Senior looking to win back-to-back crowns

Jenn Brown stepped in for track coach Randy Heisler last week while his wife recovered from a seizure and surgery to remove a brain tumor. In Heisler's absence, Brown guided her teammates to season-best throws at Saturday's Hoosier Hills invite.\nBut Brown, a senior, will need her own guidance to repeat her Big Ten title and break her own conference record in the shot put this weekend in the Big Ten Championships at Purdue.\n"Skill-wise, Jenn's probably as good as any kid I've ever coached, male or female," said Heisler, the 2000 Big Ten track Coach of the Year. "Belief-wise in her skills, that's what's holding Jenn back. And Jenn knows that. Her ability is incredible."\nSo incredible that Brown has the sixth-farthest shot put throw -- 15.92 meters -- in the nation this year. So incredible she often throws as far as 60 feet in practice, which would have given her fifth place at last year's Olympic Trials, Heisler said. But she often falls short of such impressive marks at meets because of her lack of confidence.\n"I need to go in there confident," Brown said. "Last year I went in there a little nervous. I had a big first throw, which seemed to set the tone for everyone else. I just need to do the same as I did last year. I just need to go in there to win and get it over with on my first throw."\nBesides her personal tussle, Brown must overcome the nation's 10th-best shot putter, Aubrey Schmitt of Minnesota, to retain the Big Ten crown. In 1999, Schmitt won the indoor Big Ten title and placed second at the NCAA Championships. Last year, Schmitt lost to Brown in the shot put as Brown set the Big Ten record of 53 feet, seven inches. Schmitt has won the past three outdoor Big Ten titles.\n"She's pretty much been a thorn in Jenn's side the whole way through," junior Heather Colyer said. "Jenn's been wanting to beat her all the time, every time she's seen her. It didn't happen until last year."\nColyer finished third behind Brown and Schmitt in the shot put last year. Colyer's most recent success is a credit to Brown. Because Colyer wasn't throwing far using the spin technique this season, Heisler recently switched Colyer to the glide technique, which she mastered in high school.\nBrown has helped Colyer adjust. After her switch to the glide, Colyer had a season-best throw last week. Brown often gives Colyer encouragment. At a practice earlier this week, Brown instructed Colyer to keep her left foot down during the glide and praised Colyer when she tossed the shot put near the 15-meter mark.\nBecause of Brown's willingness to analyze her teammates, Heisler relied on her Saturday when his wife was ill. When Heisler read his team's season-best results from the Hoosier Hills Open in a newspaper, he telephoned Brown and got her out of bed.\n"I asked her, 'Are you trying to put me out of a job?'" Heisler joked. "She was very analytical about the whole thing. She said, 'We didn't really throw a great series, but everyone had a great throw,' and she went through everybody, person-by-person. I was really proud of her."\nBesides seeing Brown's potential as a throwing coach, Heisler, a 1988 Olympian, said Brown has a chance to qualify for the Olympic Trials, and even the Olympics. Heisler said Brown has come a long way since Ogden High School in St. Joseph, Ill., where she threw the shot put 10 feet shorter than she does now.\nBrown, who wasn't highly recruited at Ogden, has yet to crack into the top five in the NCAA Championships. Last year, she finished 10th in the shot put. She earned All-American status because one of the competitors ahead of her was a citizen of Canada.\nBrown knows what she needs to do to place higher at nationals and to win the shot put at the Big Ten meet again. So does Heisler. It's all about confidence. \nBrown's helped her coach and her teammates when they've needed her. Now she has to help herself.\n"I have all the confidence that when she steps into the ring and competes, there are very few people that can do what she can do," Heisler said.\n"I'd like to tell Jenn to go to Big Tens and throw 55 feet in the shot. She more than has the ability to do that. She does that, she'll win and smile going away"