Semoball

Poplar Bluff's Bell earns All-American honor in javelin to cap healthy freshman season

Logan Bell, seen in this 2018 photo throwing the javelin during a meet at the Poplar Bluff Senior High School, recently earned All-American honors in the event throwing for Missouri Southern State University.
DAR FILE

Following years of coming back from injury after injury during high school, Logan Bell was in good shape this spring to throw the javelin for Missouri Southern State University.

Mostly.

“Especially because of my (previous) injuries, I probably picked the worst event to do,” Bell said recently. “I was kind of banged up towards the end of the season. Had a bunch of tendinitis in my Achilles and stuff like that.

Bell

“That’s part of being an athlete,” he added. “You’re always going to be hurting, but you got to kind of adapt and overcome. Hopefully you do good.”

Bell recently earned All-American honors in the javelin by placing eighth at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

His best throw of 64.91 meters was 4 centimeters shy of his top mark set earlier this spring and helped secure an eighth-place finish for the Lions in the team standings.

Missouri Southern finished four points shy of a top-4 finish as host Grand Valley State won the team title.

“We’re pretty excited,” Bell said. “We lost a couple of people to graduation this year and I’m pretty sure we have a pretty strong freshman class coming in.”

Among those incoming freshmen are Poplar Bluff’s Jaden Deaton and Jadarius Pigg, who each earned a pair of all-state medals.

In high school, Bell earned all-state honors as a sophomore and junior in javelin and ended up 8 inches shy of the podium as a senior, finishing ninth, throwing with an elbow injury and coming off his second knee surgery.

Bell, a quarterback on Poplar Bluff’s 2017 football team that finished the regular season unbeaten, injured his left knee running for a first down in the eighth game that fall. The previous year he suffered a season-ending injury to his right knee that also required surgery.

Both times he came back the following spring to compete in the track and field state championships, placing second in the javelin as a junior with a throw of 176-feet, 2-inches.

Bell injured his elbow at the district meet his senior year but still managed to advance to state where he placed ninth at 163-2. As a sophomore, Bell finished third at state with a throw of 167-8.

That was the first year the javelin event was held in Missouri.

“A lot of people are like ‘Oh, well I can throw a football 60 yards,’” said Bell, who threw for 1,389 yards his senior year with 15 touchdowns in seven games.

“It’s not the same thing.”

Bell says the javelin is also a jumping event, running down the runway like a long jump and stopping like a high jumper.

“I’m probably biased, but it’s probably the hardest event on your body,” Bell said. “A lot of people don’t understand that.”

A javelin weighs 800 grams, or 1.7 pounds, and is about 8 feet in length.

“My best explanation of what a javelin throw is, it’s like driving a car straight into a brick wall,” Bell said. “You’re running as fast as you can down the runway and stopping on a dime.”

Bell scratched on his first attempt at nationals but his throw was nearly 3 meters better than his pervious best. After a throw of 60.55, his third attempt ended up being his best at 64.91.

Bell’s best throw of 213-feet, 1-inch (64.91 meters) at the SBU Invite in April was 37 feet better than his top throw in high school. He finished fourth in that meet after a third-place showing in his first meet at Emporia State.

Bell, who also ran on the 400-meter relay that placed eighth at the MIAA championships this spring, placed seventh in the conference at 208-7.

Bell’s throw at nationals would have placed him in 13th at the Division I West Preliminary Round meet and among the top 3 in the Pac-12 or won the Ohio Valley Conference title where former teammate and true freshman Josiah Kilgore placed third.

Kilgore, who throws for Southeast Missouri State, had a season-best 68.96 meters to qualify for the West Preliminary Round where he placed 45th.

“We always have great track athletes coming out of Poplar Bluff,” Bell said.

After a redshirt freshman season in 2019, Bell and the rest of the sport missed the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That means Bell still has three years of eligibility remaining.

“It was definitely a blessing in disguise,” Bell said.

“When COVID happened it was a bummer, but I don’t think I would have thrown as far as my freshman year if I threw last year, just because my body wasn’t ready — and probably even my mind also.

“I was not technically advanced enough last year so that extra year definitely helped,” he added.

It also gave him another year of weight training specific to the sport.

“I’m not lifting for just a max squat or max bench,” he said. “We don’t care about bench, it’s all about snatch and power clean and try to get as explosive as possible.”

Bell said the whole college experience was weird during the pandemic with classes online or limited in-person meeting.

“Definitely harder to learn, in my opinion, because you’re counting on yourself all by yourself,” he said. “It was a weird experience. I’m glad it’s almost over.”

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: