Travon Godette ’16 is spending the spring semester training for the Olympic trials for track and field in hopes he will qualify come July 1. If so, he’ll be headed to Eugene, Ore., for 10 days of intense competition.
“I have come a long way from my freshman year,” says Godette, who plans to take a graduate assistant job after graduation at McNeese University in Louisiana, where he will also be coaching javelin and pursuing his master’s in creative writing.
Last fall, Godette was only nine feet away from Olympic trials. “It’s not going to be easy, but that goal is more attainable so long as I continue to work hard,” he explains.
Even if he doesn’t make it, Godette’s had a strong run.
Last spring, he won the national championship for the javelin throw at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division Three National Championships for Track and Field.
Entering the meet as the top seed, Godette was able to get atop the leader board early and stay there the entire meet. His first throw was 67.5 meters and wasn’t topped by the rest of the field. The win makes Godette Westfield State’s first male national champion in track and field—and any University sport.
“Coach [Sean O’Brien] had told me that my first throw needed to be my most aggressive, and it worked out,” says Godette. “As soon as I let go of it, I knew it was out there, and I was confident in that throw.”
Also in 2015, Godette was named to the Division Three All-American team as well as the National Scholar-Athlete Award. He is only the fourth Westfield State javelin thrower to receive All-American honors and the first ever to receive the National Scholar-Athlete award.
