From a family of baseball players, EWU’s Cort Gebbers’ choice of different spring sport has qualified him for NCAA nationals

They have thrown touchdown passes in the fall and drained 3s in the winter, and though it is not explicitly ordained in the Brewster, Washington, city by-laws that if you are a Gebbers you will play baseball in the spring, it sure seems to be implied.

This was, at least for a time, Cort Gebbers’ understanding.

After all, his grandfather Mac left Gonzaga University 40-some years ago as the school’s career leader in home runs, among other batting arts. An uncle, Hawkins, played in the Mariners organization. Dad John was an infield fixture at both GU and Whitworth.

And Cort throws the discus for Eastern Washington. Throws it far – far enough to get him to nationals this week.

As it happens, this modest rebellion first gained traction when he was in full uniform on his high school diamond, which sits directly across South 7th Street in Brewster from the track.

“Baseball was not my forte,” he admitted. “I didn’t really like it. I had trouble tracking the ball. But I always liked throwing things.

“My freshman year I was playing in a game and I looked across the street and watched a track event take place, and I thought, ‘Why don’t I just go try it?’ ”

Well, because he might get disinherited for tossing his glove and bat in the closet?

Hardly. The Gebbers family has grown apples for 130 years in the Okanogan and support for one another just as long. Pretty soon John Gebbers was out measuring for his son, and iPhone videos of the best throws at meets were being passed around the kitchen table.

“But Grandpa Mac was kind of sad that year,” reported Cort’s mom, Nikki. “He’d walk over to the empty baseball field in between waiting for Cort to throw.”

Well, now grandpa has a story that’s the track equivalent of a walk-off grand slam.

Cort Gebbers heads to Eugene this week as EWU’s lone representative at the NCAA Track and Field Championships – the underdoggiest of all underdogs, which fazes him not at all, since he just killed it in that role.

Even if he wasn’t supposed to be on stage.

NCAA qualifying is done at a regional level – a region in this case being half the country. Athletes with the best 48 throws gain entry, with the top 12 finishers moving on to nationals.

Gebbers’ best of 181 feet, 2 inches put him 50th in the West.

“That felt pretty bad,” he admitted, “because I knew I had a lot more in the tank.”

But then Oregon’s Kobe Lawrence opted to focus on the shot put, in which he’d also qualified regionally, and two other throwers scratched off the list. Off to Fayetteville, Arkansas, went Gebbers with the 47th best mark.

Out he came, with an 11th place finish thanks to a throw of 186-6 and passage to Eugene.

Now, it is not rare that event favorites falter. It comes with the magnitude and stakes.

“All year, you lift and invest your time, your skills, your emotion – even your diet is all based around this one moment,” said EWU throws coach Majesty Tutson, “so that there’s this immense pressure and fear of failure. That’s why you see so many athletes not match their best.”

You just don’t see the No. 47 guy vault 36 places. Only two other throwers in the field of 48 threw PRs. Eight fouled all three of their attempts. Many weren’t within 20 feet of their bests.

While insisting “there’s really nothing to fear,” Gebbers confessed to nerves both before competing and then especially sweating out the results. He stood fifth after the third of four flights; the final was full of heavyweights, and six passed him in the first two rounds.

“I was about to throw up,” Gebbers admitted.

But a pair of throwers with 200-foot bests fouled their third throws, and none of the other four could come within a meter.

As much as Gebbers enjoys the Cinderella aspect of his story, he fully expected to reach nationals this year. Heck, he expected it last year. But he’s often struggled with the adjustment to college – first in gaining strength, then in “being responsible for myself” and finally in simply managing his own expectations.

“Sometimes you fail,” he said. “I remember failing a lot of times over at the Whitworth meets, not throwing the way I wanted and silently breaking down with Coach Maj in the corner. I knew what I wanted and it wasn’t coming.”

There were emotional piledrivers, too. A 10-year-old cousin died back home during winter quarter after lingering issues. And Gebbers is still coming to grips with the loss of his older brother, Cade – himself a standout athlete and MVP of the state basketball tournament in 2020 – to suicide the next year.

“Cort is an emotional kid,” said his mother, “and Cade was his hero, like older brothers are. A little larger than life.”

Said Gebbers, “He’s why I’m here, why I do what I do. Cade will always come with me.”

But so will his three other siblings, part of the sixth generation of the Gebbers family that numbers 70 strong. The competitive gene is strong and “100 percent a blessing,” he said.

“It’s always good to win. But you’re more vulnerable and discover more about yourself when you end up losing. I think that’s why I like the discus. It’s the most frustrating and the most rewarding. If you can get from your wind to your finish patiently, the right way, then you can let it all go and have a really violent finish.

“And then you can yell. That’s the best part.”

He plans on yelling loud in Eugene, even knowing he’s the only thrower with a best short of 190 feet.

“But by the competitive standard, I’m one of the top 24 in the nation,” he said. “I’m going to have fun. I’m in the room with these people. What do I have to lose?”