Mackenzie makes her mark

Three weeks ago Mackenzie Huber was getting ready to compete at the biggest stage of her young athletic career.

Only a freshman at UW-Stout, Huber distinguished herself during the indoor track and field season, placing second in the shot put at the WIAC Indoor Conference Championships on Feb. 28-29.

As swift as her rise to the top has been, so too was what happened next. Like a bad dream, Huber discovered that her season was over before it truly begun.

She was warming up at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the NCAA D-III Indoor National Championships set to start later that day.

That’s when she heard the news, that with the coronavirus sweeping through the country, her season was over.

“It was devastating,” Huber says, describing that day. “We were practicing at the track, and then later that day it was all called off. It was the most insane 48 hours of my life - being away from home, at a meet I’ve never been to, and then this happens. It was so crazy.”

Huber attempted to put into words all the emotions she’s felt since coming to terms with the fact that her promising freshman campaign is over.

“It feels like all the work you put in doesn’t really pay for anything,” Huber says with disappointment. “But you have to try and stay optimistic and look forward to next year and next season.”

With all the uncertainty surrounding her, Huber is doing what she can to find some sense of normalcy. It isn’t easy for Huber, who like all students across Wisconsin, was sent home, forced to complete classes online.

“Right now I’m just trying to keep the same schedule that I had in college,” Huber says. “So I’m just trying to get up early and lift in the morning and find a routine.”

Those mornings in the gym are a lot harder by herself, with no teammates or coaches to push and encourage her, but Huber clings to the hope that by next year everything will be OK.

“I think it’s important to know that this isn’t going to be a forever thing,” Huber says. “This is only temporary so we need to stay focused until this time passes and we’ll all be back together.”

Huber is hardly sitting idle. She’s approached her furlough as an opportunity to grow stronger. Now that she’s had a taste of success, she’s vowed to come back better than before in 2021.

“Without competitions we don’t have to taper as much so this is really a time that I can work more on lifting heavier weights and practicing. It’s like a bonus weight-lifting season.”

Making a name

The fact that Huber was even in North Carolina, competing for a national championship as a freshman, is a testament to her natural talent and work ethic.

The meet was a far cry from Huber’s humble beginnings as a student and track star at Colby High. In her first year with the Hornets’ track and field team, Huber put up decent numbers, but nothing to suggest she could become an All-American or win an NCAA title.

“To be honest, the thought of being a college athlete then never crossed my mind,” Huber admits. “Coming into my freshman year, I don’t even think I broke 32 feet. That’s not anything special, that wasn’t outstanding for a freshman.”

But by her sophomore year Huber had added several feet to her personal bests in the shot put and discus. She made even more noise when she won the Cloverbelt title in the shot put that year.

Things really began to take off during her junior year. Not only did Huber defend her conference title in the shot put, she smashed her personal best by over three feet. Two weeks later she earned her first trip to the WIAA state meet in La Crosse, placing eighth.

“Junior year, it just really hit me that I have potential if I keep going, and I started getting scouted by all these colleges.”

Threre were several NCAA D-II schools, as well as private colleges in Wisconsin, but Huber was drawn to the WIAC - a conference that routinely churns out national champions, and even Olympians.

MARK A hard decision

Huber continued to pile up the accolades her senior year at Colby, defending her Cloverbelt shot put title for a third straight year. Along the way she set a new school record, cracking 41 feet, and capped her prep career with a runner-up result at the state meet.

“It definitely built my confidence, knowing that against all these people at state, with the crowds and the atmosphere, that I could do this,” Huber said. “I really started to believe in myself at the end of that senior year.”

With her prep career over, Huber had to make the difficult choice about who she wanted to compete for. She chose to stay close to home, selecting UW-Stout in Menomonie, just an hour from Colby.

“I just really liked Stout, I liked the location,” Huber said. “I got to know the throwing coach [Kody Zahrte], he’d come to some of my meets. I just really felt comfortable.”

Huber was at peace with her decision, but despite feeling comfortable at UWStout, her first meets were nerve-wracking affairs.

The choice to come to UW-Stout was over, but the transition from Colby to college was hardly a smooth ride.

“For four years at Colby I didn’t really have competition,” Huber explained. She enjoyed winning, but she longed to test herself against the best.

“I liked that, I mean who doesn’t like winning, but when I got to college I did have a lot of competition and at first I didn’t know how to handle it. It was really overwhelming and I began to wonder if I was ever going to get back to the top.”

Not only was the competition intense, but Huber found the vastness and pressure of college meets disorientating.

“I was definitely very intimidated, and when I feel intimidated I can’t get myself out of that, Huber stated. “I don’t compete the way I should. So the first couple of meets were very hard and I wasn’t throwing great.”

Huber began to doubt herself and her abilities, but she fell back on the support of coaches and teammates “They reminded me that it was one step at a time, and I had this huge goal of getting to nationals and making national marks back in January. I was just so overwhelmed at every meet to throw better.”

With the support of her teammates and coach, Huber overcame her doubts and set to work with a will, focusing on getting better by small increments.

“It was those little goals, not a foot further but an inch or ten centimeters that made me feel like I was making progress.”

Huber began to see those results in the weight room first, tying the Blue Devils’ freshman records for the most weight moved at bench press and in the squat.

“Coming in, I didn’t know that there was such a thing as freshmen records,” Huber said. “Once I found out there were freshman records it gave me a little more motivation.”

Unfortunately for Huber she won’t have the chance to set new freshman milestones because of COVID-19, but the numbers she put up were incredibly encouraging. They led her to wonder what other records she could match - or beat.

As Huber’s strength grew so did her throwing power. She soon began to set new school records in the indoor weighted throw and indoor shot put events.

It was a remarkable transformation, going from nerves and doubts to a force to be reckoned with. Huber had gone from intimidated, to intimidator.

“There’s a lot of people this year that are already kinda scared of me as a freshman,” Huber says almost incredulously. “This year I placed second at a college level and advanced to nationals, and if nationals would have happened I would have been trying for All-American.”

Those might seem like unrealistic goals for a freshman, but for Huber those goals were definitely within reach. Her second place at the WIAC Indoor Track and Field Championship in the shot put came courtesy of a personal-best throw of 45-feet, 7.75-inches.

That mark was fourth on the UWStout all-time indoor shot put list, and first on the school’s all-time freshman list by more than two feet.

After her initial slow start, Huber has been the very spirit of consistency, throwing the shot more than 41 feet in every meet she has competed in, and exceeding 45 feet in her last two meets.

Her efforts earned her the ninth seed going into the NCAA D-III Indoor Championships at Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It also earned her another unique honor - WIAC Newcomer of the Year.

“At first I thought it was just at Stout because you see all the awards that they give out, like “Athlete of the Week”, and then I found out it was throughout the whole WIAC conference,” Huber said.

“That was crazy, to think that out of every single freshman in the whole conference, I was chosen for this award. It just drives me to work harder because I earned it.”

Looking forward

Huber has a renewed sense of purpose, and though she won’t be competing for a national championship this season, the success she has tasted only makes her hungry for more.

She’s gone from small town Colby to the cusp of college stardom. She knows bigger things lie ahead, but she remembers her roots, and carries Colby with her wherever she goes.

“I would say, being from Colby, I feel like people don’t think as much of me since I am from such a small town. I showed them that there’s a ton of talent in a small town,” Huber said. “Seeing what I did this year has me so excited for next year. I’m going to come back stronger, and throw better and throw further.”