Wiltrout wins ACC, eyes NCAA title next
Connellsville grad Madison Wiltrout stepped up for her first javelin throw at the 2022 ACC outdoor track and field championships May 12 with an unusual sense of ease.
Wiltrout, a decorated graduate senior at North Carolina, had been in this position before. It was one year ago to be exact, a third-place finish at the 2021 ACC championships that still lingered in the back of her mind as she entered the meet. Wiltrout was favored to win that day, but a lapse in technique caused her left hip to open up too early and stunt her release. The 173- foot, 10- inch setback compounded into a mental block that affected her through the 2021 NCAA championships, where she placed 16 out of 23 participants.
Now 12 months later, Wiltrout was back at the ACCs with a chance at redemption — an opportunity she wouldn’t take for granted.
“I always have one or two cues as I’m running through my throws, but on this one, I really had nothing on my mind,” Wiltrout said in an interview with the Post-Gazette. “It was kind of like a feeling of complete peace and contentment.”
And this time around, the release was perfect.
“My brain just let go,” she added. “I don’t even remember what technique it was or if I did it all correctly. I kind of blacked out at that moment. But I lived in that moment. I didn’t overthink it.”
When her javelin finally landed, a new ACC women’s javelin record was set in stone. Wiltrout’s throw of 196 feet, 11 inches won her the conference title and ended up being the 10th-longest toss in NCAA women’s track and field history. But perhaps even more importantly, it signified the conquering of a year-long battle
with self-doubt.
“She has come a long way mentally,” said North Carolina throwing coach Amin Nikfar. “I think some of it is some emotional maturity, and some of it is really beginning to believe in herself and gain confidence and know she is that person who we’ve all known. This is the ‘90% mental, 10% physical’ thing that people talk about, right?”
Wiltrout was a four-time PIAA Class 3A champion at Connellsville, but an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery forced her to take a year off from
throwing as a freshman. She came back the following year and, in addition to winning the ACC title, placed third at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships.
With a healthy arm and momentum seemingly in her favor, Wiltrout had an NCAA title in mind for her redshirt sophomore season after working her way back from offseason ankle surgery. Except the 2020 outdoor track and field season got canceled at the onset of the pandemic. Then, a non-javelin-related wrist injury coupled with a groin tear requiring PRP surgery sidelined Wiltrout again in August
of 2020. After working her way back again, her 2021 season concluded with unusual setbacks at the ACCs and NCAAs. The mental toll of it all inclined Wiltrout to seek the help of a sports psychologist this past fall.
“I think the biggest thing is what you tell yourself every day,” she said. “Last year, I wasn’t talking kindly to myself. I didn’t think anything I was doing was good enough or correct. But then this whole fall, I’d tell myself literally every day, ‘You’re one of the best javelin throwers in the country.’”
Eventually, she started to
believe it. Wiltrout began the season with three wins in her first three tournaments — including a first-place finish at the Duke Invitational — and broke her own school record twice en route to an ACC title. She’ll now have a chance to compete for her first national title at the NCAA outdoor championships on June 8-11.
“After everything I’ve been through, [an NCAA title] would validate all the work I’ve put in physically and mentally to get here,” Wiltrout said. “It would show that everything I’ve gone through has finally paid off.”