Taran Taylor started his javelin career at Wichita State with all-conference honors and a national title in 2018. He went from throwing 186 feet in high school at Arkansas City to 243 feet as a freshman.
"Kind of unreal improvement," throws coach John Hetzendorf said. "That's a career's worth of improvement and then some."
Then Taylor's career went dark. Elbow surgery and the COVID-19 pandemic kept him from competing for two seasons – or 986 days, he calculates.
"It felt like 1,000," he said.
Taylor returned to the javelin this spring and is again throwing at a high level.