Editor's note: Every Wednesday throughout the fall, we'll catch up with track and field student-athletes and coaches for five questions.
Q: What have all three of you done over the summer so you don't become complacent and take a step backwards?
Thor: "I was definitely not happy with my performance at the NCAA Championships. I just always want to improve from what I've done before and last year I dropped two places from my freshman year, so I just want to keep getting better. "
Kuklova: "I guess practice hard, pay attention to my technique more, and set up my future goals. I'm redshirting so I won't be competing in the spring. Going into 2020, coach wants me to win, but who doesn't want to win, right?"
Wennberg: "Well I had a good season once I got back home, so I'm just trying to work off of that and then improve upon that for this coming season. Basically, I want to go where I left off and make it better."
Q: I know you all go back home for the summer. What is like going back home, being with family, training and getting ready for the new year?
Wennberg: "I might have had the smoothest transition because of my dad, who is my coach back home, and coach Dubs were working together so that once I got home, there wasn't this big jump and shift in training. It was all a pretty smooth transition."
Kuklova: "For me, it was the same. My dad is my coach as well. When I finished at the NCAA Champions, the day after I arrived in Blacksburg I was flying back home. I think four days after my arrival, I was already competing and I think for me, the more tired I am the better I do at throwing, because I threw a new PR. After that I had two weeks off from competing, but during that time I also practiced and then I had another meet which I threw even farther and had another PR.
I think I was fine for the NCAA Championships and the three weeks after it and then there was a one month pause where I was practicing, but I think I was getting mentally tired and then I had nationals in the Czech Republic. I felt like I was supposed to place second or even win, but I got fourth and I threw horrible. I think that the transition back to Czech Republic was good for about three weeks, but then I think my whole body just got tired. "
Thor: "I feel like I had my peak around the ACC Outdoor Championships and then it just kind of got worse and when I got back home it was so bad. I kind of just took a week of rest and then got back in to it with my coach back home. Just starting up again, he didn't exactly know what we were doing here. He just needed some time to figure everything out, so it was not as smooth as they described it for me, but I was also tired and didn't really find any motivation. I'll work on that next year to try and improve that."
Q: What are the goals you all have for yourselves for this upcoming season?
Thor: "I'm like afraid to set goals, because I've had two seasons where I wanted to throw 66 meters and that didn't happen in either of those seasons, so I just don't want to set a goal. I just want to work hard and see where it takes me."
Kuklova: "I want to stay healthy and I'm not competing this year since I'm red-shirting, but I will be competing for the Czech Republic. I would like to try to go to Italy next year for the World University Games."
Wennberg: "I want try to set a family record. My dad has it in the hammer right now at 64.70 meters, so I want to beat that this coming year. Then I want to try and throw a PR during the collegiate season then go home, train hard, and then throw further to come back and train hard again in the fall."
Q: With all of you being international students, what was it like for you to transition here to Blacksburg? Does it feel like different?
Kuklova: "Horrible. Especially for me because I didn't speak English at all and I just didn't think I could speak, but at least I was trying to say something. The year before I came here, I was studying hard. I even had English classes, but the professors didn't teach me anything, so I was going to the tutor sessions trying to improve on my English and when I got here, it was a shock. Everything was in English, I couldn't speak Czech, no one could help me. The team was fine, but I had trouble with my first roommate. It was bad, but then I got used to it and started to hang out with my teammates and it was better."
Thor: "For me it was really good because I had Kajsa as my roommate and we already knew each other and we both spoke Swedish so it was really easy for me."
Wennberg: "Yeah that definitely helped for us and my mom is American so I traveled back and forth a lot so I already knew quite a bit of the American culture."
Thor: "I could just ask her anything. Anything I wanted to know, I could just ask Kajsa."
Kuklova: "For me, it improved the second year because I moved off campus and moved into a house with two Czech people. Irena [Sediva], who was javelin thrower and Marek [Barta], who was a discus thrower, so it helped. They could like help me, like how is everything going on here, if I had to travel they could explain to me better. But the first year at the school, horrible. Since I left the Czech airport, like when I go here for example, the plane didn't arrive and I have to drive from Washington to here and I didn't know where Washington is or where Blacksburg is. If it was possible to skip the first year, I would have done it immediately."
Q: How has Coach Dubs helped guide you all in throws this past year?
Wennberg: "He's really encouraged that we think about our technique ourselves, so that we can improve the communication, so we can understand each other better so that we're not saying the same thing, but in two different ways and not quite understanding it. I think he's really encouraged that."
Kuklova: "At first, I was scared and mad that somebody new was coming because I was so afraid, but after the first week or two working with Coach Dubs, I apologized to the air that I ever said that. I think we are on the same page when we are talking at practice or techniques, so I'm satisfied."
Thor: "It has kind of been a year of learning how we're saying stuff and what we mean when we say stuff, it's getting better."
