They’ve got that dog in them. It’s the greatest phrase to befall the sporting community this decade. So much of the nature of sports and competition is captured in those six words.

How did Jamal Murray hit that game-winner over Anthony Davis? He had that dog in him. How did Jordan Love walk into AT&T Stadium and break America’s team? He had that dog in him. How did Jennifer Loredo hit 10 strikes in the national championship after not starting the entire season? She had that dog in her.

Raucous crowd, elite competition, game on the line and the whole program on your back — it doesn’t matter. Some people just have it, that metaphorical rottweiler.

As I went through four interviews to learn more about Giavonna Meeks, Vanderbilt Track and Field’s elite sophomore thrower, I was confronted time and again with people dancing around this very point. She just, for lack of a better term, has that dog in her.

“I think [Meeks] is so internally motivated that that’s something I don’t want to mess with,” assistant coach John Newell said. “I don’t want to change something that’s hardwired into her.”

Her head coach felt the same way.

“She’s very intrinsically motivated,” Althea Thomas said. “It’s not a matter of convincing her that this is what you have to do. It’s more just teaching her to do what she already knows she needs to get good at.”

Even her teammates have noticed.

“She’s very locked in and focused on what she has to do,” fellow sophomore Kosi Umerah said. “She wants to maximize her potential. She’s very confident in her abilities and wants to see the results of her hard work.”

Trying to describe how or why Meeks came to have her internal motor is a fool’s errand. It’s like asking why someone’s hair is brown or their eyes are blue. It’s just part of them. It’s who they are. Some people just have it, that indescribable sense of self-imposed urgency, and some people just don’t. 

Most people, in fact, don’t have it — and that’s what makes Meeks so special.

“I think her ability to compartmentalize sets her apart from other athletes,” Umerah said. “She wants her work to show that she is really about it.”

If you were to observe Meeks from afar, you might not notice the burning competitor within her. A self-described “big, friendly giant,” the sophomore is notoriously soft-spoken for someone whose name already fills her program’s record books.

Just two years into her career, Meeks holds Vanderbilt’s school record in the weight and hammer throws. Whose record did she break to get there? Her own — multiple times. She’s a First-Team All-American, SEC Co-Freshman Field Athlete of the Year, a hammer throw champion across a litany of national competitions and top-10 in program history for the indoor shot put, outdoor shot put and discus.

Oh, and she wasn’t completely committed to track and field until four years ago.

“My sophomore year, I got offered a full ride,” Meeks said. “That was kind of like the turning point for me, because up until then I was more focused on basketball.”

That first collegiate offer came from Colorado State University, about an hour and a half from Meeks’ hometown of Denver. Instead, two years later, she found herself traveling across the country to come to Nashville, Tenn., as the newest member of Thomas’ program.

Moving to the southeast for college didn’t come completely out of nowhere. Her father, Bob Meeks, played offensive line for Auburn before a stint with the Denver Broncos. Nevertheless, Vanderbilt isn’t the first program people think of when discussing SEC track and field, but that’s part of why Meeks wanted to come. 

“Setting the standard for what Vanderbilt throwers look like [would be] a really good legacy to leave here,” Meeks said. “Vanderbilt hasn’t really had a strong throws group in a while, so I definitely want to be [part of] kind of like the founding throws group.”

Considered elite from the moment she stepped on a track in high school, attempting to recruit Meeks was a foregone conclusion for the Thomas regime. The pitch was two-fold: the degree and the development.

Meeks, an HOD major with plans to enter finance, was dead set on going to a university where the degree would carry cache once her throwing career ended. Vanderbilt, for its part, fits that qualification. But would the rebuilding track and field program be good enough to facilitate her goals?

“There wasn’t evidence to show at Vanderbilt,” Thomas said. “She came on a visit in October [2021] and we had just figured out where we were living.”

Instead, Thomas opted to sell her on a vision of what the program could be with her on the roster.

“It was more like, ‘hey, I’ve done this with these athletes at other universities, so it’s not going to stop here,’” Thomas said. “This is a great place because you don’t have to choose between the good school or the good track coach or situation. We’re going to have both here. So that was the pitch.”

The pitch worked, and now, two years into Meeks’ tenure with the Commodores, the sophomore has her sights set on another goal: the 2028 Summer Olympics.

“That would be my peak,” Meeks said. “That would be my peak era for throwing. After that, I would probably stop.”

It might not be on the top of her mind every day, but the desire to compete alongside the greatest athletes in the world is always lurking somewhere in her psyche. As hard as it may be for the average person to comprehend, it’s a dream that’s not that far-fetched.

“[Meeks] has the ability to be an Olympian if that continues to be a goal of hers,” Newell said. “To see Giavonna Meeks in a U.S.A. uniform, that wouldn’t be a surprise.”

It’s easy to be paralyzed by the anxiety that comes with goals that large. Yet somehow, it all seems to come naturally to Meeks.

“I think the biggest thing for her is that she has a type of personality that doesn’t allow her to have really high highs or really low lows,” Thomas said. “She’s able to keep the main thing the main thing. It really helps her in her journey and the process because the journey and the process to reach these big goals is a lot greater in complexity than most people can understand.”

Even-keeled, always confident and constantly wanting to get better, Meeks has four years to go until she has a shot at reaching what would be the pinnacle of any track and field athlete’s career. And yet, as young as she is, she would go down as one of the greatest athletes in program history if she were to walk away from the sport tomorrow. 

But, she won’t be throwing in the towel tomorrow or any time soon. So, from now until then, expect to see Giavonna Meek’s name added again and again to the school’s record books.

“She has definitely elevated the group with her accomplishments, which is very motivating for the rest of us,” Umerah said. “In short, she thinks talk is cheap.”

Talk is cheap, and even trophies rust with age, but legacy lives on forever. 

“[It’s] exciting just to set new standards and make a new history for Vanderbilt,” Meeks said. “At some other schools that have a strong history, it’s harder to make an impact. Coming here and having an impact that quickly, that’s a bonus for sure.”

Meeks’ story isn’t finished yet, and so her legacy is still not cemented in its entirety. Yet, one gets the feeling that someday, many years from now, when Meeks and all of her teammates are long gone, that somebody will take a look at the wall of program records and ask themselves, “what do I have to do to be as good as Giavonna Meeks?”