Jacob Mechler has known where he wanted to go to college since elementary school.

"I think in second grade my mom painted my room red and black," the Texas Tech track and field athlete said. "I'm from Andrews, two hours from here, so I've been a huge Tech fan since day one."

This week, then, is especially meaningful for Mechler. The 2024 season is his fifth year of college competition, and the 6-foot-4, 280-pound thrower qualified for the first time for an NCAA championships.

Mechler, in fact, will be the first member of the Texas Tech contingent to compete when the NCAA indoor meet starts Thursday in Boston. The weight throw, his event, starts at 5 p.m. CST.

Making it required perseverance. Mechler began his college career with one year at Abilene Christian in the 2019-20 school year, and not longer after he transferred to Tech he suffered a devastating knee injury that still limits his preparation to this day.

That was three years ago, two weeks before the start of outdoor season in March 2021.

And now look at him.

"It's been a long journey, a lot of adversity we've had to overcome," Mechler said. "Completely blew out my knee. Coming back from that, throwing off one leg, trying to make this thing work ... I can say this whole college career has been just one thing after another with injuries and everything, so finally being able to make it to nationals my last year, my last indoor, it means the world."

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Competing two weeks ago in the weight throw at the Big 12 championships, Mechler threw 74 feet, 5 inches, a personal record by nearly 3 feet. That ranks him 12th going into the NCAAs, where the top 16 in each individual event based on season-best times and marks qualify. Mechler's previous best this season, 71-7 1/4, would be tied for 25th, so he ostensibly qualified in the last round of the conference meet.

As always, he did it with a tight support on his left knee.

When the knee gave way three years ago in practice, Mechler said his injuries included fractures at the bottom of his kneecap, ligament and meniscus damage and a torn retinaculum. "It was really messed up," he said, "so I had to get a cadaver put in my knee."

Mechler had one surgery, but no shortage of reminders.

"Ever since then, it's bone on bone and I don't have any gliding surface on my kneecap," he said. "So compared to most throwers, I get maybe 10 throws in practice and my knee swells up like a basketball, right? And so that's what I've been dealing with since then — trying to manage, trying to be able to throw at a level that these other guys are throwing on half the amount of throws.

"Every single practice matters, every throw counts, because I can't get the volume most people would get."

"It bothers him all the time," Tech coach Wes Kittley said. "You have to work a day and rest two, and he's just stayed with it, so his determination has been remarkable to watch."

No wonder Tech throws coach Cliff Felkins went wild gesticulating when Mechler unleashed the throw of his life two weeks ago at crunch time. Mechler's PR (or personal record) gave him the lead in the last round of the Big 12 championships, and then Texas' Jeremiah Nubbe stepped into the ring and threw his own PR, 74-9 1/4, to win.

One roar went up and then another, and Mechler said afterward it "felt like the biggest meet I've been to."

Now he has one more, even bigger.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Inside Jacob Mechler's remarkable surge to the NCAA championships