By Jared Fields, Managing Editor
Early in July Andrew McDowell still had no plans of where he would attend college with it being just a few weeks away. He and high school friend Ramone Sparks planned on going to the same school but now had nowhere to go.
Sparks came on a visit to ACU after the Missouri state meet where he put in a good word for his friend with head coach Don Hood.
Sparks called McDowell and asked him to tell the coaches about him; Sparks assured him he already had. An hour and a half later, coach Hood was calling McDowell.
McDowell sent some tapes to coach Hood, and the Missouri state hurdles’ champion arrived on campus for the first time during welcome week. McDowell posted personal bests in high school of 13.9 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and 37.5 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles. Last weekend at the Wes Kittley Invitational he ran a 8.28 and placed ninth in the 60-meter hurdles, impressing his coaches and showing potential of better times down the schedule.
He and his friend wound up at the same school as planned but not at a Division I program as planned.
“It was heartbreaking,” McDowell said of not finding a Div. I school to attend. “Every kid dreams of going to a big D-I school.”
However, McDowell has no regrets of running at a smaller school after seeing the program ACU has built over the years.
And like many of the newcomers expected to produce points in the team standings, McDowell said he has no regrets about his choice to come here.
Like McDowell, Kyle Dennis is a newcomer at ACU who is glad to be here after being unsure of what his future held, much less if he would continue track and field.
The sophomore pole-vaulter is one of two men who have provisionally qualified this season. The other is senior jumper Vladyslav Gorbenko. Both are now looking to better there marks and solidify their qualifying chances.
Dennis, a Pauls Valley, Okla., native, won three junior college pole-vaulting championships in a row. He swept the indoor and outdoor titles in 2005, and won indoor in 2006 for Johnson County.
Dennis is accustomed to what is perceived as cold weather conditions, but said he’s enjoyed the change in attitude on the team from that at Johnson County.
“Everybody influences everybody here,” Dennis said.
And on a team with the number of pole-vaulters this one has, that positive competition can only help Dennis reach a goal of 18-feet – seven inches higher than his personal best.
The men will get a points boost from its strength, distance runners. Along with perennial workhorse Nicodemus Naimadu, Hood said he expects 30-40 points at the national meet from his distance runners.
Considering their team cross country championship last fall, that statement should hold up at the national meet.
Outside of the distance group, Hood said the men have quality at every event, but not much depth. Only one meet into the year, Hood still has some questions to be answered to see what the team can do.
“We got the kids we recruited,” Hood said. “We just got to hope we recruited right.”
Hood is taking 33 athletes to Nebraska for the Frank Sevigne Invitational and 30 to Texas Tech, splitting the men and women among both meets.
Hood no longer wants to just compete and stay healthy; he is ready to qualify more for nationals.
Convention in Reno
Elizabeth Buyse thought her April visit to ACU would help her decide between Wheaton University and the University of Minnesota. She had only heard of Abilene because of her mom’s questioning around at the national pole-vaulting convention in Reno, Nev.
“But I ended up loving it,” Buyse said. “I’m so glad I came here.”
Buyse, from Anoka, Minn., where the Rum and Mississippi rivers connect, competed at the state meet in Minnesota her sophomore, junior and senior years. However, she was disqualified her senior year for a hair binder on her wrist.
Buyse recorded her best high school jump at 11-feet four inches and has increased that mark by two inches here. She provisionally qualified for nationals last weekend in Lubbock clearing a height of 11-5.75.
Buyse said her goal is to be an all-American, which means she will have to place in the top eight of the nation.
However, on the women’s team, Buyse is far from the only pole-vaulter with hopes to become an all-American.
Angie Aguilar returns for the Wildcats with plenty of experience for a young women’s pole-vaulting squad.
There are so many new women pole-vaulters with talent; coach Hood said four or five might make the national meet. Scoring points at the national meet is even more difficult to predict.
Unlike the men, the women have quality depth at many events.
The sprinters and hurdlers are the deepest, with the middle distance events close behind.
“There is at least one good person in the 5,000 [meter run] and down,” Hood said.
That depth was shown at last weekend’s season-opening meet in Lubbock. There the women provisionally qualified seven members. Other than the two pole-vaulters, the other qualifiers came from the group Hood said was deepest.
Exciting but scary
Davy Manga forgot how to speak English after quitting the language in 2001. But after being in the states for about three weeks, it is coming back to him.
Manga, from Savigny Le Temple, France, broke the French junior record in the triple jump in 2000. In 2004, he missed qualifying for the French Olympic team by 25 centimeters.
With a personal best in the triple jump of 16.62 meters, 54.53 feet, his goal of 17 meters, about 55.75 feet, is a goal he expects to meet along with competing in the Olympic games and world championships.
Manga enters the ACU track and field program with a proven background but arguably with some of the most potential. He is now exposed to a program with a training program that includes proper weight lifting and conditioning, as well as coaches to monitor all of his progress.
For Manga and the coaches, the thought of his potential is difficult to see.
For coach Hood, the whole team is like that.
“The biggest question for both [men’s and women’s teams] is the potential of the new people,” Hood said. “It’s exciting but scary. But I know down the road it will be good.”
