By Katie Zigelman, News Staff

Going into the last meet of the season, senior Heather Crocker approached the end of her throwing career for the womens’ track & field team. And what better way to go out than with a school record.

Crocker threw the javelin 142 feet, 8 inches at the 2011 New England Championship meet to break the school record and win the event –  the first Husky to ever win this event at the New England Championship meet. Her performance earned her Huntington News Player of the Week honors.

Crocker broke the record set April 21, 2007 by Nancy Rowe (142 feet, 6 inches).

“It was pretty cool,” Crocker said. “I had been going after it for a while. Nancy Rowe, the previous record holder, actually helped train me.”

Crocker consistently finished among the top four javelin throwers in every meet she competed in, and won the event at the Solomon Invitational April 16.

Head coach Sherman Hart said that breaking the record was a great accomplishment for Crocker.

“She persevered and worked so hard,” Hart said. “Her leadership, she was almost guaranteed points in championships and she was well-liked. She fit perfectly into our program.”

At Reading High School, Crocker was a super-athlete – she played ice hockey for four years, softball for three seasons, cross country for two seasons and track & field for just one. As a hockey player, she racked 100 career points and won the Middlesex League title with the team her senior year with a 33-3-4 record. She ended up switching from softball to track her senior year at the suggestion of one of her teachers.

“My humanities teacher was also the track coach. and he knew that I played softball. so he told me that I should quit softball and throw for track,” Crocker said. “So my senior year that’s what I did, and it was a lot of fun.”

When she made it to Northeastern in 2007, Crocker skipped the indoor track season to play for the women’s ice hockey team.

“I loved hockey in high school and had big ambitions to play in college,” Crocker said. “I was a walk-on so I ended up being a practice player.”

After her first year, when her nursing course load became too time-consuming to attend practices, Crocker quit the hockey team.

“[Assistant coach] Brenner Abbott coached me most of the year,” Crocker said. “He got me in the cage when the other throwers weren’t practicing.”

While Crocker still has one more year of classes, she just finished her last year of eligibility for sports.

“I’m done with track now, which is disappointing, because there is always room to improve,” Crocker said.

Over this past year, Crocker said the moment that will stand out in her memory is beating the school record, but every time she beat her personal record, it was memorable.

Now, Crocker said she would like to work in critical care or pediatrics but understands that the job market will determine where she ends up.

In her spare time, Crocker enjoys being a member of the Club Power Lifting Team and participating in summer and winter activities such as snowboarding and water sports. She is also a member of the National Honor Society.