Listening to the Ball
Spinning round and round before hurling a 16-lb. metal ball affixed to a 4-foot wire may not be one’s idea of dancing, but Jude Misko, the 2021 winner of the NCAA Division III national championship in the hammer throw competition, sees similarities. “It is like a dance almost,” says Misko CCAS’20, today a graduate student in criminal justice at Rutgers University–Camden. “There’s a rhythm and a timing to it. The hammer has its own sort of life. People who don’t do it won’t understand, but you’ve got to listen to the ball.” Despite the interruptions of injury and the pandemic, Misko has been listening closely, bringing a zen-like relationship to his throwing technique. Misko’s championship is Rutgers–Camden’s fourth: Tim Van Liew CCAS’12 won in the javelin in 2012 and 2013, and the softball team won in 2006.