When first-year ISU throws coach Grant Wall arrived in Ames in September, he knew he wouldn’t just be bringing his 10 years of field experience to the Cyclone throwers. He would also be bringing with him two of the best throwers from his former squad at Saginaw Valley State University in University Center, Mich.

Just in time for the beginning of the 2010 indoor season, redshirt juniors Emily Nugent and Josh Koglin are now on campus and have already proved their value to the Cyclones with impressive performances in the weight throw competition at last weekend’s ISU Open.

After a throw of 50 feet in the preliminaries of the women’s weight throw, Nugent entered the finals Friday feeling sore after a week of rigorous training at practice. Nugent, who never finished higher than 10th place in her two years at Saginaw Valley State, was not expecting herself to improve much from her preliminary throw.

“I came out in finals and I threw 54 feet, and I was like where did that come from?” Nugent said. “I couldn’t even believe it, it was just unbelievable to have that in my first Big 12 meet.”

The throw not only gave Nugent a first-place win over ISU sophomore Danielle Frere, but also gave her a new personal record as she out-threw her old record of 52-9.5 inches by nearly two feet with her throw of 54-9.25. Nugent was forced to compete unattached, which means that she was competing as an athlete not affiliated with a specific school or team, due to a problem with her transcripts not reaching Iowa State in time for the Open.

“Even when she was at Saginaw, I thought she had more [ability] than what she did there,” Wall said. “[Her performance] wasn’t unexpected; it’s just that doing it this week, I didn’t think it would come.”

Koglin, who also competed unattached for the same reason, finished second in the men’s weight throw with a throw of 57-5. Koglin showcased his new three-turn technique for the first time this weekend as he made three complete turns before tossing the weight rather than his previous two.

“I wasn’t too upset about it,” said Koglin, a 2009 Division II All-American. “I was a little off of my [personal record.] It was a good starting point, and I hope to get better at it by the end of the year.”

A change in technique isn’t the only transition Koglin is making, as both he and Nugent are experiencing what it’s like at a school of much larger size than Saginaw Valley State. Nugent said Saginaw Valley State has only four academic buildings — compared to Iowa State’s more than 20 academic buildings — and it can be daunting for a transfer student. However, the athletes’ relationship with Wall and the new relationships they have made in their first few weeks have made the move easier.

“Coming from Saginaw, I knew that I could trust in Coach Wall because I trained with him all last year,” Nugent said. “I have a lot of faith in him, and I couldn’t go another year without a coach. So I kind of took a leap of faith and came out here, and Josh coming out here made it a lot easier.”

Both Nugent and Koglin will continue to throw the weight during the indoor season and then make the transition to the hammer throw for the outdoor season.

Koglin finished eighth in both events at the 2009 NCAA Division II Indoor and Outdoor Championships, while Nugent finished 11th at the 2009 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships in the hammer throw and 12th at the indoor championships in the weight throw. Now that both are competitors at the Division I level, however, they feel as though there is a different mindset when it comes to competing at a higher level.

“You kind of feel a bit more pressure [at the Division I level],” Koglin said. “Instead of it being like, ‘Oh, I want to beat the D-I guys,’ it’s like, ‘Oh man, I better not let these [throwers from a different division] beat me or I know what they are going to say.’”

One of the throwers with plenty of Division I experience is captain of the women’s throws group, senior Britta Christofferson.

Christofferson, a two-time NCAA regional qualifier in the shotput, has already seen Nugent and Koglin fit in nicely with the team.

“It’s nice having a lot more leadership come in,” Christofferson said. “Even though they just came here, it seems like they have been here for a while.”

Christofferson also sees the benefits that Koglin and Nugent bring to the new training regimen that Wall used at Saginaw Valley State and has recently implemented here at Iowa State.

“If we are doing some part of our training and we don’t know exactly what all the things are, that’s something they can tell us without us having to get Coach’s attention if he is off doing something else,” Christofferson said.

Nugent hopes her success in the circle can continue, and even if she doesn’t perform as well as she did at the ISU Open, she is confident her new teammates will continue to push her throughout the season.

“I’m just really happy to be here and training with these girls. Our team is really great, and it’s just really good to have a good group of girl throwers,” Nugent said. “I know that I’m going to have a bad meet some day, and its just really nice to be able to feed off of everyone’s positive energy.”

Nugent said she will most likely be competing for Iowa State at next week’s Bill Bergan Invitational hosted by Iowa State, but Wall was uncertain about whether or not Koglin would need to compete unattached again.