COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JUNE 6, 2018
DESTINY
from B1
school best throw. Going into the next season, she
was filled with doubt.
“I thought maybe I was done. I had that situ-
ation where it was like, ‘Do I have more to go?
Should I still be doing this? Am I wasting my
time? I could be working and making money or
something,’” she said. “And so I prayed about that
and what not and then I PR’d. And then so I was
like, ‘Okay thank you. I’m supposed to be here, ap-
parently.’”
In the first meet of her sophomore season Daw-
son threw farther than 130 feet for the first time
and was back on track. And then at Big West Out-
door Championships she exploded for a throw of
146 feet.
“At conference the right things happened, I
don’t know. Training was good up until then but
I wouldn’t say it was anything extraordinary,” she
said. “So yeah, I don’t know. I just... I did well.”
After the season Dawson took summer classes
and with her family in Oregon, expenses in Ha-
waii and not feeling appreciated on the team, it
was time to head back to the mainland. After de-
ciding, she and her boyfriend, Darren Voigt, had
the task of packing up all their things, crossing the
ocean and finding a new place to live all within
a few weeks. They made it work and Dawson be-
came a Beaver.
Knowing she was going to take three more years
to finish school and having two years of NCAA
eligibility left, Dawson decided to redshirt.
“I know that has been a beneficial thing for
some of my athletes in the past. Gives you a whole
year to get stronger, learn technique,” said Oregon
State throwing coach David Dumble. “Because
things are different, we lift differently than she
ever has and some of the technical knowledge is
different so she’s really had to grow a lot that way.
The last couple years, it’s crazy. Just little by little
she’s a lot better athlete.”
Training in the program but competing un-
attached, Dawson continued to improve on her
marks and set what would have been a school-re-
cord of 162-9 had she been competing as a Beaver.
While she was pleased to have thrown it and dis-
appointed it didn’t count, with the help of hind-
sight Dawson sees that it was a good thing.
“If you think about it realistically, I would have
gone to regionals and competed, but that was an
immense PR that I had never gotten close to any
other time. And even on my last competition after
that, I didn’t get close to it again. So realistically it’s
a good thing that it didn’t count because this year
counts and the next year counts,” she said.
Next year counts.
But before the new season came, things changed
in her personal life. After financial issues in her
family, she became the guardian for her then,
eight and 13-year-old step-brothers. Dawson, and
her live-in boyfriend Voigt, suddenly had parental
responsibilities.
“It’s not necessarily easy especially when you’re
not used to taking care of people. But at the same
time, it’s like, I’m so involved in their lives now
and that’s amazing to watch them grow,” she said.
“And I was really worried in the past that I wasn’t
able to be there as their big sister. And now I defi-
nitely get to do that.”
Dawson credits Voigt, who works a full-time
job, on helping things run smoothly.
Jackson Perkins
Cora Cook
Cottage Grove
High School
Cottage Grove
High School
Born:
11-24-99
Born:
3-13-00
Parents:
CASEY & SONYA
CARDWELL
Grandparents:
ROY & MARLYS
SIMONS
Parents:
REBECCA COOK AND
MARK GABRIELSON
Grandparents:
AL & DONNA WALSH;
BARB STEGALL AND
BUTCH GABRIELSON
Jasmine Ward
Gabe Glenn
Cottage Grove
High School
Born:
2-20-00
Born:
11-23-99
Born:
4/28/00
Josef Pifer
Kyle Conley
Jennifer Simons
Cottage Grove
High School
Cottage Grove
High School
Born:
5-5-00
Born:
4-7-00
Born:
7-17-00
Parents:
TONY & CASEY
GRAVES
Grandparents:
DAN & LYNN MINER;
BOB & SANDY
CONLEY
Parents:
DONNY & LEANNE
SIMONS
Grandparents:
ROY & MARTY
SIMONS
AND BETTY
KRUMLAUF
Peyton Louise Kidd
Cottage Grove
High School
Lincoln Middle
School
Born:
11-8-00
Born:
3-4-04
Parents:
BRYANT JOHNSON &
RENEE SOUSA
Grandparents:
TOMMIE & PAT
JONES
Parents:
BLAID AND APRIL
KIDD
Grandparents:
LARRY & LOUISE
VIOLETTE;
AL & SHARON KIDD
Shyenne Plaisted-Jones
Tanner Cooper
Cottage Grove
High School
AL KENNEDY
High School
Born:
10-25-99
Born:
7-5-00
Parents:
KARL & RENEE
Grandparents:
SHIRLEY PLAISTED &
THE LATE LEE R
PLAISTED
Parents:
JAMI COOPER
Grandparents:
JULIE COOPER
Grandparents:
TOOT & KAROLINE
NELSON,
JOHN & SUE GLENN
Cottage Grove
High School
Mitchell Johnson
Parents:
CHRIS & SMILEY
Parents:
ROB & GINA
STOCKTON
Parents:
JERRY & CONNIE
PIFER
Cottage Grove
High School
Grandparents:
DON & LINDA
PERKINS
Austin Cardwell
than that now which is not something that I nec-
essarily expected but I’m very happy about it,” said
Dawson.
Placing third at the Pac-12 Championships
where, she secured at spot at the NCAA West Re-
gion Championships. With the top 12 throwers
moving on to the NCAA Championships, Daw-
son had the 16th best throw going into the day
and was just trying to fight for a coveted spot.
“When I was on the runway I was pretty fo-
cused, but when I was not on the runway I was just
thinking, ‘Okay, what place am I in? What girls do
I know can throw further than me? What girls
can I see are having a bad day and probably won’t
throw farther than me and where are they now?’”
With one thrower left in the competition, Daw-
son watched someone who had previously thrown
farther then her approach the runway. “So it
was very stressful. And she threw and I actually
thought she might have thrown further than me
so I started packing my stuff up and I was like,
‘Nice try.’ I was like bittersweet,” she said. “But
then the mark came up on the board and I was
like ‘Oh my gosh, no way!’ It was pretty crazy.”
Now Dawson is headed back to Eugene and
Hayward Field to compete at NCAAs. While
Dumble has aspirations for her to become an
All-American and her friends have high hopes for
her, Dawson is just focused on throwing.
“I’m just wanting to do the best I can on the day.
You know. I want to have fun and I want to do
what I can do. You know, leave it all on the track
and I don’t want to walk away thinking, ‘I could
have done better,’” she said. “I just want to do the
best I can. Whatever that may be, whatever mark
that is, whatever place I get.”
Cottage Grove
High School
Parents:
ALLEN & MELINDA
“During the school
year, a lot of the reason
I can manage every-
thing is because he’s,
you know, in the back-
ground getting it done.
So we both make sure
the boys are getting
done what they need
to get done,” she said.
“Sometimes I wake the
boys up in the morn-
ing, sometimes he does.
And I get to sleep in.
It’s really just a balance
Dawson places fifth for
of him and I making it
Cottage Grove at the
work.”
state meet in 2014.
With responsibilities
of being a guardian, a full-time student and an
athlete, Dawson continued to excel in javelin. In
her first season competing for OSU, Dawson has
shined all year and now has improved to throw
168-9. But for her and Dumble, it’s not about her
longest throw but about being consistent.
“I don’t really like to talk about ‘Oh, I’m going
to hit this mark.’ That really wasn’t good for me
especially back in the day when I was trying to
throw 130 feet. The one time I finally threw much
further than 130 feet was when I changed that
mindset,” she said.
Now the idea is to make the record-setting
throws not just an outlier but something to con-
sistently hit. Dumble and Dawson are focused on
improving her average throw.
“I said that I wanted my average to be around
what my PR last year was which is actually more
3B
Markus Julien
Cottage Grove
High School
Born:
10-6-00
Parents:
MARC & MYLA
JULIEN
Grandparents:
PERRY & SOLITA
JULIEN;
ROBERT &
GERALDINE
ALESSANDRA
Sammie Jacobs
ORVA
Born:
1-2-04
Parents:
RICHARD & MANDI
JACOBS
Grandparents:
BILL & DIANA
RAMSEY;
RICHARD & DEBBIE
HUDY