Seton Hill freshman Gravatt has bright future as javelin specialist

Sami Gravatt’s first foray into track and field was nothing to put in the scrapbook. A soccer player in her youth, Gravatt was asked to try discus in middle school, and she said it “wasn’t good.”

While playing soccer at Manchester Township High School in her native New Jersey, Gravatt was spotted by the school’s track and field coach, Christopher Rash, who took note of the distance Gravatt achieved on her throw-ins and immediately envisioned her with a javelin in her hand.

Fast forward to today, and the Seton Hill freshman is among the top javelin performers in Division II. She ranked 26th in the nation — and No. 2 among freshmen — with a mark of 43.21 meters (nearly 142 feet) heading into the weekend’s PSAC championships.

She placed third at PSACs with a throw of 42.55 meters (139 feet, 7 inches).

“It’s been a learning process definitely this season, and I have learned a lot about who I am as a javelin thrower and the process of what you have to go through with the training and still learning about the recovery,” she said. “It’s a big mental thing as well that I’m discovering.

“But I’m definitely proud of the effort I have put in and how I’m able to clear my mindset before each throw and putting so much pressure on myself.”

Gravatt proved to be a quick study at the event as well as a capable leader while in high school. As her junior year approached, Rash asked her to be one of the team captains.

But that’s when covid-19 began shutting things down nationwide, and Gravatt missed all of her junior season and got a late start on her senior season because of quarantine. As disappointed as she was in the circumstances, Gravatt found a way to turn the down time in her favor.

“When it shut down, I was so upset,” she said. “This (was) the year I was going to prove to college coaches that I have so much potential. (But) I think it helped me out so much that we had quarantine. I gained a lot of strength, and I gained a better attitude for the sport.”

Seton Hill coach Bobby Over took note of Gravatt’s numbers as she progressed through her senior year. Over already had been recruiting her, and when she accepted the offer from Seton Hill, he could see a bright future.

“Her senior year, she really started putting some throws out there, and we kind of looked at it like, ‘Wow. We think we have something pretty good here.’ She’s a perfectionist. She’s just going to work her tail off in the weight room all the time and just constantly work on her craft.”

Griffins throwing coach Jack Rosenstein works most closely with Gravatt. Though javelin is as much about technique as it is brute strength, Rosenstein noted that Gravatt’s strength was perhaps her best asset, though he also lauded her technique.

Rosenstein is pleased with the trajectory she is on and said he can see her one day becoming an All-American.

“She still has so much strength to gain,” he said. “I think she’s just at the peak of the iceberg. With adding a little bit more strength and a little bit more speed, a little bit more power, she’s going to be able to do some damage in the next few years.”

Gravatt describes herself as “obsessed” with the javelin. What she has not obsessed over, however, is numbers.

When she joined the program at Seton Hill, she said, she had distances she wanted to achieve tucked in the back of her mind. Now she is more focused on the experience and letting the results take care of themselves.

With that pressure alleviated, she is content to have fun and let it fly.

“I kind of like the idea of trying to put on a show for everybody,” she said. “Like, this is who I am, and this is what I’m looking to grow in as an athlete.

“I’m not thinking numbers. I’ve been told by my family and coaches, ‘You’ve just go to go have fun.’ … I think it’s time I just enjoy what I’m doing, and I have to trust myself and what I know and just be happy to be part of the process with everybody.”