Photo courtesy of SMSU Athletic Communications SMSU’s Rebecca Manteuffel watches her throw in the discus event during a 2018 meet. Manteuffel will be competing in the weight throw at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala. on Friday.

MARSHALL — Rebecca Manteuffel has had a couple of historic years as a member of the Southwest Minnesota State University track and field team. In her first two seasons, the junior was the first female athlete to qualify for the Mustangs for both the NCAA Division II Outdoor and Indoor Championships, along with breaking multiple records and earning high accolades.

She will continue that trend this weekend, as Manteuffel will be competing in the weight throw at the Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala. at the Birmingham CrossPlex, which will be hosted by the University of Montevallo. It will be her third trip to the NCAA Championships and second straight at the Indoor competition.

Manteuffel said it’s exciting to achieve the goal she set out for earlier in the year and be able to continue to make history for SMSU.

“It’s super exciting,” Manteuffel said. “I guess my goal at the beginning of the year was to qualify and be able to go again, but to make history for SMSU and represent my school down in Alabama is super exciting.”

Manteuffel qualified for the championships during the Mark Schuck Open at Minnesota State University, Mankato on Jan. 31 with a school-record throw of 18.86 meters. The toss placed her in 10th in the nation to reach the championships.

SMSU throws coach Lizzie Virgl said she was happy to see her qualify so early on in the season and be able to use that as motivation to improve on her marks.

“It happened pretty early on in the year, which was pretty exciting especially for her,” Virgl said. “I think it was really big for her to get that qualification off her shoulders right away so that she could focus on the rest of the season and doing well at conference.”

Coming into a new program at the start of a season can be challenging at times for any coach. But Virgl said the transition has been great and she’s excited to see what this group has in store in the future.

“It’s been amazing. I really enjoy it here and I love the throwers I have. Rebecca is awesome and it’s been wonderful and a blessing to work with her, but the rest of the throwers are also awesome as well. When picking schools and what job I wanted to take, the throwers were a very big part of that and I kind of got to interview the throwers before I accepted the position, which is a very big reason why I’m here. The throwers, my world revolves around them, they’re the best people I know.”

On the other side, Manteuffel said while it was tough at first to transition to another new coach, she added they’ve been able to adjust and strengthen their bond throughout the season.

“It’s been good. Obviously it’s been a little tough to transition from coach to coach each year, but we’ve adapted and just building that relationship has really shown especially over these last couple of weeks,” Manteuffel said. “Having one-on-one practices, being able to communicate with her what I need and what she needs from me, it’s been a good change and hopefully we can stay consistent and have her again next year.”

Virgl said Manteuffel has grown a lot in the past few months and is pleased with how far she has come.

“She’s grown tremendously,” Virgl said. “One of the big things about coaching her is that she’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of athlete, coaches only dream to have athletes like Rebecca, and just seeing how far she’s come strength-wise, mentally, physically, everything. She’s really just come together this season.”

That hard work paid off for Manteuffel this season, who earned All-Region honors from the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association in the weight throw during the indoor season this winter for the second straight season. Manteuffel said it’s special and humbling to be recognized as one of the top athletes in a crowded and competitive field.

“It’s super awesome and it is special,” Manteuffel said. “It’s not something you really realize but to be top five in the region out of all of those states and schools and girls, obviously there are so many great athletes up in this area. I don’t think it really has hit me how special that is.”

Manteuffel will compete in the weight throw on Friday at 4:30 p.m. Virgl said they’ve been working on hitting her positions in order to produce a quicker throw.

“A lot of it has been making sure she’s hitting her positions well, setting it up so that she can hit that third turn quickly and that’s really been the focus of this last week,” Virgl said.

Going into this year’s national meet, Manteuffel said she has more confidence than her first trip to the indoor competition a season ago and will look to use that experience to keep herself comfortable.

“I think going in I will be a lot more comfortable. I was nervous last year because I had never been to an indoor championship that big, but I know a lot of the girls who are competing now because I’ve competed against them before,” Manteuffel said. “Just going into a big atmosphere, I’m more comfortable in that atmosphere now and competing at that level really gets me going.”

Manteuffel added she’s looking forward to getting to know her coaches and competitors better and giving it her all.

“Just the trip itself,” Manteuffel said. “Networking with other athletes and getting to know them and then also getting to know Kirk [Nauman] and Lizzie a little bit better. I’m going to leave it all out there.”