Pitt State outdoor track and field coming off incredible season
It’s been quite the season for Pittsburg State men’s and women’s outdoor track and field.
After coming up just shy in the indoor season, the Pitt State women dominated at the NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championship on May 25. The Gorillas paced the way with 100 points over the three-day period and finished well ahead of second-place Adams State (39.5) and third-place Azusa Pacific (44).
“Overall, it’s an amazing accomplishment,” Pitt State head track and field coach Kyle Rutledge told NewsTalk KZRG. “Anytime you win a single national championship, men or women, it’s great. To do it both in the same year is just unbelievable. It’s still surreal that we did it and I couldn’t be happier for the men and women in our program. Our assistants work so hard to get the kids where they are. It is an unbelievable and amazing accomplishment and I couldn’t be happier.”
It is the second time the PSU women clinched the Outdoor National Championship, previously taking the 2016 title. It is the first time a women’s team reached 100 points since Lincoln in 2005.
“It was absolutely unreal,” Rutledge said of the women’s title. “That’s the best I can describe it. We went in thinking if we could score 80-85, that would be a perfect meet and we would be ecstatic with a shot to win it just with how heavily favored Adams State was. They were on paper scoring 115 points, and for our women to put up 100 points the way they did—unbelievable. Absolutely amazing. I am still in awe of what those women did and how dominant they were.”
Highlighting some of the Gorilla women’s success, freshman Olivia Banderweide earned a national title in the javelin with a throw of 170 feet, 4 inches. The 4×100 relay team of Junior Diandrenique Gaines, sophomore Blakelee Winn, sophomore Taniya Looney and junior Jamiya Morgan finished runner-up. Senior Taylor Nelloms finished runner-up in the high jump with a clearance of 5-8.5.
The Pittsburg State women weren’t the only ones to come away with the top prize, as the Gorilla men walked away as the national champions for the third straight season after scoring 78 points. West Texas A&M (64) took second place and Harding (50) took third.
“It is (a historic run) because of the consistency that we do it with,” Rutledge said of the men’s third straight outdoor national championship. There are a lot of different guys each year and we just have tremendous leadership. … It doesn’t matter what team we have, they understand what their role is and how they need to do it. To (win) it three years in a row, hats off to those guys and our coaching staff because of how difficult it is to do it with three different teams.”
Junior Tre Betts (triple jump, 52-5.5), Dapriest Hogans (200 meters, 20.38 seconds) and Daylin Williams (110 hurdles, 13.52 seconds) all earned national titles in their respective discipline, while junior Hunter Jones earned a national title in the decathlon.
Treyvon Ferguson added a third-place finish in the 110 hurdles, while the 4×400 relay team of senior Woyn Chatman, senior Sam Tudor, senior Bailey Stone, freshman Caden Williams took runner-up.
The Gorillas men, who have six total national titles between the indoor and outdoor seasons, won both the indoor and outdoor national titles this year.
COACH OF THE YEAR
With such a historic year in the books, it’s no surprise Rutledge and his staff were recognized for their accomplishments in leading young men and women.
Rutledge, in his third season at the helm, garnered NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year as well as Central Region Coach of the Year honors for men’s and women’s outdoor track and field from the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Of course, Coach Rutledge wasn’t the only Gorilla coach to be recognized. Jesse Miller, who coaches the jumpers, also garnered NCAA DII Assistant Coach of the Year and Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
“What Coach Miller does with those jumpers and how he helps them just on the mindset of getting them ready for the big stage and how they can compete at the highest level, it’s amazing,” Rutledge said. “I love watching him coach from afar and how he conducts himself and how he takes care of those kids.”
ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
On top of being a part of the national championship squad, Pittsburg State’s Mason Strader was named the MIAA Ken B. Jones Award winning, given to the conference’s male student-athlete of the year.
“He is a top-notch guy,” Rutledge said. “As an athlete and as a person, his work ethic, what he does outside of the team and the leadership that he provides the team. You couldn’t find a better guy in my opinion. I might be a little biased, but you’re not going to find a better person or a more deserving person of the award with what he does on and off the track.”
He earned all-America honors after a seventh-place finish in the mile run and was on the distance medley relay team that took fifth place in the 2024 NCAA DII Indoor National Championships. Strader also added a fifth-place all-America finish in the 1500-meter run in the outdoor championships.
Strader was a 12-time All-MIAA performer and a five-time MIAA Champion in the indoor season by claiming track titles in the mile and the distance medley relay, while also adding All-MIAA honors in the 800-meter run and the 1,500-meter run at the 2024 outdoor championship.
He set his fourth Pitt State school record this indoor season with a program-best time of 8:04.52 in the 3,000 meters. Strader also earned All-MIAA honors and All-Central Region honors in cross country, helping Pitt State to the 2023 MIAA Championship and a program-best 11th-place finish at the 2023 NCAA Division II National Championships.
MIAA HALL OF FAME TRIO
A set of former Gorillas are headed to the MIAA Hall of Fame, as football all-American Nate Dreiling, women’s basketball all-American Dani (Fronabarger) Robinson and legendary former cross-country/track and field coach Russ Jewett were inducted in a recent ceremony.
Of course, Rutledge was a longtime assistant coach under Jewett at PSU and looks at the MIAA Hall of Famer as a mentor and someone who built the Pitt State track and field program into the powerhouse it is today.
“He was such a great mentor for me on learning how to develop a program and how to manage athletes on the different sides, the personal side,” Rutledge said of Jewett. “He is more of a stoic type of personality and would always sit in the background and never micromanage. He would trust you and just let you do your thing. He just let you grow into a coach. To watch him get into the Hall of Fame, that was a great experience for me to be a part of.”
Jewett was the head coach at PSU for 35 years from 1986-2021, leading the Pitt State track and field women’s team to the outdoor national title in 2016 and the men’s team to the 2018 indoor national title as well as double digit MIAA titles for both men and women in cross country and track and field.