A Sheldon native will have plenty of family and friends in Drake Stadium Friday night when he competes in the hammer throw at the U.S.A. Track and Field championships. A.G. Kruger is a four-time national champion, has made three straight trips to the Olympics and even at the age of 34 feels he has a few good years left.

“It’s kind of like your golf game, you don’t just get good at it in two years and say ‘Okay I’ve reached my peak I’m done’,” Kruger says. He says it years to hone the varying aspects of the event as most people take it up in college and have to continue working on it. Kruger says he wants to make an Olympic team and do better in the big events after struggling in them in past years.

Kruger says throwing the hammer is tougher than it seems and it takes years to perfect. “You really truly don’t understand the systems of the hammer for probably 8 to 10 years,” Kruger says. He says he is 34 and that is an age when others have hit their best performances.

Kruger first competed in Drake Stadium back in 1995 as a prep standout at Sheldon and went to Morningside College to play football and throw the discus. He did an indoor version of the throw his freshman year and his sophomore year he three the hammer in a couple of practices and in a couple of meets. He had thrown the discus, but wanted to add something else to what he was doing and didn’t want to throw the shotput, so he took up the hammer throw.

Kruger is the strength and conditioning coach at Ashland University in Ohio.