Koch Ready To Be Latest Eagle Thrower To Make Nationals Mark

Ashland University sophomore Noah Koch has qualified for NCAA Division II nationals before.
 
He has been an All-American before.
 
Now, coming into the 2022 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Thursday-Saturday (May 26-28) in Allendale, Mich., Koch has the opportunity to join a long list of Eagle throwers to become the best at their respective events.
 
"Pretty excited. Excited to go in two events," Koch noted. "Last year, I only went in the disc. It feels pretty good."
 
Koch will compete in the discus throw and the shot put at outdoor nationals, and is the No. 2 seed in the discus throw – narrowly surpassed by Texas A&M-Commerce freshman Moaz Ibrahim, 58.07 meters/190-feet-6 to 58.03 meters/190-feet-4.
 
"I just have to do what I've been doing and trust my training," Koch said of the potential of winning a discus national title. "That was something Jud (Logan) thought I could do and kind of expected me to do. I want that to happen."
 
What got Koch into the national meet in the shot put was a last-chance distance of 17.97 meters/58-feet-11½ at Baldwin Wallace's Harrison Dillard Twilight.
 
"I went to have fun. I didn't have anything to lose," said Koch. "I felt really good, and had a good group with me. If I didn't make it, I didn't make it, and if I made it, I made it. I was kind of loose."
 
It hasn't taken long for Koch to become one of the top throwers in D-II. As a freshman in 2020-21, he was 10^th indoors in the men's weight throw, but then earned his first All-American honor outdoors by placing seventh in the discus.
 
"I definitely wasn't super-thrilled how it ended, but you've always got to get the first one," said Koch of last year's outdoor nationals. "It was a really cool experience. Getting the first one's always exciting, but you want to get more."
 
At the most recent D-II indoor nationals, Koch finished 15^th in the men's weight throw – more than two months after Logan passed away.
 
"I remember the good times that we had with Jud, and just know that he knew I could do way more than I thought I was capable of doing," Koch said. "One thing Jud always said was to have fun with it."
 
Koch was recruited by Logan coming out of Genoa Area High School.
 
"Being at a smaller school, he just saw something in me that I didn't know I could do," Koch said. "He just knew that I could be someone who could compete really well in all three events."
 
It's one thing to be an All-American on the field of competition. It's another to be an Academic All-American. And Koch wants to be both before his days as an Eagle are over.
 
"I really want both," he said. "The academic thing was more of a personal goal, because coming out of high school, I had a lot of things going on as a young kid. Grades were not that important to me.
 
"But now that I have more time on my hands and kind of out in the world on my own, I can do it and really focus on my school work. I definitely want to have both, for sure, but the academic would be like the cherry on top."
 
Heading into his fourth nationals meet in two years, Koch continues to strive to fulfill what Logan saw in him.
 
"He was someone that was like, 'I know you can do way more than what you think you can do,'" said Koch. "There's some business to take care of."