Juskus Capped Whirlwind Week With Title

Buckle up!

You won’t believe the week Mike Juskus had back in 1981.

Saturday, May 30 

Juskus won his third career javelin title at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a heave of 75.80m (248-8) and helped lead Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) to its second of what would be five consecutive team crowns.

After winning his first title as a walk-on freshman in 1978 and finishing runner-up the following year, Juskus hit his stride as a junior. Juskus ended up taking the 1980 crown by more than 33 feet at 78.76m (258-5), a mark that nobody has come within 10 feet of at the NCAA DIII Outdoor Championships since that day.

Wednesday, June 3 

Juskus became a new father.

His wife, Doreen, gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Dania Lynn.

Saturday, June 6

Juskus, making his fourth appearance in a row at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships as a top finisher at the NCAA DIII meet, became the last NCAA DIII athlete to win an NCAA DI javelin title when he launched the implement 83.26m (273-2) on his sixth and final attempt of the rain-soaked afternoon (The meet had been delayed an hour and a half due to thunderstorms). It happened to be the farthest throw by a collegian that year and matched what was the third-best winning mark in meet history up to that point.

“The last two throws before that weren’t so good,” Juskus later told the Morristown (N.J.) Daily Record, his hometown newspaper. “I knew I had a lot more behind that one.”

Juskus also said he self-diagnosed and corrected a problem from those previous attempts (He had been “squaring his shoulders,” which forced each of his throws to the right).

And while Juskus still wasn’t sure that he had done enough to win, fans who remained in attendance at Bernie Moore Stadium had a better look at the proceedings from the bleachers.

“The crowd definitely told me different, though,” Juskus said.

Plus, it would be hard to discount the extra motivation Juskus had that day, too.

“I was down to my last throw and what went through my mind was my baby girl, who is 72 hours old now,” Juskus told the Associated Press after the meet.