"It's pretty cool to be here because there are a lot of people that I am around all day that work tirelessly and I get to see what they get out of it. Kelsey Plum, she's literally in the gym every single day and her achievements outweigh anything that I can even aspire for, but to be even next to her on the poster that it is cool for me," says Chibuogwu, who was chosen as the women's track and field representative for this season's Gold Standard photoshoot, featuring one athlete from 20 Husky teams.
Now in her junior season, Chibuogwu shares some of that hard-working D.N.A. as the most prolific scorer in NCAA women's hoops history.
"That I've been able to really work hard and be around inspiring teammates and have good coaching and it has got me to this place is what's really cool," she says. "I always knew I had physical tools, I was an athlete and I just needed someone who was willing to work with me and give me a chance."
A standout basketball player at Shorecrest High School just north of Seattle, Chibuogwu did a little bit of everything on the track, throwing the discus, competing in the triple jump, and racing on 4x100m and 4x200m relays. She made the 3A state meet twice in the discus, placing fourth as a senior, but also ran at state twice on the 4x1 and once in the 4x2.
As she heads into her third outdoor season, Chibuogwu is the No. 3-ranked hammer thrower in UW history, a top-five Pac-12 finisher who made the NCAA Preliminary Championships last year. But, Chibuogwu confesses, "I didn't even know what hammer was until a month before I got to campus."
"If you asked me before my junior basketball season if I wanted to play collegiate sports I would tell you no, it's too hard. I see how much they have to run; I don't want to do that. I wanted to be state champion in the discus, in the 4x2 and in basketball but I never really looked far ahead, and I don't think I dreamed that big."
Thinking about continuing both sports in college, Chibuogwu received a few scholarship opportunities from Division-II and Division-III schools but eventually decided that the education opportunities at the University of Washington were too good to pass up. Her high school coach, former UW assistant sprints coach Brad Upton, encouraged her to walk-on at UW and just see what happened.
Then-throws coach T.J. Crater quickly saw some potential in Chibuogwu's combination of strength with a sprinter's quickness.
"T.J. and I had a meeting my freshman year and he was like 'I think you can be an All-American.' Since that meeting Chibuogwu said she took that in as the goal.
"If that's the highest esteem you can get as a track athlete, I'll shoot for that and die trying."
"I just wanted someone to just see the potential and give me a shot and that's what UW track did," Chibuogwu says. "They gave me that shot so I'm going to work hard and do whatever I can to like help our track team."
A solid freshman season saw her compete at the USA Junior Championships, finishing 12th in the hammer, and post the No. 4 mark in school history in the hammer at 174-feet and the No. 2 weight throw all-time at 57-10. But the end of the season saw Crater depart for Arizona and Chibuogwu headed into her second season without the coach who had first lit the fire for her new event.
Stepping in was Jason Schutz, himself a former walk-on athlete who developed into an All-American and Olympic Trials discus thrower.
"To be honest I was a little skeptical at first," Chibuogwu says of the coaching change. "I really liked T.J., but I think it was after maybe three weeks of working with him I was sold, I knew he was the real deal.
"He's a great coach who's very knowledgeable and can break it down so I can actually understand what I need to be doing throughout the throw, and then I really just like his coaching style. The way he approaches how to compete, how to get better every day, how to lift, it's all around what I agree with. He wants people to be athletes, to combine everything: fitness, power, strength, quickness. He's just a cool dude too, it's good to have a coach that you trust, in every aspect of the word. He's very invested in us."
The new pairing found plenty of success last year as Chibuogwu added 15 feet to her hammer throw PR, culminating with a fifth-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships one day after her teammate and friendly rival on the men's side, Carey Campbell, had finished fourth with a big career-best. The differing weights of the men's and women's hammers make the event one of the closest in terms of comparing marks between men and women, which helps stoke intrasquad competition.
"Pac-12s was pretty cool because Carey and I always compete back and forth. I think throughout the whole season last year I was ahead of him PR-wise. Then he came out the day before me and just stunned everyone with a huge PR, gets fourth-place which no one was expecting."
Chibuogwu would answer with a fifth-place finish, which was extra satisfying since her freshman year at the conference meet, she had thrown three fouls.
"It was good to just feel like I was in it with the top girls because my whole sports career even back to high school I felt like I could be with those elite names but I just didn't have the marks," said Chibuogwu. "It felt good for the first time to be sitting in the top five after I didn't even hit a mark the year before and going through a coaching change."
Unfortunately for Chibuogwu, Campbell got the offseason PR edge, 192 to 189. "Carey got to pass me up so he still holds that over my head!"
Heading into the outdoor season this month, Chibuogwu starts out just four feet shy of Elisa Bryant's 2012 school record of 193-10. That's first in line of a list of big goals that Chibuogwu is striving for, while at the same time "just trying to stay in my lane."
"I like to set goals for myself that are really high, but I also don't want to get too caught up in the chase of them," she says. "Definitely this year I have some huge goals for hammer. I want to get the school record. I definitely want to make it to nationals, I want to be an All-American. I really also want to make it to USAs and see what I can do against the real big girls."
The discus has taken a backseat the past two years, but Chibuogwu is looking to step up in that event as well this outdoor season, with goals of breaking into the school top-10 list there and advancing to Prelims.
"Last year was a lot of just breaking it down and starting from scratch and so this year discus is coming along really well and I feel good practicing," she says. "I know what I'm doing and I can actually control myself throughout the ring."
As her throwing technique has taken shape, Chibuogwu's studies have also come into sharper focus. Initially she saw herself studying business, but an interest in the current events and politics started taking her down another path.
"Although I like business and I see a future there, I am way more interested in the topics of political science and its relevance to what's going on now," she says. "Every day in class I am engaged and I want to talk and I want to listen to people's opinions. Then you can just literally connect class to what's going on in the world. I'll be in class learning something then a couple hours later I'll get a news notification and I'm like wow we were just talking about that!"
"No matter what your politics are, there's a lot of wrong going on in the country and we need to be honest with ourselves and really ask ourselves 'is this right and are we retreating everyone fair?' In these classes I'm learning about the institutions or mechanisms in government that people take advantage of."
That season has also seen Chibuogwu assume a bigger leadership role amongst her throws teammates and on the team as a whole.
"Our whole girls side is doing a lot to be more of a team throughout," she said. "Mikelle (Ackerley) and Hannah (Derby) set up girls meetings, we probably have them at least once or twice a month now and it's just a place where we can all just talk. I think myself, Kennadi Bouyer, Liz Quick, Katie Knight we're all just trying to kind of be the leaders throughout the girls side.
With veteran throwers Gina Flint and Ashley Alexander recovering from injury issues, Chibuogwu realized she could help guide the newcomers in her group. "I just have to groom my flock, place them in the right spot and show them where to go," she says. "I just want them to have fun and be freshmen and I'll just be the mom of the group for now."
Leading on the field is a big part of that too, and Chibuogwu showed her increased strength with four-straight PRs in the weight throw this season at the UW Indoor Open, which should bode well for her hammer.
And if Chibuogwu ever just needs another little shot shot in the arm, she doesn't have to look very far.
"Success requires good coaches, good teammates, people that really push you. I see how good the women's basketball team is doing and how good the football team is and women's golf winning NCAAs, it feels like all around U-Dub sports are starting to mesh so it's just fun to be a part of it because I want to contribute to whatever U-Dub legacy that we are making too."
The former walk-on has certainly learned that there's no sense in setting limits.