Charlotte – Just looking at the results, this year looked like another step forward in University of North Carolina at Charlotte sophomore Sarah Pullium’s track and field career.
She increased her personal record in the discus throw by more than 4 meters (14 feet), breaking the 49ers’ school record with a throw of 52.16 meters (171 feet, 1 inch) at the Conference USA Championships on May 13. That throw qualified her for the NCAA East Regional Preliminaries in Jacksonville on May 27, which is the qualifying meet for the NCAA Championships.
Pullium also increased her shot put personal record by 2.19 meters to 14.25 meters (46’9), becoming the No. 4 performer in school history in the event, and added the hammer throw to her repertoire. And all of that growth took place despite the fact that at the beginning of the year, she considered walking away from the sport.
“I just felt like maybe this isn’t what I need to keep doing,” Pullium said. “Maybe this isn’t what’s best for me just because I was dealing with some personal struggles.”
‘Best version of myself’
Some of the things that helped make Pullium a Division I athlete weren’t as helpful for her at Charlotte. She has always been hard on herself, and when that works well means she’s always looking for ways to improve.
But during her freshman year, Pullium had to completely rework her throwing technique, and she had some bad habits that were not easy to correct. That led to a lot of frustrating practices at the track, and a lot of beating herself up about it off of it.
She still had a strong year, placing in fifth at the discus throw at the Conference USA Championships and setting a new personal record in the shot put. But after the struggles Pullium had, she wasn’t sure she wanted to do it all over again. Being a Division I athlete is a year-round grind.
“I just didn’t know if I wanted to put myself through nine months of hard training again and go back and go through all that,” she said.
When Pullium had a talk with her coach, Candace Fuller, at the beginning of the year, Fuller told her that her top priority for this year was to take care of herself. For Pullium, that meant showing herself some compassion and not letting what she did as an athlete define her. Instead of letting a bad practice throw off the rest of her day, they were left at the track.
The goal at first was to keep that attitude for one day, then another, then another. Soon day-by-day turned into week-by-week, and then a month. At a certain point she didn’t have to think about it anymore. Pullium also started attending therapy, which she said allowed her to start falling in love with the sport again. She was embracing throwing and the role it had in her life, but understanding that it wasn’t the end-all, be-all of who she was.
“I know and understand that I’m going to make mistakes and I’m going to make a lot more than I know,” Pullium said. “And I try to show myself some compassion, and I’m trying to be a better person and be the best version of myself I can be.”
‘YEAH SARAH!’
Pullium felt she owed it to herself to do another year in the sport, and went to work bettering her performance on the track while trying to improve her mental health off of it. She participated in indoor track for the first time, having redshirted her indoor track season as a freshman and played basketball during high school indoor track season.
During indoor track, she slightly increased her overall personal record in the shot put from 12.06 meters to 12.12 meters (39’7 to 39’9.5). She also competed in the weighted throw for the first time, which is the indoor track equivalent of the hammer throw. While she competed in the hammer throw and shot put during the outdoor track season, her biggest goals were in the discus throw. She wanted to break 50 meters, which would break the school record of 49.93 meters (163’9) set by Victoria Merriweather in 2015, and get on the podium at the Conference USA championship meet and qualify for regionals.
Pullium wanted to break the school record early in the season, but instead was consistently throwing 46 or 47 meters before the conference meet, which she said was about two meters more than what she was throwing in similar meets as a freshman. So she set her sights on breaking the school record at the Conference USA Championship at the University of North Texas in Denton, which she thought would be her last competition of the season.
Pullium’s first throw was 45.78 meters, which wasn’t exactly what she wanted but thought was still good enough to get her through to the finals portion of the competition. Every competitor gets three throws, but the top nine through the first three rounds get an additional three throws in the finals.
After going over some technical cues with Fuller, Pullium felt good as she entered the circle for her second throw. She knew it was a good throw when it left her hand, and the reaction from the typically reserved Fuller let her know it was something special. Fuller let out a “YEAH SARAH!” from the stands, then gave her a big bear hug at the end of the competition. The throw was a new personal record by 4.48 meters (14’4) and shattered the previous school record.
“I know what it looks like when someone breaks a ceiling with a sledgehammer, and that’s exactly what she did with that throw,” Fuller said.
Fuller thought she “shut down the competition” with that throw and was right. After wondering whether she would come back to the sport the previous summer, Pullium was a Conference USA champion. The throw punched her ticket to regionals too, as she moved into the top 48 of the eastern region.
She didn’t enter that meet with any expectations, as she qualified at the last possible moment. There was a bit of imposter syndrome competing against some of the best athletes in the country, but Pullium still wanted to make the most of the experience. She finished 34th with a throw of 47.12 meters – well off her personal record, but still only a half-meter short of what it took to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
“I don’t think I actually understood what I had done until actually a week later, it actually settled in,” Pullium said. “I wanted to go and get a good throw. But I don’t know. I was doing it right but it wasn’t going as far as I would’ve liked it to.”
‘She’s scary’
The experience will only help Pullium in the future. Fuller said she knows what the atmosphere at that meet is like, as well as who are the competitors to watch and what it takes to do it on that day. Like Pullium skyrocketed to a conference championship, athletes can do the same at the regional or national championships.
It’s a place Pullium expects to return to later in her career. The goal for the rest of her time at Charlotte is to qualify for NCAA Championships and then become an All-American, which means placing in the top eight of their respective event at the NCAA Championships.
She’ll compete in indoor track as a junior, but she’s planning to redshirt her outdoor track season to have her indoor track eligibility catch up to her outdoor track eligibility. Unlike in some sports where athletes redshirt because they need a developmental year going in, Fuller said with throwing they can be given later in an athlete’s career if they show promise early and would benefit from another year.
Pullium’s been able to have the success she’s had so far while still having a lot to improve technically. Both she and Fuller saw a lot to improve on in her winning throw in the conference championship meet, and getting an extra year of good repetitions should only lead to more success.
“Everything on the film was saying this is not going to be a good throw and yet it was,” Fuller said. So you look at that and go, ‘Oh my God, if she could throw 5 meters (personal best) off of this technique, what could she do off of good technique, better technique?’ So she’s scary in that way.”
Last year, Fuller said Pullium could be a national-caliber athlete. After what she was able to do this year, Fuller isn’t ready to put a ceiling on what she can do in the sport. The road ahead could be exciting.
One year after not being sure she wanted to stay in the sport, Pullium is ready to see where it goes. She’s ready for the good and the bad of it, and knows that it doesn’t define her. With her mindset in place, Pullium’s ready to do what she does best, which is get to work and find ways to improve.
“Be determined, do what you want to do, work super hard, never stop grinding,” Pullium said. “You’ve just got to show yourself some compassion and understand that you’re going to make mistakes and they don’t have to define you.”