Throw It: The Evan Todd Story

Evan Todd stood on a mound in Kalispell, looking to his catcher for a sign. His father, Joe Todd, stood in the dugout. The son had become a pitcher to be feared in the area's youth baseball league, with an arm that could throw not only high heat, but also a devastating curve.

As the year went along, teams started to take note of the signals that made their way from the dugout to the mound. Joe Todd decided on a simpler way to get the message out to his son.

"When he was pitching, the other team could pick up on our signals," Joe said. "So when I wanted him to throw a curveball, I'd just yell, 'Come on Ev, throw it!"

The two words are now inked onto Todd's right bicep in a cursive, flowing font. Centered underneath in a smaller version of the same font a three-letter word. Dad.

It's a constant reminder, right there in the flesh, of just what to do with the gift of a right arm that Todd has been provided.

A nasty breaking ball is just one of the many things that Evan Todd can produce with that right arm. His latest feat was a 246 foot, 6 inch javelin toss in Bozeman at the Big Sky Championship meet that secured not just his third consecutive conference title, but also shattered his own Montana school record, the meet record, and the facility record at Bobcat Track & Field Complex.

Todd will now head to Fayetteville, Ark. to compete in his fourth straight NCAA First Round Meet, participating as one of the 48 best athletes in the entire West Region of the NCAA every year of his collegiate career. He is set to throw at 1:00 p.m. (MT) with a chance to become the first Montana athlete to make the National Championship meet since 2019.

It would cement a legacy as the greatest javelin thrower in Montana history, and write an end to the collegiate chapter of his life in the best way possible. His story began in his back yard as a three-year old playing catch with his dad, and it will continue on to the US Olympic Trials in late June after he hit the automatic qualifying mark of 75 meters with his throw in Bozeman.

It's a simple story, in some ways. What kid hasn't picked up a rock to toss it in the lake, or pelted a friend with a snowball during the winter months. Todd, like so many other kids, did those types of things. But it didn't take long for Todd to realize that there was something special about his throwing ability.

He played any sport he could growing up. Baseball, football, basketball, it didn't matter, if there was competition involved, Todd was in. His older brother Shelton picked up javelin in high school. When Evan was in middle school, he went to Bozeman and watched his brother compete alongside Taylor Hulslander and Todd Ogden. The three Glacier athletes finished 1-2-3 at the meet.

"I just always really looked up to him growing up," Todd said of his brother. "It was cool watching him do anything athletically, so going to track meets and watching him and a trio of good javelin throwers from Glacier, it was really cool. I was in awe watching them throw a spear."

It wasn't long before Todd was carrying on the legacy that group left behind at Kalispell. He won the State AA meet as a junior, and realized that track and field might be his ticket to collegiate athletics.

Despite being an excellent pitcher, he gave up baseball. His father had coached him from childhood until he was 15 years old in the sport, and even after that could be heard in the stands at Griffin Field as Evan competed for the Kalispell Lakers yelling, "Throw it, Ev!"

"It was hard, but I knew what he was chasing," Joe Todd said. "And it was hard for him. He really misses baseball, even now. He was a very good baseball player and a very good quarterback."

He continued to play football through his senior year, quarterbacking the Wolfpack to the State Tournament. There were options on the table for Todd to continue his playing career on the gridiron.

But at the same time, he received hundreds of letters from schools wanting him to be part of their track programs. He had a top five throw in the country for high schoolers with a mark of 208-8, and it got the attention of plenty of coaches.

He knew that he had to make a choice, but couldn't make up his mind. Then a few life events helped him land on a final decision

"I got a couple of looks in football, and that's really what I wanted to do," Todd said. "It's what everyone wants in high school, it's the coolest thing to have dreams of playing quarterback in college, but I slowed down and was brutally honest with myself and realized I had a lot of potential in this sport."

His brother Shelton had gone to Sacramento State for a year to throw, but an injury kept him from ever competing for the Hornets. He returned home and started school at the University of Montana, eventually walking on to the track team.

Just like in Bozeman, watching his brother compete brought something out in Evan. He stood at Dornblaser Field and saw not only his brother throw, but also Jensen Lillquist, who would hold Montana's school record for five years.

"I got to watch (my brother) throw here a couple of times, and I saw Jensen (Lillquist) throw at Dornblaser, and I just thought, 'Man, it's so cool how far that javelin is going.' I thought that was going to be me someday," Todd said. "I just wanted to turn that into a reality."

Todd met with Brian Schweyen, who at the time was serving as the head coach and also instructing Montana's javelin throwers. The Grizzlies had a rich legacy in the event, winning five Big Sky titles from 2010 to 2018.

"I had a talk with Brian Schweyen and I had always heard good things about him and actually had some older friends who were on the track team so I was able to come visit with them and see what the culture was all about," Todd said. "The family aspect of being on the track team was really cool, and really intriguing to me."

He committed to UM and arrived in the fall of 2019, ready to take on the world. He had watched Lillquist throw, and knew how great the two-time conference champion and school record holder had been in Missoula, but he saw the record as an "attainable goal."

The strength training program helped him put on weight and gain muscle, and Todd was feeling ecstatic to get his first season of collegiate track and field underway. Enter COVID-19.

Just as it looked like his outdoor season was ready to begin, it was all taken away from him. The preparation for the Al Manual Invitational at the end of March was out the window, and Todd went back home unsure of what the future would look like.

He bought a mountain bike and started riding to take his mind off things. The muscle and weight that he had gained fell off him as he took cathartic rides through the woods. His thoughts drifted toward his future.

"There were definitely a few intrusive thoughts that were just like, 'Maybe this isn't for me.' I had just put so many months of work into this and I don't even get to compete," Todd remembers. "I had watched all the indoor athletes compete that year and it was definitely frustrating to work so hard toward something and just have it taken away in a split second."

He hadn't considered anything more than a bachelor's degree, but after a meeting with an academic advisor he realized that there was a chance for him to still compete for four years, and leave Montana with an MBA.

So he enrolled in summer classes, and combining that with credits he earned while in high school, was eventually able to graduate in three-and-a-half years with a Bachelor's in Marketing. This spring, he earned his MBA alongside several of his teammates.

The decision to pursue more education also allowed him a restart at the traditional four-year athletic career. He started lifting again, and 19 months after he initially arrived on campus, Todd finally competed for the Grizzlies at the Al Manual Invitational in 2021.

Since then, Todd has put together one of the most impressive careers in Montana history, in any event. He would place fourth at the Big Sky Championships in his first season, but that's the last time the conference would have an answer for him.

Todd started his sophomore year with a throw of 229-2, the third-best in program history and just over three feet off Lillquist's record mark. It's the best he would do that season, but Todd won his first Big Sky Championship that May with a throw of 224-10.

His junior year may have been the most consistent of his collegiate career as he hit at least 208 feet at every meet and broke 220 on four occasions. But Todd wasn't able to best his PR and claim the school record. Still, he went to Greeley, Colo. and defended his Big Sky title with a throw of 222-4.

There was plenty of success for Todd, despite working with a rotating door of coaches in his short time at Montana. He began working with Schweyen in 2019 before a season with Paul Barrett. Ryan Weidman took over, and as a former javelin thrower himself, was able to relate well to Todd.

It's why there was some nervousness for Todd when Doug Fraley was hired and he appointed John Kolb as the throws coach. Kolb, after all, had just completed his own collegiate career that saw him succeed in both the ACC and Pac-12 as a discus thrower.

"I was a little apprehensive at first knowing that he's just a couple years older than me," Todd said. "But at the same time, I think it put a good common ground between us. He's been at these regional meets before and it's recent and fresh for him. I think that allows him to think about things a lot differently than an older coach where they haven't competed for 30 years."

They built a relationship through that first year together. Now in year two, Todd and Kolb have become a formidable pair. Kolb has put in the work to understand more about javelin, and Todd has opened up to the advice of his coach.

It's led to resounding success in 2024. Todd recorded a PR for the first time in over two years at the Beach Invitational in April, coming within inches of Lillquist's school record. Then at the Montana Open on April 19, Todd finally did it. He let out a scream as he launched the javelin 234 feet, 5 inches to officially break the Montana school record.

It led him to Bozeman with plenty of confidence, but he would need every bit of it and then some to win his third straight title. Todd had improved, but so had the Big Sky. Weber State's Cody Canard broke the Big Sky record earlier this season with a throw of 256-2. His teammate Josh Trafny had a throw of 242-3 on the books.

Eastern Washington's Ryan Rieckmann also sat just ahead of Todd in the league standings with a mark of 234-7. So, despite his school record toss, Todd entered Bozeman in fourth-place in the league standings. He would need to muster up something inside himself to keep his crown.

After the first three throws of the meet, Todd hadn't moved up on the board. He sat in fourth with a throw of 217-11. There is time in between the first round and the finals for athletes to take practice throws. It's never something that Todd has done. But on this day, he felt the urge to take a practice throw.

"I talked to Kolb and said that I needed something and he gave me the OK," Todd said. "I just kind of jogged into one and hammered on it and our little flimsy jav just sailed out to like 70 meters. I just thought, I figured it out right there."

When he stood at the end of the runway before his first throw of the finals, there was a quiet that fell over the crowd. Out of that quiet came the voice of Joe Todd, from his perch at the top of the grandstand.

"Throw it, Ev!"

And throw it, he did. Todd burst into the air as the javelin left his hands, a guttural scream raging out of him. The javelin caught the air, rising seemingly above the Bridger Mountain Range in Bozeman. On the infield of the track the javelin came to a thudding stop 246 feet and 6 inches away from where Todd had released it.

New personal record. New school record. New facility record. New Big Sky Championship record. All in one throw. It also clinched his third straight title, and perhaps most notably of all gave him an automatic qualifying mark for the Olympic Trials in late June.

When the measurement was read aloud, Todd exploded into celebration and turned immediately toward his family sitting in the crowd. He screamed and flexed in celebration as they looked down proudly, knowing the magnitude of the throw.

"I just don't have words for it. It was kind of like an out of body experience," Todd said. "It was picture perfect. I had been dreaming of that moment, that throw, all season long and to be able to hit that at the conference meet was just crazy."

He is just the seventh athlete in Montana history to win three Big Sky titles in the same event, and the third athlete in Big Sky history, and first in over two decades, to complete a three-peat in men's javelin.

Todd has qualified for the NCAA West Region First Round Meet all four years of his collegiate career, and has improved each time. He started with a 26^th place finish in 2021, moved up to 25^th in 2022, and then 19^th in 2023. The top 12 make the National Championship meet in Eugene, Ore.

He will hope to finally crack that illustrious group this year. Todd enters ranked 9^th in the region after his big throw in Bozeman. He's got a mark to prove he belongs, and the experience of three previous trips.

His head coach, Doug Fraley, knows that he is fully prepared for the moment.

"He's the three-time Big Sky champ in the javelin, which is no small feat, but the thing that I can tell you about Evan is that he is not resting on that victory in Bozeman," Fraley said. "He's got business to attend to at the regional meet. I think it's really important for him and his legacy to be able to go out and do well at the regional meet, potentially qualify for nationals, and put a big stamp on his accomplishments here at UM."

Unlike most meets, there are no prelims and finals at the NCAA First Round. In Fayetteville, Todd will have just three throws to prove he belongs in Eugene. It's a mental challenge that Todd had to get used to in his previous trips. This year, he knows exactly what to expect.

"Typically if I mark a throw, I'm making finals," Todd said. "Here, there is no finals. The finals are nationals if you advance. It's been the goal every year, and I've fallen just short three years in a row. I think that will be good for me, going in with a little chip on my shoulder and knowing that this is the last year to get it done. I've experienced so much success already this season, why not make it to Nationals and check off another box from my hopes and dreams."

His family has been with him every step of the way, and they will be making the journey down to Fayetteville to watch him compete as a Grizzly for what hopefully isn't the last time.

It means the world to Evan to have that support. "There's definitely a lot of things that I block out and don't really hear at all during meets," he said. "Whenever I hear a family member screaming in the crowd though, I hear it and it gets through to me."

There is one thing you are sure to hear if you are in Fayetteville as Evan Todd steps onto the runway. It's the same thing that Joe Todd has been saying to his son his whole life, a bond between the two men. This time it will prompt not a curveball as it did on that Little League field all those years ago, but instead the lash of a javelin.

"Come on, Ev. Throw it."

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