On national stage, Hill seeks to repeat

ATHENS —- On a campus that typically celebrates its athletes’ accomplishments, University of Georgia junior Chris Hill is an NCAA champion who goes unnoticed.

“The most recognition I got was this past week,” Hill said, “when my waiter at Waffle House, Heather, told me, ‘I didn’t know you were on the track team.’ She’s served me I-don’t-know-how-many pecan waffles, and she just realized that I was on the team, much less that I won the national championship.”

So it goes for the defending NCAA javelin champion, who says the anonymity is “actually a nice thing.”

Hill won the national title last year and will try to repeat when the 2009 NCAA Championships are held this week in Fayetteville, Ark.

A native of Sulphur, La., Hill started throwing the javelin after tiring of throwing the baseball in high school. He stayed close to home by attending McNeese State as a freshman, then transferred to Georgia last season. He quickly became the first NCAA javelin champ in the history of the UGA men’s track-and-field program.

While he says the campus at large has “no idea” of his feat, Hill finds support among the accomplished athletes on Georgia’s other Olympics-sports teams.

“You know, the gymnasts and the swimmers and the tennis players —- those are world-class athletes,” Hill said. “Just being around them is really cool, and nobody gets too much of the big head because national champions are pretty common [among the group].

“A lot of the athletes at Georgia —- I mean, football kind of does their thing —- but a lot of the Olympics-sports athletes all get along real well. This type of atmosphere, where you’re expected to be on top, helps the mentality going into a meet. It’s like, ‘I’m supposed to win. That is why I was brought here.’ “

Six title holders

Six Georgia athletes have won NCAA individual championships during the 2008-09 school year, led by gymnast Courtney Kupets, who won four. Four swimmers and one equestrian rider won NCAA titles in their events. A swimming relay team also won a title.

Hill will be looking to add to that list when the NCAA Championships start Wednesday. The javelin finals are Friday night.

Hill won the title last year with a throw of 257 feet, 3 inches. His best so far this season: 265 feet, 10 inches. He won the SEC and NCAA East Regional meets last month. Now 21, he holds the records for longest throws by 19- and 20-year-old Americans.

“For his age, he’s throwing distances that guys who go on to win Olympic medals throw at that age,” said Don Babbitt, Georgia’s assistant track coach who works with the team’s throwers.

“I’m definitely looking for a new best [this] week,” Hill said.

He’s confident but looks forward to formidable competition from USC’s Corey White and Oregon’s Cyrus Hostetler, both of whom have longer throws than Hill this season. Babbitt calls Hill, White and Hostetler “three of the top guys in the history of college javelin.”

Javelin took time

Hill, who played football throughout high school, discovered the javelin in 11th grade. He quickly blew out his elbow by throwing too much too soon, requiring “Tommy John” ligament reconstruction surgery, but was not deterred.

Fast-forward two years to the 2007 NCAA Championships. That’s when Babbitt first saw Hill, then a McNeese State freshman.

“When I saw his first throw, I said, ‘This guy has got it. He’s going to be the next great one,’ ” Babbitt said. “Little did I know he would end up at Georgia.”

Hill, who finished fifth at the NCAAs as a freshman, sought a new college after McNeese’s coach resigned in late summer 2007. Georgia offered a full scholarship, a rarity for a javelin thrower, and Hill accepted largely because of Babbitt’s reputation.

After completing his college eligibility next year, Hill plans to compete professionally in Europe and elsewhere.

“As a javelin thrower, you’re never going to make a ton of money,” he said, “but I’ll be able to see the world.”

Meanwhile, back home in Sulphur, La., unlike Athens, Hill says “just about everyone” knows of the local-boy-turned-NCAA champion.