GENEVA, Ohio — A year after recording a school record-setting throw of 46.65 meters in placing second at least year's national championships — the highest individual finish in program history — Saint Mary's University's reigning All-American Anna Swanson (Osceola, Wis.) was hoping for a repeat performance Thursday afternoon.
 
Unfortunately, Swanson's second straight NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championships didn't end quite the way she had hoped.
 
Needing a mark of more than 38.50 meters in her final preliminary throw to qualify for the finals, Swanson came up short, managing a mark of 35.84 meters to finish 18th overall.
 
Swanson, owner of the nation's ninth-longest throw heading into the national championships — a throw of 42.99 meters at the Texas Relays on March 24 — was the seventh competitor in the second flight Thursday afternoon. And by the time she delivered her initial attempt, five of the first six throws of the flight had cracked the 40-meter barrier.
 
In other words, it was an uphill climb from start-to-finish for the Cardinal superstar.
 
Swanson posted a throw of 33.94 in her first try and fouled in her second, before closing out her championships with her best throw of the afternoon, a mark of 35.84.
 
Ava Nelson of Pacific Lutheran won the javelin national title with a throw of 45.94 meters, followed by Chrissy Strickland of George Fox (44.6m) and Rebecca Simpson of Buena Vista (44.19m).