Entering the 2026 Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships – which will take place on Saturday and Sunday hosted by Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind. – what once seemed like a pipe dream has become a realistic goal for Valparaiso University senior javelin thrower Brian Sponaugle (Milton, De. / Cape Henlopen) – win a Missouri Valley Conference title and qualify for the First Round of the NCAA Championships.
 
The path to the upper echelon of Missouri Valley Conference javelin throwers has been a unique one to say the least. When Sponaugle joined the program as a freshman in the fall of 2022, he did so as a distance runner.
 
"In high school, I played baseball, but I got away from that because I was really enjoying distance running and the individual growth that you can make within track & field and cross country," Sponaugle said. "My senior year of high school, I fully dedicated myself to that, and that allowed me to come to Valpo as a distance runner."
 
In October 2022, Sponaugle's first fall on campus, he nearly made the decision to walk away from cross country and track & field altogether, before Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Vincent Walker convinced him to stick it out.
 
"I felt impostor syndrome in terms of distance running at the college level; I was struggling to handle the mileage," Sponaugle said. "I ended up enjoying the rest of cross country season and had some PRs. During winter break, after I had a good training block, my foot started hurting. I was cross training all of January and February on the bike. I could not figure out what was wrong with my foot, but as long as I wasn't running distance, my foot was starting to feel better. One day at practice, I decided to try out throwing the javelin because I have that baseball background. Over spring break, I talked with the coaches about switching to multis."
 
Sponaugle did not compete during the spring of his freshman year, however he went on to compete in the multis during Spring 2024 and Spring 2025 as a sophomore and junior. In 2024, he had the fifth-best decathlon score in program history at 5,646 at the MVC Outdoor Championships. In 2025, he started the indoor season with the fourth-best heptathlon in program history and went on to post the third-best decathlon score in program history and second-best javelin throw in program history at the MVC Outdoor Championships.
 
"I really enjoyed doing the multis, however, I injured my Achilles in February of my junior year and had been training and competing throughout my junior year spring on an Achilles that hurt pretty bad," Sponaugle said. "Over the summer, I tried to get it right, but I couldn't. I decided that my best bet for my senior year was to focus on my best event, which was the javelin. I really worked hard at it. I was able to rehab my Achilles since I wasn't training for as many events."
 
Sponaugle won the javelin throw in three meets this season – Indiana State's Pacesetter Invite (April 3-4), the Tennessee Invite (April 10-11) and the University of Illinois' Gary Wieneke Memorial. During the meet hosted by the Illini, he threw a PR of 63.59 meters (208-7), a mark that ranked in the top 100 nationally.
 
Less than half of the states in the country feature the javelin throw as part of the high school track & field itinerary, and Sponaugle's native Delaware is not one of them.
 
"I had never heard about the javelin throw," he said. "I could only imagine becoming an 800 runner because that was my bread and butter in high school. Javelin throw is under represented. I've done a lot of looking back at videos, analyzing professionals and learning about what it takes to get better at overhead throwing sports."
 
Sponaugle could enter rare air this weekend as he hopes to become Valpo's second MVC champion in men's track & field and first since Alexandra Bruno at the 2020 Indoor Championships. If he qualified for the NCAA First Round, he would be the first member of the program to achieve that feat since Jacob Smutz in 2016.
 
"Going into this week, I've got to feel as healthy as possible," Sponaugle said. "I've been working hard the last few weeks to tune up my block and every part of the throw. I've been working on getting my nervous system primed to throw a big PR. This weekend means a lot to me because I started off as an average distance runner and an average decathlete. I've been through a lot to get to this point."
 
Sponaugle won't be in attendance to accept his diploma at Saturday's Valpo graduation ceremony, as the ceremony will take place at precisely the same time as the javelin throw at the MVC Outdoor Championships in Terre Haute. He will receive his degree in biomedical engineering and has interest in pursuing mechanical engineering research as he is interested in solar energies. He is weighing his options between using his fifth year of track & field eligibility or entering the workforce.
 
"Brian might be one of the only guys who has run an NCAA Regional in the 10k and is knocking on the door of winning a conference title in the javelin," Walker said. "The crazy thing about the javelin is that it just takes one. With a lot of those field events that are so technical, if you have just the right release angle and your block is just perfect and you catch the wind just right, you can go from being a 63-meter javelin thrower to a 68-meter javelin thrower. He's done really well with his progress throughout the season. He started off working from a short approach and he came out of the gates swinging at Raleigh. Now as he's built through the season, he's built out his full approach and is ready to line up that big one. He's got it in there. You can see it with the way he trains and the way he carries himself. He is truly something special to watch and we're very fortunate to have him at Valpo. He's a leader in the program as well, and he's just scratching the surface of what he is capable of."