Kristen Zortman, with javelin in hand. (Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News)
Of JPL and javelin propulsion
Speeding down a track runway with a javelin in her hand, Kristen Zortman
‘05 probably doesn’t fit many people’s image of a rocket
scientist.
In fact, the 22-year-old senior is both a track-and-field star and a
future rocket scientist. Last weekend, while waiting to hear whether she’ll
land her dream job at JPL, Zortman was hurling the javelin at the NCAA
Division III track-and-field national championship in Waverly, Iowa.
The first Caltech undergrad to compete in the nationals in nearly a decade,
Zortman placed 14th in a field of 19. Although she would have liked to
do better, she notes that she rose several notches from her entry ranking
(18th). And any disappointment she felt was offset by the sheer excitement
of being there, as well as the support from family, friends, and strangers.
“I really enjoyed it,” she says, describing the stadium packed
with cheering spectators and having “so many experiences that I
wouldn’t have anywhere else.” She was “a little nervous”
stepping onto the runway: “I looked out on the field and thought,
‘Wow, this one’s really important. I hope it’s a good
one!’”
Afterward, the smiles and praise from her father—who drove from
Wisconsin to see Zortman throw for the first time—and from track
coach Julie Levesque “made me feel happy more than the actual finish.”
She was also touched by the many congratulatory e-mails she received,
some from people she’d never met, including Caltech coaches and
Administrative Technology Center staff member Erin Lindsay, a former javelin
thrower.
Zortman’s qualifying throw of 40.84 meters set a Caltech record
for women, and is the Institute’s best throw since Philip Conley
‘56 set the men’s record of 244 feet, one inch, and went on
to the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Recently named Caltech’s
outstanding athlete of the year, Zortman has also lettered for three years
on the varsity volleyball team, and played first base on the men’s
baseball team her freshman and sophomore years. (A state championship
softball player in high school, she had to convert to baseball at Caltech,
which currently has no women’s softball team.)
Levesque eventually spotted her running the 100-meter dash at an intramural
event, and talked her into joining the track-and-field team. Since the
baseball and track seasons overlap, Zortman chose to focus on track. The
javelin emerged as her best event, one for which Levesque thinks she is
well suited physically and temperamentally.
“The javelin is all about technique,” says Levesque, a three-time
all-American at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo who finished second in the nationals
in the heptathlon, which includes the javelin. “If you try to throw
a javelin far or throw it hard, it usually doesn’t go far.”
Although as an aerospace engineer Zortman can wax technical on how a
javelin flies, she says her training isn’t really an advantage,
as might be assumed. “You have to remember that the javelin throw
is not a power event like the shot put or hammer throw,” she says.
“The javelin is a lot more technique because it’s not a big,
heavy thing—it’s a light thing that interacts with the air.
So it has flight dynamics, but I think lots of practice will get you farther
than knowing lots about flight.”
Zortman says her motivations are primarily confidence-building and nurturing
her competitive nature. “The excitement of competing is enough for
me, but it’s also nice to see myself improving week by week.”
As for whether javelin throwing impresses the guys, she says that her
fiancé, for one, thinks it’s “pretty cool.”
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