Pacific University track and field stars Karen Du and Josh Huffman have continued to add to their already notable and accomplished careers.
So far in only three years, Du and Hu man have both been awarded for all-region honors multiple times, and seem to be breaking some kind of record every time they compete. Even with a brand new throwing coach this season, the Boxer athletes have not skipped a beat and are continuing to improve throughout the season.
Du broke her own personal record and a school record in discus, at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open last weekend. Du broke Andrea Heilman’s school record that was set in 1980, with a mark of 41.42m (135-11). This new record also goes down as only the third time the record has been broken.
“I’ve really enjoyed seeing the marks that I ended with last season, be the opening marks for this season,” Du said. “Many personal records have been set so far and I’m still expecting more out of myself.”
Huffman has also had his fair share of personal records, as he has placed first multiple times this season.
“I’ve been accomplishing a lot of goals I’ve set for this year,” Huffman said. “But I still have a long ways to go.”
Both Du and Huffman have credited much of their success to their training and new coaching they have had this season.
“The lifts provided by our coach is always changing every few weeks,” Du said. “It challenges us to see how strong we’ve been getting and it tests our limits in the weight room.”
As one of Du’s workout partners, Huffman strongly believes the success they are seeing has come from months of hard work.
“The workout regimen was extremely vigorous in the off-season and created a no excuses environment for all the throwers,” Huffman said. “We did a lot of technique drills to really create a muscle memory effect. So when we actually compete it is like clock work and we can add distance on our throws every week much faster.”
With the Northwest Conference Championships coming in less than a month, Du and Huffman are hoping to continue to push themselves to the next level and come out on top.
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