SLIPPERY ROCK — The first time Bre Northcott picked up the 20-pound ball linked to a handle by a chain, she had no idea what it was, let alone how to throw it.

“Honestly, when I was in high school, I didn’t even know the hammer and weight throw even existed,” said Northcott, a junior on the Slippery Rock University women’s track and field team and a Slippery Rock High graduate.

Northcott, who grew up throwing the discus, shot put and javelin, was at a loss.

The first time she tried to throw it, she said, was comical.

“I looked ridiculous trying to throw it,” she said, laughing.

But Northcott stuck with it anyway.

It paid off.

Last weekend at the Youngstown State University National Invitational, she uncorked a throw of 16.76 meters in the event, which broke the school record and qualified her for the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships next month.

Northcott was the last to know.

“I didn’t even hear what the mark was or see it land because I almost fell,” Northcott said. “I went to pick up the weight and when I was walking back, everyone was looking at me like, ‘Why aren’t you excited?’” When I found out, I started crying.”

It was emotional for Northcott because of where she had come from to get to that point.

At Slippery Rock High, Northcott broke throwing records in the eighth grade and was also a standout basketball and volleyball players.

But before her junior year in high school, she suffered the first of three major knee injuries when she tore her ACL in her left knee.

A year later, she tore the ACL in her right knee. In the spring of the next year, she tore her meniscus.

Three injuries. Three surgeries.

And a lot of soul searching.

“Yeah, there was a bit of doubt,” Northcott said. “All my knee surgeries — it definitely brought me down a little bit.”

Still, as Northcott walked through Morrow Field House as a freshman at The Rock, she set lofty goals for herself.

“Along the walls were pictures of everyone who (qualified for the track and field nationals),” Northcott said. “I wanted to be on that wall.”

Now, she will be.

And it has not surprised SRU assistant track and field coach Meagan Shadeck, who is also the throwing coach.

When new athletes come into the program, she has everyone try the hammer throw and its alter ego for the indoor season, the weight throw.

“When they come in as freshmen, they are starting at square one,” Shadeck said. “What we look for is the right body type: long arms, body awareness from playing other sports and a strong lower body. Bre’s definitely built to be a thrower.”

Northcott struggled at first in the event. Her best throw coming into this indoor season was 15 meters.

She’s shattered that.

Northcott said she had one good throw at a practice last season that gave her confidence she was capable of hitting 16 meters.

She has hit that several times already this season before her record-setting effort.

“Even just in three years, she has picked it up and come a long way,” Shadeck said. “She’s a natural.

“Bre committed to it,” Shadeck added. “She put in the time and the work and spend a lot of time on her technique.”

Northcott is thinking even higher now.

She had a throw that topped 17 meters, but faulted on it. She believes she can top that in future meets.

Northcott is also feeling a sense of urgency as she will take two semesters off from competition beginning this spring and the outdoor season.

She won’t compete again until the outdoor season in 2016.

“I want to lay it all out there because I won’t be competing much for about a year,” Northcott said of the redshirt year she will take to catch up academically after changing her major. “There’s a lot of motivation there and I learned to not take anything for granted. I was always one big meet away before I would blow out a knee. Every meet, I hope to stay healthy and so far I have and everything has been great.”