Everyone knows junior Marcel Lomnicky (Virginia Tech) can throw.  In his first season as a Hokie, the Slovakian won the NCAA title in the hammer throw.  However, he was not able to match those results with the weight throw last year.  Lomnicky had never thrown the weight prior to coming to America.  Making matters worse, he only started class in January, giving him little time to adjust to the new implement.  Nevertheless, he competed well and threw a personal best at the NCAA indoor championships for 8th place.

As I predicted a few weeks ago, Lomnicky would benefit from having a full off-season to prepare for the weight throw.  In his first meet of the season, Lomnicky proved he can compete for the NCAA indoor title this year by improving his personal best from 20.99m to 21.24m.  He also beat out some great competition, including a personal best by John Freeman (Georgia) and a good effort by Michael Zajac (South Carolina).  Freeman and Zajac currently have the fourth and fifth best marks in the nation.

Others considered: Jeneva McCall (Louisville) made a strong case to win the athlete of the week honor for the second straight week by throwing another two-foot personal best.  Steffen Nerdal (Memphis) also threw a big personal best to extend his national lead on the men's side.

Previous winners: Jan 18 - Jeneva McCall (Louisville)

CollegeHammer.com is a published by the non-profit Evergreen Athletic Fund and edited by Martin Bingisser. Please consider donating to help support the site.