EUGENE — Before every hammer throw, Jeremiah Nubbe points to the sky as he steps into the ring.
The University of Virginia senior and 2022 Rainier High School graduate didn’t always start his routine with the point, signaling where he aims to launch the 16-pound metal ball on a wire.
But following a conversation with 2024 Olympic hammer champion and two-time world champion Ethan Katzberg, Nubbe adjusted his method.
Not a bad person to take advice from.
More than anything else, the point to the sky is a symbol of Nubbe’s newfound consistency in the hammer throw, an event he picked up as a freshman in high school. When he enters the ring, no matter the scale of the meet, his routine is identical in order to ground himself before each attempt.
Sky point, turn around, squat down with the hammer dangling from his left hand, two swings around the head, and four rotations before the release.
That consistency led Nubbe to his best finish at the NCAA Outdoor National Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Wednesday afternoon, placing fourth to earn First Team All-America honors. Nubbe’s best throw of the day traveled 72.52 meters — or 237 feet, 11 inches — and all six of his attempts sailed 70 meters or further. He was the only thrower to accomplish that.
“It means a lot. To some degree, it gives me a lot of validation to all the training and hard work that I’ve put in,” Nubbe said. “Even though it wasn’t a personal best day for me, there were a lot of really good mental components and it was a really good series overall.”
Moments after the hammer throw competition was completed, Nubbe walked through the tunnel to the podium for the first time in his outdoor career. As a freshman at the University of Texas in 2023, he couldn’t make it out of the West Regional first round. He earned a trip to the finals as a sophomore in 2024 but narrowly missed out on a spot on the podium, finishing ninth.
After transferring to the University of Virginia prior to the 2024-25 school year, Nubbe missed most of the outdoor season due to a lower back injury. The 2026 campaign has been his best yet, as he won the ACC hammer title and took first in the East Regional first round on May 27. Nubbe reached a new personal record of 73.76 meters at the Penn Relays Carnival on April 23.
Consistency had been somewhat of a struggle for the Rainier legend in the past couple of seasons, especially returning from his injury last spring. But Nubbe has honed in on his mental approach, and the proof is in the pudding with six throws over 70 meters on the biggest stage.
“I’ve competed so many times this outdoor season that I’ve really locked in how to compete and consistently get that average up,” Nubbe said. “Maybe that average didn’t quite peak with a 75- or 76-meter throw, but it’s a really good indicator of where my head is at and being able to consistently compete every throw.”
The season-ending injury was a novel experience for Nubbe, and it taught him how to “start from zero” mentally and technically. Some of his best throws of his career came during his time in a Longhorns uniform, but the consistency in his marks from meet to meet was far from where he expected them to be.
“I didn’t have those far throws all the time. It was all over the place,” Nubbe said. “Making things the same and that consistency have made me able to throw well at a meet like this. I’d rather be consistently building rather than only hot or only cold.”
Nubbe’s impressive collegiate career has followed an unforgettable career at Rainier High School, where he broke the state discus record and still holds the 2B state meet record in that event. In his prep career, he won two state discus titles, two state hammer titles, an outdoor national title in hammer and a state shotput title.
Hayward Field has historically brought the best out of Nubbe across his career, as he won the discus and hammer titles at both the Oregon Relays and the Nike Outdoor Nationals as a senior in high school. He now has two top-10 collegiate finishes in the hammer throw in Eugene.
“It’s always a privilege and an honor to compete in this incredible facility, and I’ve had a lot of really great moments and really rough moments here,” Nubbe said. “It’s been the sharpening stone of my career throughout high school and college.”
Nubbe’s track journey started as a seventh grader at Rainier Middle School in 2017, when he competed in everything from the 200-meter dash to multiple relays, discus and high jump. He credited Rainier High School boys track coach Josh Frunz for his development into one of the best hammer throwers in the country.
Of the competitors who finished in the top five at the NCAA outdoor nationals, Nubbe comes from by far the smallest hometown, and it’s a fact that he’s proud to include on his resume.
“Coming from a small school like Rainier and developing into the collegiate athlete that I am today, it’s something that grounds me and reminds me of my humble beginnings. In those big moments when maybe you get caught up in a really important meet, you remember why you started” Nubbe said. “I was just that little kid in middle school in Rainier learning how to throw and finding that joy. I give thanks and gratitude to all of the people who have been in my circle. None of this is possible without them.”
Nubbe’s legacy in Rainier is still talked about to this day, from the small Thurston County city to the 1A/2B/1B state championship meet in Yakima, where Oakville’s Lewis Koser clinched his third consecutive state discus title in May. Koser once said Nubbe’s state record throw in the discus was a reason why he wanted to take discus seriously. Rainier athletes have also been inspired and mentored by Nubbe since his graduation four years ago.
“I really appreciate the opportunity to mentor kids, whether it’s from Rainier High School or other high schools, who wanted to reach out and wanted to learn,” Nubbe said. “I’m always willing to help build the next generation and pass down that knowledge that I learned the hard way. Winning championships and competing in the national championships is great, but passing on what you’ve learned and inspiring the next generation is so much more important and more profound to me.”
Nubbe has one final collegiate year of track remaining, and he has high expectations for himself, including becoming the first Virginia Cavalier to ever win a national championship in the hammer throw.
“I definitely would like to go for that NCAA title. I think it’s definitely possible,” he said. “Today, it wasn’t quite there, and that’s alright. It’s part of the game of life and learning. I don’t want to go into these meets like, “I want to place this or I want to throw that,” but I want to find that throw where I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s it. That’s the one,’ and then do it again.”
