Zander Peck aiming for more in his senior season

Rainier’s Zander Peck was, in his words, in a slump.

After finding early success in the javelin as a freshman, Peck had improved in both his sophomore and junior seasons, going from 145 feet, 10 inches in his first year to 166 feet, 3 inches by his third year.

But when you’re comparing yourself to all-time Rainier greats like Jeremiah Nubbe, who holds school records in the discus, shot put and hammer, progress isn’t easy to recognize.

There was another issue: Peck found his body wearing down during the season.

“I’ve had this experience for probably the past three years where I go out, throw my arm out, and I’m like, wow, that was a great practice,” Peck told the Nisqually Valley News on April 24. “I come the next day, arm is busted, can’t throw. And that’s not good.”

Peck started looking for answers. He went to camps to gather information. He worked on his technique.

The javelin throw, like many field events, has an ancient history, making its first appearance at the Ancient Olympics in 708 B.C., according to Olympics.com. But the techniques used, and the preparation required, is always evolving.

“A lot of the throwing, it doesn’t start with the action of throwing it itself,” Peck said. “It starts with the technical breakdown of the throw itself. You’re not just trying to go out and throw as hard as you can every practice a whole bunch because you’re going to wear yourself out, wear your limbs down.”

Peck got stronger, too. He credits his mom for curating an Olympic-style lifting program that incorporates explosive movements like power cleans and clean and jerks.

“She was a great powerlifter and now she’s taking that and she’s applying it to me because she knows that I have different athletic goals, but she’s done research,” Peck said. “She’s helped me a lot with that.”

He also did ball drills.

“You get like a med ball or you get these bocce balls, which are literally just like weighted balls that you can just throw at a wall and they won’t explode,” Peck said. “So, you go up and you just practice your technique … (and) you don’t want to throw really hard during the week. You want to take maybe two days where you’re throwing hard, like that’s including meet days.”

Moderation can be hard to embrace, especially if a sport’s culture preaches that more is necessarily better. Peck, who is also a wrestler, learned to “dial back” in the javelin.

“You got to take a breath, take a breather, relax, rest your arms, focus on other things for a minute, come back, throw again, get better.”

The comprehensive, more nuanced approach has paid off. At a home league meet on April 22, Peck recorded a personal record in the javelin with a throw of 172 feet, 4 inches, putting him second in WIAA Class 2B, behind only NW Christian’s Colby Shamblin.

To Peck, it was a matter of technique and refinement and, this time, keeping the javelin flat.

“I’ve been really focusing on my run up and making sure that I’m giving myself enough distance to get the power that I want, so I can focus on my power output instead of my speed,” Peck said.

According to Athletic.net, Peck currently sits just outside of Rainier’s top five all-time in the javelin, two spots ahead of Jeremiah Nubbe’s best mark. He’s also tied for seventh all-time in the discus.

“It’s always a good thing to get a PR,” Peck said. “It just sets you up better for your practice that week, makes you feel more confident and makes me feel ready for next week. I’m really excited for our next little outing that we got.”

That’s because Peck is still looking to improve.

“That would be awesome if I could keep on pushing, keep on getting that number closer, like even if I just broke in the top five (of Rainier’s all-time throws in the javelin).

Peck has found other motivation from that “kid on the east side of the mountains,” Colby Shamblin.

“I want to start breaking some numbers, too,” Peck said.

Despite knowing he has “more in the tank” when it comes to breaking his own PR, Peck said his main concerns are consistency, growth, and staying technically sound, not worrying about statistics.

After all, Peck’s career won’t end at Rainier. He has accepted an offer to continue the javelin at St. Martin’s University in nearby Lacey. At one point, Peck didn’t think college athletics would be in his future. Instead, he thought he might attend Washington State University, where he had already been accepted.

“I was just going to focus on lifting, you know, getting stronger and just doing that for self-benefit,” Peck said.

But what he really wanted was to keep playing sports.

Then one day, earlier in the school year, “out of the blue,” Peck got a text message from head track coach John Schultz. Schultz expressed interest in having Peck throw for St. Martin’s.

The two kept in touch. After wrestling season, Schultz offered Peck an athletic scholarship.

Peck knew he couldn’t turn it down.

“Not a lot of people get to go into college and go do what they really want to do and do what they enjoy,” Peck said. “And I’m just really excited for it. It was really exciting and my parents and I were super happy when we first heard it and just getting to share that news with everyone because, like, it’s not just my success. It’s everybody else’s success. Like my parents and all the people around me who have supported me and helped me through the years just getting better and constantly trying to grow and getting to grow with other people.”

“You’re never just doing it by yourself,” Peck added. “It takes a village, man. It really does. And getting to do that with all those people and finally see that success come through has been absolutely incredible. And I have everybody to thank for that.”

The Rainier track and field team will compete again in the Spudder Track and Field Classic at Ridgefield High School on Friday, May 9.