Six Gold Medals. Four Runner-Up Finishes. Two Third-Place Performances.
That is the combined Atlantic Sun Indoor Championship throwing careers of seniors Joe Frye and Jarrod Burton.
A specialist in the weight throw, Belmont’s Frye started with the throwing squad as a walk-on in 2007 out of Roscommon, Mich., in search of a Music Business degree more so than A-Sun glory, but ended his A-Sun Indoor Championship career today with back-to-back titles in the weight throw to go along with a silver and bronze medal in the shot put.
“Coming into Belmont, I didn’t really get recruited out of high school and I actually came for the academics and didn’t even know weight throw was an event, he said.” “To see where I started my career at Belmont and to see how much that can change a person is impressive.”
ETSU’s Burton started out his career on top of the podium for the weight throw in 2007 and added a shot third-place finish. Now the Bastian, Va., native stands as the most decorated A-Sun Indoor thrower with eight total medals after passing Kennesaw State’s Joshua McNair seven-medal count this season.
“I would have liked…to pull out the win in weight, but I’ve never had more fun competing than in this year’s championship by being right in the thick of things and losing or winning by just inches,” Burton said. “I’ve enjoyed my time at ETSU under my coaches and throwing in this facility so it has been a great experience and I couldn’t have asked for more.”
After finishing first and third in the shot put in day one of the 2011 A-Sun Indoor Championship, the duo entered Saturday’s weight throw final as the favorites to earn the top-two spots. The pair more than delivered on expectations with both breaking the A-Sun meet record before Frye capped the day with a final record-setting heave of 19.50 meters to edge Burton for the gold.
“I knew it was going to be a battle between us here because of the success we achieved during the season and I started off with a great throw to break the record,” reflected Frye. “But I started to lose a little bit of my form and (Burton) started to post better tosses and then came up with a big throw to pass me and set the new record. So going into my second-to-last throw I knew I had to go big and leave it all on the table to win the event and thankfully I rose to the occasion.”
The pair could not have started on more different paths, but the duo embraced the A-Sun’s philosophy of “Building Winners for Life” to provide one of the highlights of the Atlantic Sun Indoor Championships.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
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Being Joe's former superintendent of schools when he was in high school at Roscommon, I know him to be a young man who will work hard for what he believes in. Athletics provide that opportunity, and we are proud to see Joe's hard work rewarded so richly!
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