By Jack Pfiefer // Photo by Rick Russell

EUGENE, Ore. – Chuk Enekwechi, a regular at the Armory for four years in the shot and weight when he was attending Francis Lewis High School in Queens, is gearing up for another NCAA Championships here at Hayward Field.

Enekwechi, a fourth-year junior, majoring in sociology, at Purdue, is competing in his sixth NCAA meet – three indoors, three outdoors. He’s had an excellent outdoor season in the hammer, culminating with his upset victory over Michael Lihrman of Wisconsin in the Big 10 Championships, where he threw a lifetime-best 238-9, his fourth hammer PR of the spring. Lihrman is reigning NCAA indoor champ in the weight and is one of the favorites here, along with Connor McCullough of USC.

Enekwechi was not buying being an underdog. “Anything can happen,” he said.

Enekwechi has had more success in the weight than the hammer thus far. He has finished 3^rd three years in a row in the NCAA indoor championships with the 35-pounder. Outdoors he has finished 14^th and 10^th in the hammer, 14^th and 13^th in the shot.

The men’s hammer will be the first final of these championships, beginning at 1:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday. Enekwechi is in the first flight along with two other New Yorkers, Rudy Winkler, a redshirt freshman at Cornell, and Alec Faldermeyer, a fifth-year senior at UCLA.

Internationally, Enekwechi announced that he has decided to represent Nigeria, his parents’ homeland, rather than his birthplace, the United States, saying that he feels he has more opportunity that way. /JP/

Watch our interview with Chuk Enekwechi: armory.tf/1QM5jL1