Tossing Caution To The Wind

Article reprinted courtesy of Fargo Forum and reporter Eric Peterson. Picture courtesy of Fargo Forum photographer David Samson.

MOORHEAD—When running wasn't an option during one spring in high school, Mikayla Forness gravitated to the javelin.

Forness, a Bismarck Shiloh Christian graduate, got a stress fracture during her sophomore basketball season that school year, forcing her to scale back running for track season.

"I couldn't do any running or jumping, so it was essentially the throwing," said Forness, who was a middle and long distance runner to that point.

Forness said she "probably" wouldn't have tried javelin had it not been for the stress fracture, but the event choice has proved to be a good one.

Now a junior at Concordia, Forness is one of the top women's javelin throwers in NCAA Division III. She has the second-best throw heading into the Division III Outdoor Championships, which start Thursday, May 26, in Waverly, Iowa.

The 5-foot-9 Forness enters the competition with a best throw of 152 feet, 9 inches. That effort came at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Outdoor and set a Concordia record. Leah Kay held the previous school mark with a throw of 146-10 in 2010.

"The thing about (Forness) is she cares a lot about her performance," Cobbers assistant track coach Dale Hertel said. "It's a big thing to her to perform well, and she's a remarkable athlete."

Susquehanna (Pa.) University junior Gabrielle Alguire has the No. 1 throw entering the event at 155-7. Forness, who also qualified for nationals in the heptathlon, enters the outdoor championships with momentum after popping her school-record throw a little more than week ago in Collegeville, Minn.

"I was waiting for that breakthrough and this year it happened," Forness said. "It's good to know that you can compare to the other great throwers."

Forness played women's basketball and competed in track in her first two years at Concordia before deciding to focus solely on track as a junior.

"I wanted to see what I could do if I just did track," said Forness, who was at Fargo Oak Grove as freshman before her family moved to Bismarck.

When Forness was in high school, basketball was her sport, but she became more intrigued with track as she continued to improve in the sport. She won a state title in the Class B 800 meters in 2013, which was her senior season.

"That go me more into track," Forness said.

"She is just a real natural athlete," Hertel added. "She is pretty easy to coach."

Away from the track, Forness loves horses. She was in third grade when she started showing horses in 4-H. Forness has her own horse named Zips Rose Drop.

"I grew up around them so I always loved them," Forness said. "We've had horses my whole life."