Remember the Titans

A 2019 Mercer County Senior High graduate, Meghan Owens continued her track and field career past high school with the Centre College Colonels. 

Owens comes from a track and field family as both her parents competed in college. Her mother, Lisa Owens, is the cross country/track and field coach at Centre College. She first competed in the javelin throw at 13 years old and in her first event, The Bluegrass State Games, she not only won, but broke the competition record by 30 feet. 

The javelin event at the high school level of track and field has been banned for decades in most states including Kentucky. Due to previous incidents and safety concerns, schools did away with the event. This didn’t slow down Owens who competed unattached from a school in the AAU and USATF circuits around the country. In her high school career, she won eight national championships, was a five time All-American, two time USATF Outdoor Championship participant, Kentucky USATF Female Track Field Event Athlete of the Year, International Champion for the US Youth team and was invited to be a member of the Olympic Development program Project Javelin Gold. Owens was able to represent Mercer once in javelin with special permission from the school to throw in the Penn Relays meet in Philadelphia. She also threw discus for a few meets to help earn Mercer some points at the state track competition. With a record distance of 156-10 in javelin, Owens had Division I offers, but chose Centre because she appreciated the family aspect of a Division III team and preferred a smaller college. 

Owens, who was known for being a “Spear Chucking Enthusiast,” developed the hobby of long distance running in local 5Ks. Going into her freshman year of college, she tried out for the cross country team, even though the head coach and her mother, advised against it since it would be counter intuitive to Javelin. Her freshman year she joined the cross country team and it took some adjusting to. Owens spent her quarantine time training to get better at XC and long distance running in general.  She went on to compete in the 5k and 10k events for the Centre track and field team, while  still throwing javelin. 

Now in her junior year, Owens has hit her stride coming off her third straight Southern Athletic Association championship as a member of the cross country team, member of the All-SAA first team and being named the SAA runner of the year. On the track and field side, she placed first in the 5K, 10K and javelin events at the 2021 SAA Track and Field Championship. Owens has been able to juggle two of the most different events,  one requiring a lot of upper body muscle to throw long distance and the other requiring tons of stamina and is better suited for people with less muscle mass. 

Owens describes javelin “like a car crash” and long distance running as a “mental battle more than anything.” At the collegiate level it is hard enough to be good at one event, Owens has found a way to excel and win at both. 

Her goals, as of now, are to qualify for nationals in the 5K, 10K and javelin events for track and field while also finishing in an All American position for cross country. They are lofty goals, but Owens has dominated competition since her first javelin event at age 13.

Outside of her two sports, she is working on pursuing a psychology degree with a minor in sociology that could end up being a double major. She has also made the SAA Academic honor roll in 2019 and 2020. She plans on finishing her degree and four years of athletic eligibility at Centre. All collegiate athletes were given one more year of eligibility due to many sports losing a season because of COVID, so Owens plans on using her’s at grad school while pursuing a masters in psychology.