2018 male Athlete of the Year Hunter Krom a leader in football, bowling and javelin

Hunter Krom held onto the football tightly on his way to 334 yards and three touchdowns in Lawrence High’s season-opening football victory. The previous spring, Krom experienced what it feels like to have something ripped from his grasp, and he didn’t want to experience that feeling again.

As a junior, Krom was closing in on the 6A state javelin title until Manhattan High’s Samuel Hankins, on his final throw, took it away with a throw of 204 feet, 10 inches, a mere 8 inches farther than Krom’s 204-2.

Krom will have one more crack at Hankins, who before the state meet last season had set the national freshman record in the javelin. They will compete against each other at the state meet in Wichita this coming weekend.

Regardless of how that turns out, Krom, the Journal-World’s male Athlete of the Year, has played a big part in enhancing the fortunes of three Lawrence High teams.

Krom followed the football season with a standout year in bowling, and routinely earns first-place points for the track team in the javelin, his sidekick Harrison King taking second.

Krom will continue his education and athletic career at Baker University, where he plans to major in biology and compete in bowling and track and field.

He said that football is behind him, a decision he reached so as not to put his career ambition at risk.

“I’d like to be a neurosurgeon and I figured if I get in some freak accident and I have shaky hands or something, it probably wouldn’t be good,” Krom said.

He decided what he wanted to do with his life at an unusually early age.

“When I was in third grade, I wanted to be a general surgeon and a heart surgeon. Then my grandma was watching “Grey’s Anatomy” and she told me to look at it,” Krom said. “They were doing brain surgery, and I was like, ‘Well, that looks fun, so I might as well just stick with that.’ ”

His career goal hasn’t changed since that day, but his spring sport of choice did. He played a lot of baseball growing up and decided to pick up the javelin as a sophomore at LHS.

“It felt awkward at first,” Krom said. “I was coming out of baseball. I had done that all my life and it’s two different throws. Best I can compare it to is throwing a football and darts, with that follow through.”

He had an advantage on other novices. Hunter’s father, Jay Krom, held the Wichita State school javelin record (229-9) until it was broken in 2008.

Hunter’s answer to the question, “Are you the best javelin thrower in your family?” revealed two things about him: He’s realistic, yet doesn’t put limits on himself.

“Not yet,” he answered.

Nobody disputes that Hunter’s the best bowler in the family. He threw a perfect 300 game in practice last year at Royal Crest Lanes and will be a member of the first Baker men’s bowling team that will participate as an NAIA sport. He’s familiar with the coach, 1994 Kansas Bowling Hall of Fame inductee Cheryl Keslar, having received pointers from her when competing in Saturday morning leagues at Royal Crest as a child.

Krom said that the bowling and track coaches will work together to figure out his schedule when the two seasons overlap and that they both are working under the understanding that javelin will take precedence.

Wichita State recruited Krom, but he opted for Baker.

Why?

“I wanted to pick a place that had the best fit for my career and the place I felt most at home and it was Baker,” Krom said. “They have a really good pre-med program. And I like the connection between students and teachers. You can get help if you need it and the teachers actually know your name.”

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