post-game interview posted by Runnerspace on YouTube.com .

Minichello has another plan.

“The Olympics is the goal and we are doing everything we can to achieve that,” he said in the interview. “It brings me a little closer. I can’t wait to see where the next few weeks go.

Minichello was back in national competition at the open level a week after winning his national title, preparing for a return to Hayward Field in Eugene where the U.S. Olympic Trials are scheduled for July 21-30. In 2021, before his first collegiate national title, Minichello finished fourth at the Olympic Trials.

“It’s ultimately going to be me against the world and I’m excited for that,” Minichello said.

Minichello is a three-time All-American after ranking fourth in the country last season, his first with Georgia. He won a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association title for the Warriors when he was 17 years old.^th at the NCAA Championships during his first year at Penn in 2019.

In his first attempt at this year’s competition, Minichello threw the javelin 257-0. He followed it up with his game-winning throw of 264-9 to lead the way after a three-attempt preliminary round in which he was the only thrower to exceed 247 feet. That lead held until three more attempts in the final as Washington’s Chandler Ault, who finished second at 260-2, was the only one to outrun Minichello’s second-best attempt.

“I’m proud of myself for being able to go through a little valley and now this is the peak that I kind of aspired to,” Minichello said.

The 2024 Summer Olympics will take place from July 26 to August 11 in Paris.