University of Richmond Athletics
Spider Track & Field Coach Angela Bertholdt Competes At USATF Nationals
03/14/2003 | Women's Track & Field
March 14, 2003
By Ken Castro, The Narragansett Times-Wakefield Rhode Island
ROXBURY, MA - In the hyper-competitive arena of world class track & field, the US National Championship is as good as it gets on home soil.
With that in mind, America's top indoor athletes came to Boston last weekend for their annual extravaganza. At stake, in addition to the bragging rights of being a United States champion, was a pair of slots, a chance to represent Team USA at the upcoming World Championships in England. In front of 3,152 fans, at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center and countless more via a live ESPN2 broadcast, on Saturday night, the Ocean State was well represented .
Bertholdt sixth in shot
Imagine going to work and performing your daily tasks within the confines of circle roughly eight feet in diameter.
Angela Bertholdt does just that. To complicate matters, the former University of Rhode Island multi-event athlete performs such tasks within close quarters of many of the word's premier athletes.
Bertholdt, currently in her fourth year as an assistant coach at the University of Richmond hit the final leg of USA Track and Field's Golden Spike Tour on Sunday at the US National Championships. Competing in the shot put, Bertholdt, a native of East Greenwich placed sixth with a throw of 51-2 1/4 (15.60m). A year ago she placed fifth at Nationals. Her throw on Sunday in front of 3,081 track fans, was her second best mark of the indoor season.
"I was ready, I didn't perform the way I felt," she said, moments before being shuttled off to a mandatory drug test by USA Track and Field officials. "I don't think that my nerves got to me, I just started feeling more fatigued as the meet went on. I tried getting back to it but I just let my technique go down." Bertholdt, utilizing the glide in the ring, stepped out of her first throw in the series. "That got me a little nervous but the second throw was my best. After that I stopped thinking about the things I needed to and that's my fault. I know that's my biggest problem right now - my technique." Bertholdt said.
Recovering from the foul, Bertholdt stretched the tape out to her best mark of the afternoon on her second attempt.
"I thought I was going to make a big throw happen. But it's still my second best indoor throw," she said. Fifth place finisher Ashley Dorey, despite having four fouls in the competition, edged Bertholdt on one of her two legal throws.
Bertholdt has expressed no desire to go back to the multis, like the five-event pentathlon or the seven event heptathlon wars, Such exploits that made her one of the most decorated Ram track and field athletes. On two occasions, over her four-year collegiate career, Bertholdt, who graduated in 1996, was crowned as the New England NCAA Champion in both the heptathlon and the pentathlon. She owns both Rhody records in the aforementioned events.
"The older I get the more sore I get," she laughed. "Two years out of college, I did a multi event at Dartmouth College and I was sore for like a week."
As for the shot, Bertholdt explained, "I didn't like doing just one event. But as I starting getting better at shot I had to focus all my attention and that hasn't been hard. I just put a lot more pressure on myself to do well. But that's fine, I don't mind that."
Now Bertholdt is headstrong in her desire for Richmond's track & field athletes to achieve the same success that she enjoyed.. In addition to keeping a sharp eye on the Spider throwers, pole valulters and high jumpers, Bertholdt, URI's track MVP from 1994 to 1996, is also the strength and conditioning coach for the women's soccer team. Bertholdt has also cultivated a reputation as a top-notch recruiter for her program.
"It's been great. College coaching is fun," she stated. Every now and then I get to throw with the kids, but obviously my first priority is the coaching. Sometimes it's hard because I'd like to make throwing a bigger part of my life. Each year I make a few more sacrifices. I have to be a little more disciplined. I know the potential is there, that keeps me motivated."
