Apr. 1—Mikenna Pattrin walked into her wellness class as a freshman at Bemidji State three and a half years ago. She had two black eyes, a swollen face and a concussion.
Pattrin, an Alexandria area native, was recruited to play softball at BSU. She swapped one pair of cleats for another, moving away from softball and joining the club rugby team.
In a mid-season game, Pattrin engaged in some routine banter with an opposing player on the pitch.
"We were kind of back and forth trash-talking each other, which was one of the reasons why I liked rugby," Pattrin said. "It's an aggressive sport but there's no hurt feelings after. But I took that girl's knee straight to the face. It happened in the first part of the game. I stuck a tampon in my nose and played the rest."
Sporting a few shiners, Pattrin returned to class on Monday. Kevin Kean, Bemidji State's head track and field coach at the time, was Pattrin's professor.
"I broke my face and showed up to class looking like a zombie," Pattrin quipped. "Coach Kean was like, 'Are you ready to come to track practice yet?'"
Kean had been trying to recruit Pattrin to his throwing group since the start of the semester.
Standing at almost 6 feet tall, Pattrin's initial plan was to become the next pitcher for the Beavers. A few months later, she was working with throwing coach Kevin Baird in a sport she hadn't tried before college.
"She was recruited to come to BSU to play softball, but they had a changeover at head coach at that time," Baird said. "She didn't want to have to deal with that transition. ... She was getting pretty beat up playing rugby all the time. (Kean) asked her if she was interested in becoming a thrower, and that's when I was notified of her potential."
Since then, Pattrin has become one of Bemidji State's top throwers, and she's become a leader that Baird can count on.
For as long as she can remember, Pattrin has always favored softball.
She spent her high school career pitching for Brandon-Evansville, a Class A program in Minnesota on the outskirts of Alexandria. Her dad, Tim, was the head football coach when she was in high school.
B-E had track athletes when she graduated in 2021, but not a track. With the school's standard enrollment ranging from 100 to 150 kids year to year, most student-athletes played baseball and softball when Pattrin was in high school.
In the fall, Pattrin was an outside hitter on the volleyball court. She was also a forward on the basketball court. So when Baird and Kean threw her in the throwing mix at Bemidji State, Pattrin got her first exposure to individual athletics.
"It was just a completely new environment," Pattrin said. "Comming from volleyball, basketball and softball, you had your team to rely on. You still have that team in track, but it's an individual sport. Coming from the circle and pitching, I always knew I had my team to back me up. Now when I'm in the circle, it's just me. It's make or break time."
"If I throw a pitch and somebody puts it into play, I know I can rely on my team to make the play and get them out at first. In track, if I foul, that's on me. If I throw and hit a PR, that's also on me. It's something that comes with good and bad, and I had to get used to that."
Pattrin also had to get used to not being a natural anymore.
While her previous experience in other sports allowed her to excel at some throws, the technical requirements of others posed first-time challenges.
"She had the most amount of success right away in the indoor weight throw," Baird said. "If I were to be honest, it's dominated by women who are ...
