Anyone who's ever been to a track and field event knows where to find the guys with big guns.

They're not the pole vaulters, who exhibit tremendous upper body strength, or the sprinters with generally perfect all-around musculature. They're the guys that are built like the Incredible Hulk (but with a more stable psyche)—the throwers.

Picture a 6-foot-4 inch, 300-pound athlete, slap a mohawk on his head and a sizeable beard on his face, and you get the most intimidating human specimen of Big Ten track and field. His name is Sean Pruitt, a redshirt senior for the Wolverines.

More intimidating than his appearance is his performance inside the oval.

As the only big name in Michigan's throwing events, Pruitt was forced to become a jack-of-all-trades. He’s had no difficulty doing so, as he’s excelled in the shot put, the 35-lb. weight throw, the hammer throw and the discus throw. In fact, he was a Big Ten Champion in the weight throw last season, and he has become a national force in each of the events.

And don’t get any false notions from his slightly sub-par performance early this season. He was bested by Ohio State’s Max May’s in the weight toss by a tenth of a meter in part one of this season’s “The Dual." But most fans were unaware that Pruitt threw just a couple meters short of his personal best with a partially torn ligament in his shoulder. And Mays needed to beat his previous best by a meter and a half just to compete.

“I’m just trying to aggravate my shoulder as little as possible, and I have no worries right now.” Pruitt said.

Apparently, sending a 35-pound ball soaring through the air for over 60 feet is what Pruitt does when he's not trying to aggravate a nagging shoulder injury.

Throwing coach David Kaiser prescribes this treatment — the same coach that was enamored with Pruitt when he was a senior in high school. Almost immediately, Kaiser knew that Pruitt had not only the size, but also the technique to be a star at the collegiate level.

“Sean was pretty much a self-taught rotational thrower,” Kaiser said. “In high school Sean had never thrown the hammer or the weight, but we knew we could teach him those from scratch.”

And Kaiser's coaching has paid off — Pruitt posted school records in both the hammer and weight throw last season for a storied Michigan track and field program that dates back to the turn of the 20th century.

Yet possibly the most intriguing aspect of Pruitt’s game is his potential. According to both him and Kaiser, his ceiling is far beyond his personal records. They say the only feasible impediment between Pruitt and his Olympic aspirations in the future is his versatility.

That’s right, Pruitt may be too talented for his own good.

The team knows him as "the kid" who drives himself to work harder and achieve more in every event he competes in. The problem is that Olympian track and field athletes are specialists that tend to only thrive at one event. And Pruitt knows he will eventually have to choose among the four he’s grown to love.

“You can ask anyone in the Athletic Department — they’ve probably seen him out throwing in the snow and the ice,” Kaiser said. “But it’ll help Sean when he can get to a point where he can focus on one event.”

As of now, it’s too early to tell which event Pruitt will choose. In high school, he was the top discus thrower in the nation. Last season, he proved he could beat some of the best weight-throwers in the NCAA. And Kaiser thinks he could become a tremendously successful shot putter.

Whatever path he chooses, keep an eye out for him when he departs from Ann Arbor.

And with his size, one shouldn’t have to look too hard.