Notre Dame senior thrower Seth Sievers has signed a letter of intent with Southeast Missouri State for track and field.

Sievers holds the school record in both the discus and shot put at Notre Dame, and he was all-state in both events as a junior, finishing fifth in the discus and seventh in the shot put.

"He came on last year. He started throwing well and we've been kind of keeping our eyes on him," Southeast coach Eric Crumpecker said.

Sievers, who is 5-foot-9 and 200 pounds, has added about 25 pounds from a year ago and has been having a strong senior season for the Bulldogs.

He's been sweeping both throwing events at meets with regularity, and his recent shot put throw of 54 feet, 11 inches at the Tiger Town Invitational in Festus, Mo., broke his previous school record by more than three feet.

"He's got one of the top shot put marks in the state this year right now, his discus is up there," Crumpecker said. "I really think he's going to be a great hammer thrower at the collegiate level."

Sievers said he threw the hammer for a couple weeks last summer and posted a throw that ranked in the USA Track & Field's top 50 in his age division.

Notre Dame coach Bill Davis has watched Sievers, who has thrown 160-4 in the discus, mature from a raw thrower to one of the best in the state over the past four years.

"He's just extremely quick," Davis said. "He small for a thrower, but he's very, very strong. He's extremely quick and he's got tremendous technique. I've never seen this type of technique in such a young person, and he takes to it so quickly."

Sievers said he plans to major in chemistry with a minor in biology.

"The education first and foremost attracted me," said Sievers, who said he had offers from other colleges, about Southeast. "I'm going pre-medical for my major. All the highly accredited local doctors I talked to, I all asked for advice, and they told me to go to SEMO because it has a great pre-medical placement rate. I knew that's where I wanted to go academically."

Sievers said he's also spent time around the track program and felt comfortable with the coaching staff. His current throwing coach at Notre Dame is Brandon Colbert, a former standout at Southeast who was the Ohio Valley Conference male outdoor field athlete of the year four times while also earning the indoor award twice.

Southeast senior pole vaulter Jill Schnurbusch is the only former Notre Dame graduate currently in the Southeast track and field program, which boasts several athletes from other area high schools including Central and Jackson.

"We're looking forward to having him here," Crumpecker said about Sievers. "We've been fortunate to have some really good athletes from the area over the years, a lot of really good ones from the Cape-Jackson area. We think Seth can be another one of those."