Dayton javelin thrower to compete at NCAA championships next week

Bogues will be one of 24 competitors in her event at the national meet, which will be held June 9-12 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. The javelin competitions takes place at 7:45 p.m. on June 10. She’s seeded 18th.

“My current goal is just to go out there and do my best,” Bogues said. “I’d love to go out there and place higher than I came into it.”

“We’re hoping for a big performance,” Dayton throws coach Kevin Gilhuly said. “We haven’t really hit where we think that she’s going to be. She’s just missing some things technically, so every day we’ve been trying to get that smoothed out. What she does on Thursday is going to be everything that we built up to this point. We’re hoping for a big finish, but it’s nationals and anything can happen that day.”

Bogues will fly to Oregon on Sunday. Gilhuly will also travel to Oregon. It will be the first time both have visited the historic and recently-remodeled track, which has hosted numerous U.S. championships and NCAA championships.

“Hayward Field has a lot of history behind it, and a lot of great athletes have competed there,” Gilhuly said. “With the new renovations, it’s just going to be really magical to see. It’s just going to be a high-level experience that will hopefully bring big throws.”

Bogues, who’s from Red Bank, N.J., and Middletown North High School, advanced to the national meet by placing ninth in a field of 48 at the NCAA East preliminary round on May 27. The top 12 finishers qualified for the championship.

Bogues recorded her top throw (50.96 meters) on her first throw. Auburn’s Kylee Carter won the event with a mark of 56.01 meters.

At the Atlantic 10 Conference championship meet on May 1, Bogues set a school and A-10 record with a throw of 51.28 meters. She won that event by almost five feet.

The previous A-10 record of 46.73 was set in 2005 by Rhode Island’s Lindsey Smith. Lillian Cook owned the previous school record (48.99 meters on March 31, 2018).

“It definitely took a lot to get to having throws like that,” Bogues said, “and I definitely owe a lot of those throws to the training environment and everything that my team has created and how they’ve pushed me really hard. We have a mentality here where the hardest competition that I have is the person right next to me. We are constantly pushing each other to get better. Throughout the season, even though they weren’t in the same event as me, everybody on my team was pushing me to get better and have those further throws.”

This will be the first national meet in two years. The 2020 championships were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Bogues competed in indoor season during her freshman season but returned home to New Jersey when UD turned to virtual classes in March and the outdoor season was cancelled.

“It really horrible that last season got canceled,” Bogues said, “especially because we lost some great athletes that didn’t get to compete their senior year, but we used it as a learning experience. While other teams may have eased off during COVID and been down on themselves, I know our goal was to keep pushing and train harder and get even better than we were beforehand.”

Bogues started her throwing career in high school when a concussion halted her soccer career. A coach saw her throwing a dodgeball one day and suggested she throw the javelin. That proved to be a good decision. Gilhuly has seen her make even more progress in her two years at UD. She’s been helped this year by volunteer assistant coach Chantae McMillan.

“When she was recruited, she was throwing about 130 feet,” Gilhuly said. “Getting to the regional meet, that’s adding another 30 more feet. What are we going to do to get to the highest level? It was about setting small goals every day, and she started crushing goals and kind of got addicted to that. Before you knew it, it was, ‘Hey, we’re at a spot now where we’re tops in the country.’ She’s never really shied away from competition. When she practices, it’s this level of intensity that she’s not really concerned with anything else that’s going on. It’s how can I better myself every day.”