Rhema Otabor Of Nebraska Wins Women's Javelin At NCAA Championships
Rhema Otabor Of Nebraska Wins Women's Javelin At NCAA Championships
Nebraska continued its strong showing in the throws with Rhema Otabor winning the title and Maddie Harris taking fourth in the NCAA women's javelin.
AUSTIN -- Nebraska continued its strong showing in the throws at this meet with Rhema Otabor winning the title in a new personal-best and collegiate leading mark of 59.49m/195-2, and teammate Maddie Harris taking fourth in the women's javelin at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Otabor became the 24th NCAA women's champion in Nebraska history. Less than 30 minutes earlier, teammate Axelina Johansson won the women's shot put title.
"One of the big things I wanted to keep in mind coming into the competition is not to overthink, just let my body do what it knows how to do and just go there and have a breakthrough, and I feel like that's what I did," Otabor said.
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Rhema Otabor is the NCAA Javelin NATIONAL CHAMPION‼️
— Nebraska Track and Field (@NUTrackandField) June 9, 2023
Her throw of 195-2 (59.49m) means that javelin 🥇 is headed to Lincoln.#GBR pic.twitter.com/8YvpGyV1EN
Otabor, who finished behind Harris at the NCAA West Preliminary meet to qualify for these championships, controlled the competition from the start. Her opening throw of 59.04m/193-8 was good enough to win. She improved to her eventual winning mark in the second round, a product she said of discipline and trusting in her training.
"It does take a lot of dedication and a lot of consistency in terms of making sure I'm disciplined enough to work on my technique and work on getting stronger," Otabor said. "I feel like just as you mature in whatever sport that you take up, you eventually get better."
From there, all that was left was to hold on as her competitors heated up.
Texas A&M's sophomore duo of Lianna Davidson and Katelyn Fairchild proved formidable. In Round 4, Fairchild moved up into second-place with a personal-best throw of 57.97m/190-2. In the next round, Davidson leapfrogged her teammate into second with a personal-best of her own at 58.78m/192-10. Their mark rank second and third respectively in school history.
Harris, who qualified with a runner-up finish at the NCAA West Prelim, had her best throw of the competition in the first round, when she sent the spear 57.26m/187-10.