When Jay Stell earned first team All-America honors as a sophomore, it seemed the sky was the limit for the Navy track and field athlete.
After placing third at the NCAA Championship meet in the javelin event at such an early stage of his career, it was not unreasonable to project Stell as an eventual national champion.
Sure enough, Stell was building toward a second straight appearance at Division I nationals when fate intervened. Having already repeated as Patriot League champion, Stell suffered an elbow injury while winning the IC4A meet a few weeks later.