Unlikely success story

High school track and field in Indiana lacks a few of the events that are done on the college level. One of these events is the javelin. That is why it is odd to have a javelin thrower at IU who graduated from Bloomington North High School. Yet this Hoosier ranks among the conference's best even though he did not throw in high school.\nJunior Pat Miller is in his third season and hoping to have a great year after two surprising seasons. \nIn high school Miller participated in several sports, such as basketball and cross country. His senior year he decided to go out for the track team, where he was a long jumper and a high jumper. He had only begun throwing the javelin the summer before the start of his freshman year at IU with the Indiana track club. Miller walked on to the IU track team because he had been so active in athletics in high school and wanted to get involved in something here. \n"He dabbled with (the javelin) over the summer in a track club," coach Randy Heisler said. "We simplified it, and he caught on."\nIn his freshman year he finished 10th in the Big Ten. The first season he learned the fundamentals of throwing the javelin. The next season Miller improved nearly 25 feet on his personal best. That improvement moved him up to third all-time for IU in the event. It also helped him earn a seventh-place finish in the Big Ten Championships. \nCoach Heisler and Miller have plans to take home a Big Ten Championship this season. The key will be avoiding injury since throwing the javelin puts enormous stress on the body. In the first meet of the season at Arizona State University, Miller had one of the best throws of his career (60.05 meters). The toss was just outside of the NCAA provisional mark of 67 meters.\n"He was five meters off so he will have to improve a little bit," coach Marshall Goss said. "We are looking for a 20-meter improvement from the first day of throwing, so we will see what happens."\nBooks are also important to Miller, as he was named Academic All-Big Ten last season. He is majoring in business process management, computer information systems and finance. The thrower is on a partial academic scholarship, so he has to hit the books hard. \n"Grades are very important," Miller said. "I take my grades seriously, and with my three majors I have to"