Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/317739
GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 28 • 22 other guys," throws coach Kevin McBride said. "It doesn't hurt him as bad in the hammer as it does in the shot put, but still in both events he has to do things a little bit more cleanly, ex- ecute it more prop- erly than some of the bigger guys who can just work their way through those posi- tions." Enekwechi calls his workouts "asi- nine," but while they might not be quite that absurd, they do border on extreme. He and roommate Coy Blair, a soph- omore who competes in shot put, study ceaseless YouTube video, scouting out what others are doing to get better. The two have endless scrib- bles of notes, jotting down tips or techniques they've picked up over the years, logged into piles of notebooks. They take that knowledge onto the track, or weight room, or where ever else they feel they can get work in. Blair, who finished just be- hind his roommate for third place in the shot at the outdoor, admits that even he can't always keep up. "I'll be over in the corner almost dead and he's still truck- ing," Blair said. "Coach is like 'OK, bring it down a little bit.' And he's like 'No.' "Every rep he takes is better than the last one. Natural gifts isn't enough to talk about be- cause everything he has he has worked for. He doesn't have the size that I do, but he truly works for everything he has."' It's created an athletic freak. Enekwechi says he "doesn't like to brag," but the numbers do speak for themselves. "I've jumped on a 60- inch box (from standing)," the 245-pounder said, "squatted 800 pounds to parallel, benched 460, behind- the-neck jerked 405 for three reps, leg-pressed 1,500, broad-jumped 11 feet. … It seems like stuff you'd see at an NFL Com- bine, or something like that, but it's necessary for me to hang with the big- ger guys." "It's insanely impres- sive," McBride said. "He's in the elite class of weight lifters, so being able to push himself like that in the weight room just gives him more strength out here in the ring. If he can get it all to transition out here, he's go- ing to be that much better." That's the thing, Enekwechi is relatively young in his devel- opment. He picked up track only as a sophomore at Francis Lewis High School, when the track coach beat out the wrestling coach for his services. "In New York City, normally they would just go for kids that were biggest, and biggest for me meant a little gut on me," Enekwechi said. "I wasn't obese, but a soft-built kid, about 5-10, 205, never lifted a weight. He saw a fat kid and said 'Hey, let's try shot put.' "I just needed something to invest in, and track is one of those sports where you're never satisfied, there's never a point value or a distance where you're like, 'That was it,' unless you've won everything you've ever done, which doesn't happen. So I think that being unsatisfied is what led me to throwing big in big meets." Enekwechi had high school success, winning an indoor state title as a senior and other league championships through the years. But he was still technically raw when he came to Purdue in 2012. The season of training helped. "Physical maturity and men- tal maturity came that redshirt year," he said. "I felt like I was a new person from when I showed up in West Lafayette to when it was time to do that season opener at home. I had grown a lot in that one year." Now, Enekwechi feels he's in position to challenge at the NCAAs next month in Eugene, Ore., after likely qualifying next week in Jacksonville, Fla. He's risen before in big meets and hopes to again. "Let's make the (NCAA) fi- nals and see what we can do," McBride said. "I think his expec- tation is every meet that he goes to he wants to win. He's got that kind of talent and he's building on those kind of things. Is he there yet? Not necessarily. It's going to take a remarkable day for him to beat some of those guys because they are really, re- ally talented. And some of them have been doing it for five to 10 years longer than he has." j "He's in the elite class of weight lifters, so being able to push himself like that in the weight room just gives him more strength out here in the ring." Throws coach Kevin McBride on sophomore Chuk Enekwechi Purdue Enekwechi (right) finished second in the shot put in the Big Ten outdoor meet, behind Penn State's Darrell Hill (middle) and ahead of teammate and roommate Coy Blair.