[Outdoor Track & Field] And down the stretch they come: Final preparations for KCAC Track ...

And down the stretch they come: Final preparations for KCAC Track Meet underway

Graves Family Sports Complex was constructed so Kansas Wesleyan's football, soccer and track teams would have a handsome, state of the art venue to showcase home events.

The football and soccer teams have called it home since 2015 and have enjoyed considerable success within its confines.

Track, though, wasn't as fortunate. The Olsen Family Track was fine for running, but the lack of an area for throwing events prevented the Coyotes from staging home meets.

The construction of a site for throws this spring has changed that, though, and as a result Wesleyan will serve as host for the Kansas Conference Outdoor Championships on Thursday and Friday. It will be first time KWU has played host for the conference meet since 1968.

Running events will be at GFSC and four field events at the new Bieber-Doherty-Scofield Throws Venue, located at the south end of Sunset Park on the Earl Bondy Memorial Baseball Complex, west of the United Methodist Church of the Cross.

"The conference rotates the track championship from site to site," KWU Director of Athletics Mike Hermann said. "We had been in line initially two years ago and we traded with McPherson to give ourselves a chance to have our facility ready to go. Last year we weren't ready again and Friends took it.

"We're in line this year and I'm so pleased and excited. In some ways we've been working towards this for a number of years and the chance finally to host a track championship at Graves that has been there since 2015 will be great."

Twenty-six teams (13 women, 13 men) will compete. The Friends women and McPherson men are the defending team champions.

Running and jumping events will be inside the stadium and on Olsen track. Shot put, discus, hammer and javelin will at the new site.

"Our javelin runway will be the best in the KCAC because of lot people are throwing off grass," Hermann said. "The venue really lays out well for all four of the throwing sports. It's critical for this event, but it's even more important for our teams. It gives our student-athletes a great place to practice every day, a place of their own where they can work on improving their craft. It's going to be a lot of fun to have everybody out there and compete there, and then back here for the running events."

Staging and coordinating the KCAC Championships isn't without challenges, though, especially with competition at two different sites.

Like he did in the fall when the university played host to a football and two postseason soccer matches in the same week, Hermann has organized a large group of volunteers to help. The group includes KWU coaches, students and staff, alumni and volunteers from the community.

"The person helping to coordinate the hammer throw is our school record holder Bruce Pinkall, who's taking off from his job of Director of Recreation in Pratt to come to the event," Hermann said.

"(Women's soccer coach) Kat Benton was javelin thrower in her day at Kansas Wesleyan and she's going to oversee javelin. (Volleyball coach) Jessica Cleveland was a high jumper and she's going to help with the high jump venue. Those are the people stepping up to make it work well."

KWU women's basketball coach Ryan Showman was chosen to oversee the volunteers.

"I have more volunteer background than track background," he said, with a smile. "For the last five or six years I've been coordinating volunteers for the Night With the Yotes event and I think with my sterling resume and vast experience and knowledge when it comes to coordinating volunteers, they decided I'd be the best person for this job.

"I ran a little bit my senior year in high school, I wasn't very good, but I had a lot of fun, so that's my track experience."

Showman said he'll basically serve as supervisor and troubleshooter.

"We've got such a great support system around Kansas Wesleyan that it wasn't difficult to find people to help out," he said. "I'm going to fill in where needed. We've got some open spots I might have to fill in and cover some people – students get out of class late or have to leave early. Something that's not planned I can hop in and do that."

Hermann's hopeful the KCAC meet will also boost Wesleyan's track teams.

"Having track and field front and center in our community and on our camps the next few days will be a springboard for our track and field program," he said. "They've done a great job recruiting, we've got a lot of great athletes coming next year but this could maybe help us find a few more and set the tone for our program to be one of the top in the KCAC as we continue to build it."

With track essentially an individual endeavor, Hermann's confident the Coyotes will have some notable performances along with numerous athletes from other institutions.

"While we might not rack up as many team points as we want based on the size of the team we have, we have a chance for some great individual performances and for people to get a great appreciation for what track does," he said.

"I think people will be really impressed watching these athletes, ours and others, and see what they can do whether it's pole vault or triple jump or watching the hurdles, whatever it might be. It's going to be fun to watch the athletes compete."

Hospitality is at the forefront of the endeavor.

"We have that job of rolling out the purple carpet and welcoming people to campus and be that conduit to connect the community and the university, and this gives us a great chance to do that," Hermann said.

"We want them to walk away and way 'wow, that community, the people there really appreciated the fact we were there.' We want to the student-athletes walking away saying this event 'was run as well as any track championship I've been in and I had the ability to compete at my best.'"