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Highlights of the 2006 track & field season could be looked at from two points of view.
During the indoor season, junior Dan Hudachek twice bettered the school record in the 35-pound weight throw with a best of 52’ 2 ½” and reached the automatic qualifying standard for the NAIA National Indoor Championships. Freshman Jordan King and sophomore Chris Benisch joined Hudachek in qualifying for the NAIA Indoor Championships at Johnson City, Tennessee, as they posted provisional, B standard marks in the 60-meter hurdles (8.66) and long jump (22’ 9”), respectively.
Outdoors, King was the lone Bulldog to qualify for the NAIA National Outdoor Championships in Fresno, California, running a B standard mark of 15.00 in the 110-meter high hurdles at the McPherson Invitational.
Team highlights for 2006 included second place finishes for the men’s squad at both the McPherson Invitational and the ACCK Championships.
At the KCAC Championships, it was seniors Tim Cox and Beth Krehbiel leading the way for the Bulldog men and women.
Cox finished his collegiate career with a third in the 800 meters, fourth in the high jump, and anchored the 4x800 and 4x400 relays to second and fifth place finishes. Those placings gave the Lyndon, Kansas, senior a total of 14 All-KCAC awards in his four seasons of wearing the red and white.
Krehbiel duplicated Cox’s four placements with a photo finish second in 400-meter hurdles, a fifth in the high jump, sixth in the 100-meter hurdles, and contributing a leg to the Lady Bulldogs’ sixth place 4x100 meter relay.
The top finishes by Bulldog underclassmen were a third place by freshman Brent Bailey’s in the 1,500 meters, and fourth place finishes by Jacob Merrick in the 10,000 meters, Jordan King in the 110-meter hurdles, and Dan Hudachek in the hammer throw.
While the men finished sixth in the team race and the women ninth, both squads had numerous “almosts”, seventh and eighth place finishes, mostly by freshman and sophomores.
“One of our goals for next season is to turn those (seventh and eighth place) finishes into points. The other is to continue recruiting to fill the gaps (in events) where we haven’t been scoring.”
With Cox, Krehbiel, Bryan Grosbach, Troy McBroom, and Crystal Thomas the only seniors competing for the Bulldogs in 2006, the program is moving in the right direction. Squad sizes continue to grow and marks are improving across the board as the Bulldogs work to climb into the upper echelon of the conference.
“We are getting a solid foundation in place. We are getting the type of student-athletes we want; ones that are committed to improving themselves, on the track, in the field, and in the classroom.”
“The conference is continuing to improve; the bar is being raised every year. We can’t be satisfied with where we are (in the conference race), and we won’t be until we’re challenging for the title year in and year out.”
