Kayla Thorpe made sure missing graduation was worthwhile.
Unable to attend commencement at Maryland because her participation at the NCAA East First Round meet on May 23 in Lexington, Kentucky, the senior broke her own school record in the javelin with a throw of 51.95 meters. That — in addition to the presence of her mother Angela and one of three sisters, Kelly, who attended her first college competition — helped ease any regret about missing the chance to walk with her classmates and collect her bachelor’s in sociology.
“I missed graduation for a reason,” she said with an air of relief. “I would have been so upset, but it was so crazy. I had my family there, I had my teammates there, I had my coach there, and I was at my happiest.”
That delight became even greater because by finishing in sixth place at last month’s meet, Thorpe qualified for the NCAA Championships that are scheduled to run Wednesday through Saturday in Eugene, Oregon. She will be the first athlete to represent the Terps in the javelin at the national competition, and teammate Jayla Bynum said Thorpe will be long remembered after she leaves.
“Her name is everywhere, and not only that, but I also feel like she has done a great job of establishing herself as a leader among the younger kids so that they can look to her as the new standard for success,” said Bynum, a graduate student shot putter. “She is walking proof that by hard work and dedication and being a great teammate, the rewards will speak for themselves.”
Thorpe’s track and field career began as an eighth grader growing up in Upper Darby, a suburb of Philadelphia. But after one year as a sprinter, she opted to shift to throwing the discus, javelin and shot put as a freshman in high school after all runners had to complete a weekly 20-minute running requirement to remain on the team.
“I just knew that I didn’t want to do it again,” she said with a laugh. “I thought I was going to be short-sprinting and stuff, but in high school, that was a whole different thing.”
Before medaling in all three throwing events at the Pennsylvania state championships, Thorpe decided to continue her career at Towson because of a connection with assistant coach Zachery Ball. But a few months into her freshman year, Ball left the school for Michigan State and was replaced by Tyler Burdorff.
The next year, Burdorff departed for Maryland, the Tigers’ head coach was also gone, and Thorpe entered the transfer portal after her sophomore year.
“There was just a lot of adversity and a lot of change that I had to go through while I was there,” she said. “I think it started to affect me, especially after my second coach left. That took a big toll on me.”
While with the Terps, Burdorff kept tabs on his former pupil and actively recruited her after she entered the portal.
“I saw from afar that things were kind of up and down,” he said. “So it wasn’t a surprise as much when she got in the portal, but it was definitely something that I was very excited about because I knew we had a really good relationship, and the possibility of reconvening and getting the gang back together was pretty cool.”
The reunion paid dividends almost immediately. As a junior in 2023, Thorpe eclipsed the program record of 43.24 meters in the javelin previously set by Lillian Hill at the 2021 Big Ten Championships with a mark of 43.44 meters at the Black and Gold Invitational on March 18.
Thirteen days later, Thorpe launched the javelin 46.84 meters at the Florida Relays. She then reset her own record with a distance of 48.38 meters at the Big Ten Championships.
As encouraging as those results were, Thorpe eyed breaking the 50-meter barrier. She reached that objective at her first meet of the spring, throwing the javelin 51.69 meters at the Long Beach Invitational on April 12.
“I was definitely shocked,” she said. “It was very emotional as well. I was trying not to cry and stay in the competition mode because it took so long to hit 50.”
Since then, Thorpe has gone 50 meters or better at the Penn Relays on April 26 (50.86) and the Big Ten Championships on May 10 (50.82). She won bronze at the Big Ten event, becoming Maryland’s first individual conference medalist since Xahria Santiago won silver in the 400 hurdles at the 2019 meet.
“I think she put 50 meters on a pedestal for a long time,” Burdorff said. “Once she hit 50 meters, she was going to realize how easy it was and how not that big of a deal it is, and I think I told her that once she did it, she wasn’t going to drop back below it.”
Thorpe credited her weight training regimen, support from her throwing teammates, and Burdorff’s coaching as factors in her improvement. Those ingredients helped her reset the mark at last month’s NCAA East First Round, which elicited a surprising reaction.
“Just having this breakthrough season to hit 50 and then consistently hit 50 has been a blessing in disguise,” said Thorpe, who had not advanced out of her three previous NCAA East First Round meets. “Last year, I had an opportunity to make it out and I cut myself short. So just being able to hit that mark and know that I was going to have a spot in the NCAA finals was definitely emotional.”
Thorpe has the 16th-longest throw among 24 competitors at the NCAA Championships and admitted that she is eager to finish in the top eight and earn a first-team All-America plaque to add to Burdorff’s wall, which includes his All-America plaques when he placed second in both the hammer and weight throws in the 2016 championships while representing Baldwin Wallace. Thorpe said her objective is 55 meters, which would be the seventh-longest distance among her competitors.
“Let’s put that number out there,” she said. “It would be so cool to get one of those plaques because that’s something I could hold onto forever and look back on to see how far I’ve come.”
Bynum said she wouldn’t be shocked if Thorpe realized her potential this week.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that she can go out there and get 55,” she said. “If she just believes in herself, the sky’s the limit. She has all the physical capabilities to do it, and once she puts it together, she’s going to walk away from the championships very happy.”
