Karyn McCready

Accomplishments

• Westmont Hilltop High School graduate was a NCAA Division II national champion javelin thrower at Slippery Rock University.
• The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) named McCready among its 75 Greatest Female Athletes during a 2025 all-time celebration.
• McCready was a 2004 NCAA Division II national champion in the javelin.
• She placed 13th at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
• McCready was a three-time NCAA Division II All-American and three-time PSAC champion.
• She established the Slippery Rock and all-time PSAC record throw in the javelin until it was broken in 2021.
• Nearly unbeatable in the javelin in the early 2000s, she won back-to-back-to-back PSAC titles and set or broke her own school record multiple times.
• Picked up her first PSAC title in 2002 and went on to place fourth at the national championships to earn her first career All-America honor.
• Followed up with another PSAC title in 2003 and improved one place at the national meet with a third place showing for a second straight All-America award.
• Saved her best for last, winning the NCAA Division II javelin national crown and took a third straight PSAC title.
• Set Slippery Rock and PSAC records in the javelin in 2004.
• Claimed a title at the historic Penn Relays and went undefeated in every meet of the 2004 collegiate season.
• The only meet McCready didn’t win in 2004 was the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, where she placed an impressive 13th in a field of the best javelin throwers in America.
• Closed her career as a two-time Academic All-American.
• Inducted into The Slippery Rock Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.
• At Westmont Hilltop, she was a standout in both softball and track and field. She earned back-to-back bronze medals by placing third in the javelin during the PIAA Class 2A Track and Field Championship Meet at Shippensburg University (1999, 2000). She actually began her college sports career as a softball player, starting at catcher and in the outfield at Youngstown State University.