Cynthia Watt is a quirky hybrid of a freshman and a sophomore at Ashland University, and she is on her way to earning her first All-American when the track and field team competes at indoor nationals next week in Birmingham, Ala.

She is currently ranked eighth in the nation with a mark of 61 feet, 8.5 inches and is the youngest competitor in the women’s weight throw field. But Watt didn’t take the traditional route that most throwers take to get started in their sport. Instead of being one of the bigger kids who wasn’t fast or couldn’t jump, Watt started out as a high school swimmer that eventually converted to doing the hurdles.

“All my [swimming] teammates were egging me on to track in the spring,” she said. “So I was like ‘umm ok lets just do track.’ So first I was one of those scrawny girls and coach said ‘you would be good for hurdles’ and I’m like ‘ok.’”

Watt would not stay with the hurdles for long due to a torn quad that made her have to retire from her event. But due to her commitment to the team and not wanting to leave the track world, she picked up throwing as a way to still contribute.

Discus and shot put would remain her main events until she was at a track meet and saw girls throwing the hammer. From then on she decided that the hammer throw was going to be her new event. As luck would have it, she randomly stumbled upon a (Ashland track and field coach) Jud Logan hammer throwing DVD in her coach’s trunk. After finding the DVD she took it home and would do hammer turns and drills in her kitchen after dinner.

“I would wear my clean socks and bring my laptop down to the kitchen and would slowly and surely try and do what he did,” she said.

According to Cynthia, she picked up the first part of the technique within the first night but it took a bit longer to get the rest down.

Even though she had the technique down she needed one more piece to her hammer puzzle: throwing shoes. Her mom didn’t want to invest in shoes because she felt that Cynthia didn’t actually need them to throw.

Cynthia did find one supporter in her older sister. After her sister saw her practicing and after Cynthia broke down the biomechanics of throwing to her, her sister decided to invest in her and finally get her the shoes she needed. Had it not been for the contribution of her sister, Cynthia might not be the thrower she is today.

Looking forward to the national meet in Birmingham, Cynthia only has one goal and that is getting to the podium and getting her picture taken.

“I don’t ask for a lot,” she said. “That’s all I want is to make it to the podium. I don’t care if I’m standing next to the podium.”