Lead Photo Credit: Frank Poulin Sports Photography
By Jim Fenton, Staff Writer
March 24, 2013
Worcester, MA --- She was the 22nd and final qualifier for the javelin event at the NCAA Div. 3 Track & Field Championships last spring.
One year later, Worcester State University sophomore Alyssa Jasper of Rockland finds herself among the top seeds in the national meet at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Thanks to a school-record toss of 147 feet, 4 inches at the MASCAC/New England Alliance meet on April 29, Jasper is ranked No. 4 in the country entering the event, which takes place this afternoon.
What a difference a year makes for Jasper, and the higher seed brings bigger expectations for the 2011 Rockland High School graduate.
"I'm way more nervous,'' said Jasper, "because there is more to lose. Last year, I barely made it in. It was like a privilege to be there.
"This year, I'm thinking I'm going to make finals and I'm going to try to win (the championship). I'm not going just to say, 'I went to nationals.'''
One of three freshmen in the field of 22 last year in Claremont, Calif., Jasper placed 15th with a toss of 131-9.
"It was fun,'' said Jasper, who also plays volleyball and basketball at Worcester State. "It was intense because everyone there is good. It's not just like some people are pretty good, some people are really good. Everyone is really good.''
Jasper threw the javelin only twice at Rockland High, where she won the Eastern Mass. Div. 4 titles in the discus and shot put and was an Enterprise All-Scholastic in volleyball and track & field.
The javelin event became part of her repertoire at Worcester State, and she qualified for the NCAAs last season in the final meet before the nationals with a throw of 135-1 to place first at the ECAC meet.
This spring, the improvement continued as Jasper was first at the Tufts Invitational and the UMass-Amherst meet, broke the school and MASCAC records to win the conference title, and was first in the javelin at the New England Div. 3 and ECAC meets during the heptathlon.
"I think my coach wanted me to do it because I was doing the other throwing events already,'' said Jasper, who owns the Worcester State record in the shot put. "One of my best friends in college did the javelin, so it was like, 'Let me try.'
"I'm very surprised how well I've done. My dad always wanted me to throw it in high school and I was like, 'Oh, no, I already throw shot and discus.' I like the javelin because it's something you can progressively get better at.
"With the shot put, it's something so simple almost, but the javelin, you can say, 'I feel like I might have peaked.' Then you come out and throw another good throw and you're like, 'Maybe that's not it.' By the time you graduate, the little things can make you a lot better.''
Jasper is one of the Lancers' top volleyball players in the fall, earning All-MASCAC second team honors as a freshman and a sophomore and was third in the conference in kills this past season.
Instead of being on the indoor track team this winter, Jasper played basketball and appeared in 24 games, making six starts, though she will return to track next winter.
"It's a lot of mental toughness to get through practice every day,'' said Jasper of participating in three sports in college. "Physically, I ask myself sometimes, too, how I do it.''
Her busy sophomore year comes to an end today in the javelin event at the NCAAs where Jasper has much loftier goals than she did a year ago.
"I think I can be an All-American, but I just don't want to be an All-American,'' said Jasper, who will need to finish in the top eight for All-America honors. "My goal, and my coach's goal, is to win.
"Last year, if you asked me if I'd be throwing this distance, no way. I thought I would never get past 41 meters. I never thought I'd be throwing 44.
"It was figuring out how to throw it the right way. Last year, I just kind of threw it. I had a lot of shoulder problems. I fixed the technique, I guess, and it made it go farther and now I'm not in pain.''