Published on Show Me Mizzou Sept. 16, 2025
Story by Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92
At the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships in June, Valentina Barrios was in fifth place and down to her last attempt in the women’s javelin competition. She picked the perfect time to deliver the longest throw of her life — a heave of 203 feet, 5 inches — to win gold.
“She was the best technician in the field, and when the time came, it was like, ‘Hey, here’s your opportunity. Go win this thing,’” Mizzou Coach Bret Halter says. “And she did.”
That performance, along with Callan Saldutto’s third-place finish in the men’s javelin, was the culmination of a concerted effort to emphasize the event at Mizzou.
In college track and field, where rosters are large and scholarships are limited, athletes who can do multiple events indoors and outdoors are the most highly sought after. Javelin throwers don’t fit that mold. The event is held outdoors only, and javelin throwers compete sparingly — like starting pitchers in baseball — because it’s so taxing on the body.
Halter saw an opportunity to zig where the competition zagged and establish Mizzou as a destination for the javelin. It is the only event he coaches personally. Plus, Missouri is one of only 21 states that allows the javelin as a high school event, which provides Halter a good recruiting base.
“The javelin thrower feels a lot more valued here,” Halter says. “We’re just trying to keep it going: The Javelin Project.”
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