Junior Pete Flacco, a Westmont native and graduate of Eastern Regional High School, began his Monmouth University career in style Friday, throwing 206-0 in the javelin at the 49er Classic at the Irwin Belk Track and Field Center in Charlotte, N.C.
That’s less than 3 1/2 feet off his career-best throw.
Competing in his first first career meet for a Division 1 school, Flacco qualified for the IC4A championships at Princeton in May.
Flacco opened with a 195-6 and followed with his 206-0, which earned him fifth place in a field of Division 1 and post-collegiate throwers.
He fouled on his third and sixth throws but added two more 200-footers on his fourth and fifth throws, a 203-8 and a 204-4.
Flacco was a two-time NJCAA junior college Division III national champion in the javelin competing for Rowan College / Gloucester County in Deptford (former Gloucester County College) and last year was named U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Field Event Performer of the Year.
Flacco has a PR of 209-4 1/2 set last year when he won the JUCO nationals at Howard Community College in Columbia, Md.
But he was a late bloomer, throwing over 170 feet just once in high school, a 180-9 that got him fifth at the 2015 Meet of Champions after he got in as a wild-card with an eighth-place finish at the state Group 4 meet.
Flacco didn’t surpass 151 feet in the javelin until his senior year at Eastern.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 