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CSU's Malone Hits Discus Heights
By Natalie Meisler, Denver Post (5/10)
May 15, 2000
May 10 -FORT COLLINS - A typical redshirt freshman football player devotes his first year to gaining strength and acclimating to the college classroom while getting his ego blasted daily as a member of the scout team. Casey Malone is not a football player. He is an atypical All-America discus thrower for Colorado State, who dedicated his senior spring in 1999 to the same pursuits of a developing freshman, minus the scout-team initiation. College coaches like to invest a fifth year in their athletes, exchanging an 18-year-old for a 22-year-old down the road. Malone, though, took a rare nonmedical senior redshirt year, trading the instant gratification of competing in the last 16-school Western Athletic Conference track and field championships for an Olympic year of training on CSU's dime. The investment was beneficial for Malone and the Rams. A year later, the fifthyear senior ranks second nationally in the discus because of his April 29 career-best throw of 211 feet, 6 inches. Malone's throw, unleashed during CSU's Jack Christiansen Invitational, also was an in-state collegiate all-time best. Colorado's Art Burns threw 209-7 in 1977. Malone's throw unofficially is 14th in the world this spring. He's fourth among Americans. The best reported throw in the world this year is 224-9, by 30-year-old Adam Setliff. Only the top three throwers in Malone's event at the U.S. Olympic trials advance to the Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, in September. Malone returned to CSU for a fifth year to peak for the Mountain West Conference and NCAA championships and Olympic trials. "That's also why we redshirted him. We wanted him to focus on strength and development and gaining weight. He's always had a hard time gaining weight," said Brian Bedard, who coaches CSU's field events. "He's made a couple of major technique changes in the last three weeks. "He's matured as an athlete. He understands what is needed at certain levels like the NCAAs and Olympics. He's raised his standards and expectations in practices and meets." Some changes came in the form of advice when Malone attended Olympic development camps. Others came from watching endless tapes of Olympic champions on his VCR. "I drive my roommates nuts," he said. Bedard compared lengthening his approach and follow-through with a golf swing. And like golf, much of the Malone's sport is mental. "I have a different mind-set this year," he said. "I needed to start thinking like an elite discus thrower and start training like an elite thrower." Malone used to throw 195 to 205 feet in practice. Now he gets upset if he's not throwing 200 to 208 feet. "That 200 was a huge barrier for me," he said. This is the first season Malone routinely throws 200 feet during meets. Throw in the adrenaline of competition and good fortune from a timely breeze, and distances increase accordingly. For all the strides Malone has made in recent weeks, he doesn't want to think about where he would be if he ended his CSU career a year ago. "I didn't want my first year out of college to be an Olympic year," Malone said. "You have to get to meets on your own. I like the rhythm of meets every week." Malone picked a difficult year for a grand finale. A throw of 202-1 by Gabor Mate, an Auburn sophomore from Hungary, won the NCAA discus a year ago. Mate set an NCAA record by throwing 219-6 in March at a meet in San Diego. Malone was third in that meet, with a 203-11 throw. Malone believes it will take a throw of 215 to 220 feet to win the NCAA discus title this year, though the configuration of Duke's stadium in Durham, N.C., site of the NCAA championships, may nullify the wind factor. Not competing in last year's WAC championships, which CSU hosted, still bothers Malone. Texas-El Paso and Southern Methodist brought strong discus throwers to Fort Collins. On the plus side, Malone already is the MWC record holder, this being the MWC's first spring. At 6-foot-8 and 255 pounds, Malone is taller and lighter than many of his rivals. Setliff and Andy Bloom, who are first and second in U.S. and international rankings, stand 6-3 and 6-4 and each weighs 275 pounds. Nobody smirks at Malone's major, which is fine arts. CSU's art department, which includes a foundry for metal sculpture, was a key reason Malone signed with the Rams after winning three state titles at Arvada West. He specializes in oil painting and bronze sculpture, but Malone knows neither his art nor athletic success will prove as marketable after graduation as a coveted degree in computer science. He dabbled in graphic arts, but found deadlines conflicting with his creativity. The year away from competition gave him more time to devote to art. And while Malone figures to make some money on the European pro track circuit, it's not as though shoe companies wave lucrative endorsement offers in front of discus throwers as they do distance runners.
"That's for the Berryhills and Gouchers," Malone said, referring to CSU's Bryan Berryhill, also an NCAA qualifier, and former Colorado distance star Adam Goucher. "It's tough to make a living as a discus thrower." But maybe Malone already has achieved the toughest part, just by moving up to the elite level of discus throwers.
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