Free State's Nathan Spain motions to throw on his first attempt during the 6A Regionals on Thursday, May 18, 2017 at Free State High School.

Usually when a new athlete is picking an event in track and field, most of them don’t decide on the javelin.

Except that’s changing at Lawrence High and Free State.

The two schools are sending a combined seven javelin throwers to the Class 6A state meet, which begins at 1:15 p.m. today at Wichita State’s Cessna Stadium. That accounts for more than 20 percent of the 32 state qualifiers in the boys and girls javelin.

Lawrence junior Hunter Krom won Sunflower League and regional titles and is seeded second at state in the boys javelin, while junior teammate Harrison King is seeded fourth. Free State senior Tyler Winsor is seeded seventh and junior Nathan Spain is seeded ninth.

Among the girls, who will throw Saturday, Free State senior Kahler Wiebe is seeded ninth, junior Erin Cushing is 11th and Lawrence sophomore Baylee Unruh is 13th.

“My sophomore year, my friend said, ‘Hey, want to throw javelin?'” Winsor said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I had no idea what it was.”

Lawrence High senior Hunter Krom releases the javelin at the Kansas Relays on Saturday at Rock Chalk Park. Krom placed third with a throw of 180 feet, 3 inches.

It’s a field event that is growing in popularity. Missouri added it as a high school event this season.

Out of the city’s javelin throwers, Krom has the longest history in the event. His father threw javelin in high school and college, an All-American at Wichita State.

Krom, who started throwing in high school, saw his biggest improvement this season, breaking his personal-record by 22 feet in April.

“I figured if anyone can get me into it, it would be him,” Krom said of his dad. “I just started falling in love with it.”

Most of the city’s state qualifiers are new to the sport in the last year or two. It takes time to learn all of the technique behind throwing an eight-foot spear.

Instead, a couple of them competed in the shot put or discus before making their first attempt at the javelin.

“My older sister, Scout Wiebe, was a thrower,” Wiebe said. “All my other siblings were runners. I just kind of knew I was going to do track. Then my sister started throwing, and I said to myself, ‘Oh, that’d be really interesting to try.’ I came out and did it and I’ve just been doing it for four years now.”

Free State senior javelin thrower Kahler Wiebe throws during her event at the Free State Invitational on Friday at FSHS.

Coaches from both schools believe one of the reasons for the surge in javelin throwers is former Free State thrower Tye Carter, who won a state title in 2015. It was his first year competing in the event after giving up baseball.

“The year after Tye won, we had 45 kids come out for javelin the next year,” Free State javelin coach Darrell Andrew said. “Typically, we sit about 25. So the numbers picked up quite a bit. Then once kids get up here, they get hooked.”

Throwing javelin usually draws a group of baseball, softball and football players, who hope their strong arms can translate into the field.

Andrew said throwing a football is the closest resemblance to a javelin because throwers need to put extra arc into their tosses.

“It’s really hard to get down the motions and the actual technique doing it,” Wiebe said. “People come in throwing it like a baseball, then sometimes they’ll hit their head.”

All seven of the javelin throwers are hopeful for strong performances at the state meet. Only Krom returns from last season, and his goal is to crack 200 feet with a throw.

But they are confident that participation numbers in the javelin will only grow each season.

“Everybody wants to do it,” said Winsor, who has signed to throw at Baker University. “It also looks cool because it’s throwing a spear.”