Heritage track athlete headed to area, prepping for decathlon

It’s not often you find a discus and shot man running 110m hurdles and pole vaulting.

Meet Jager Mundheim at Colleyville Heritage High School.

Mundheim recently finished third in the district track and field meet’s discus event, which qualifies him to compete at the area round meet at Coppell this week.

He also competed in the 110m hurdles and shot put but failed to place high enough to move on.

His personal best throw in the discus is 134 feet. He’s hoping to hit a new personal record of 145 feet in the area meet.

In high school circles, the combination of runner and thrower is a bit rare, but for those athletic enough to compete in the decathlon, it’s not quite such an oddity.

Mundheim, in addition to training for the area meet with hopes to finish in the top four and move on to the regional meet, is also working out on more surfaces than just the concrete circle.

The sophomore, who also plays tight end for the Panthers football team, is preparing for the upcoming Texas Greatest Athlete competition.

The TGA event will be 10 competitions over two days at St. Mark’s School in Dallas on June 4-5.

TGA is an opportunity for high school athletes to put their skills to the test in front of coaches – and likely college recruiters – to see how they stack up.

Mundheim said his father, T.J. Mundheim, who attended Grapevine, competed as a decathlete at Texas Tech after a neck injury ended his football playing days. The elder Mundheim’s discus record at Tech stood for 12 years.

Mundheim said his father inspired him to try the decathlon and go beyond his ability to heave the discus and shot.

Thus far, Mundheim said his 40 time is 4.8 and his 200m best is 23.4.

In the decathlon, though, the first day will consist of the high jump, shot put, 100m dash, long jump and the 400m. Day 2 becomes brutal with the 110 hurdles, discus, javelin, pole vault and 1500m run on the agenda.

This will be his first decathlon, although he said he’s been contemplating it since middle school but fluke injuries have kept him from competing.

“I’ll be learning as well as competing,” Mundheim said.

The training is difficult for many reasons.

Obviously, just trying to find time to train for 10 different events in addition to special focus on his discus is one concern. The issue of coordinating his workouts with different coaches can be a logistical nightmare.

Also, whether to lift for building strength versus maintaining his speed can be a dilemma, as well.

“It’s tough to balance,” he said, “getting stronger but also not putting on too much weight to slow myself down.”

At 6-1, 180, it takes a bit of finesse to get over the high jump or pole vault bar.

Mundheim admits the familiarity of the discus makes it his favorite event and an opportunity to collect a lot of placement points.

“I like the discus a lot and I like to run, too,” Mundheim said. “I’m better suited for multi-events.”

Mundheim also welcomes other athletes to step out of their comfort zone and scope of competing.

“I encourage anyone who wants to be a multi-eventer to come try it out,” he said.

This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Heritage track athlete headed to area, prepping for decathlon."