When he could have thrown away his sophomore season as an ISU track and field thrower, Chase Madison fought back.

The sophomore from Newton had a cyst in his wrist during the offseason, forcing him to have surgery in December. Madison is primarily a shot-put thrower, but his wrist wouldn’t allow him to shot put. Instead of giving up, he focused on the discus.

“When he had that wrist injury, he didn’t waste his time just sitting around and feeling sorry for himself,” said coach Steve Lynn. “He worked more on discus technique when he couldn’t throw the shot [put], and obviously it showed right away.”

Madison came out the first week of the outdoor season to throw a personal-best discus throw of 59.59 meters to win the Emporia State Spring Twilight meet.

“I’m pretty happy with my discus, and my wrist really didn’t affect that,” Madison said. “Indoors, I really spent a lot of time getting the technical aspects of the sport, getting in the right positions [on discus].”

Last weekend at the Musco Twilight in Iowa City, Madison not only won the discus, but came back and threw shot put for the first time since he was injured, tossing a new personal-best throw of 17.78 meters to take second place, qualifying for the NCAA Regionals meet. Madison said getting back to that point was a difficult process.

“It was very difficult to train through it. It was excruciating, and it was really hard to kind of set it aside and just go at it and start training,” Madison said. “Once that procedure was over and I gave it enough time to heal, I kind of took it really slow.”

Madison will compete in the biggest event of the year so far during this weekend’s Drake Relays. He will throw the discus, but may have come in too late to get a spot in the shot put. Nonetheless, Madison looks forward to competing.

“There’s going to be some great competition there – some of the best of the year. So, [I need to] just throw my best, do what I know, use my technique and do what I can do,” Madison said. “I can’t worry about what the competitors do.”

Madison has to decide whether he should compete in the discus or shot put at regionals.

“Depending on where I am in the nation will kind of portray how I look at regionals,” Madison said. “It’d be great to be an All-American. I know I can do it, it’s just trying to train through [the injury], trying to focus.”

Lynn gives throws coach Dan O’Mara credit for helping Madison persevere through the injury.

“He’s worked really hard with Coach O’Mara on technique, and Coach O’Mara is a very good technician,” Lynn said. “He’s made Chase [Madison] much more aware of what he needs to do.”

Madison said one of the biggest reasons he came to Iowa State was because of O’Mara.

“Dan O’Mara is very knowledgeable in the sport. [He] really knows what he’s talking about,” Madison said. “I put a lot of trust in him because he knows what’s wrong with my technique – how to train, stuff like that – so the trust level is there”

Lynn said he believes Madison can leave a legacy.

“Over these next years, he can be one of the supreme throwers in the country. I really do believe that,” Lynn said. “He will continue to get better and better, and I’m looking forward to watching him throw.”

Lynn also said he feels good about his chances of keeping a string of success alive this weekend.

“As a team we’ve won more titles at Drake [Relays] than anybody since the ’80s, and he’s one of the guys that can continue that string,” Lynn said.