A Letter To High School T&F Athletes High School track and field athletes in general and high school race walkers in particular, need to be made aware that there is a shortage of race walkers in the USA. There are currently more colleges needing race walkers for their Track & Field teams then there are HS walkers in the USA. As a result, some colleges are now recruiting race walkers from other countries to walk here in the USA. This fact is presented only to stress the point that high school race walkers are an important commodity to many colleges. What does it take to be a collegiate walker? The current qualifying times for the collegiate nationals in the race walk are illustrated in the table below. Looks pretty easy? Well only 19 men and 15 women qualified to compete at the outdoor nationals in St. Louis, Missouri, last spring. So it is challenging. Especially for those young men and women just taking up this track & field event at the collegiate level:
This means that there are scholarships available for aspiring high school athletes who are experienced race walkers. Not many, 5 to 10 per year, but they exist. They are not easy to find, nor given out to just anybody. But what colleges have the race walk? It isn’t easy for a high school athlete to find out. But look at it from a college coach’s point of view. Many media outlets, even track and field media, internet and paper, won’t print the results of race walk competitions. Why, because in their eyes it isn’t a high school event. Thankfully this is something the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and USA Track & Field (USATF) is working on. But until then, many college coaches don’t know where to look to find that walker that can score points for their teams. The point of this article is to help those college coaches and prospective athletes connect. Searching the Internet: When a high school student-athlete starts the search for their future college the first thing that young man or woman should do is to create a list of institutions that offer the area(s) of study he, or she, is interested in. This is the most important thing to do. After all, you go to college to get a good education. Athletics, including race walking, should be secondary. There are many web sites on the internet that can help search the 2,500 or so colleges and universities in the USA for the ones that have the course of study desired. They can be found by going to any of the popular search engines like yahoo.com and google.com and typing in “College Search” and clicking on the SEARCH button. Two good web sites that can help with this are:
The list returned by these searches can then be refined by limiting the search parameters by the size, location, distance, price, and type of college. But before eliminating any schools, student-athletes may want to create a sub-list of all schools that have both the degree program sought and are athletically compatible - which means a school that offers race walking. This second step requires a great deal more time and effort. This article should help the athlete accomplish this task. Some background information on scholarships: Every athlete is interested in getting a scholarship to college. So it may come as a shock, but in today’s collegiate environment rarely does any student-athlete receive a "Full Ride” or scholarship to college. "Quarter" and "Third" scholarships are more the norm in athletics. These are often divided along the lines of separate awards for tuition, board, and books. An athlete may receive one, or two, but rarely all three. Financial need and academic standing are also determining factors. Further complicating the recruiting situation is the window afforded individual colleges for making contact with potential student athletes. Four sets of governing rules are in effect. The rules vary between the three divisions within the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA). Plus the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has its own set. Generally, college coaches can't talk about recruiting and scholarship commitments until the athlete’s senior year in high school. But during the junior year a high school student can initiate communication with a college by filling out one of the on-line forms that most college & university athletic departments offer on their web sites. Optionally, you can email a coach directly and request information about their college and track and cross country programs. One last, very important consideration when seeking that athletics scholarship – there is more money available via academic scholarships for good grades and test scores than for athletic prowess. So while you are focusing on that set of 20 fast 400 meter repeats in practice, remember it is even more important to be getting top notch marks in the class room. WHAT COLLEGES ARE LOOKING FOR RACE WALKERS? The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has been conducting the race walk as a scored event at its National Track & Field Championships for nearly 35 years. Since 1980 nearly 75% of all race walkers on the USA Olympic Team have graduated from NAIA member colleges and universities. The NAIA has always been the forward thinking, driving force for the inclusion, not exclusion, of all Olympic Events at the collegiate level. Not only are the race walks a scoring event at both the indoor and outdoor National T&F Championships but the NAIA also includes the marathon with its outdoor T&F championships. There are many advantages to competing in the NAIA as a race walker. Besides the benefit of the close-knit communities and small class sizes typically found on a NAIA member school campus, NAIA athletics offer:
The NAIA is comprised of almost 300 member institutions, each dedicated to the ideals of excellence in character and respect in both athletics and academics. About 200 of these schools have T&F programs. About two dozen of these currently have race walkers. The rest are looking for that one walker that will lead their program. This paper identifies many of these schools and the coach’s email address. But to obtain a complete listing of all NAIA member colleges click on over to the NAIA’s website: http://naia.cstv.com/member-services/about/members.htm The NAIA recruitment process is less cumbersome, with fewer restrictions on the contact between a student-athlete and a coach. More frequent communication aids in assuring that the student-athlete is comfortable with the choice of an institution. While NAIA rules hold to strict academic requirements, the process of establishing eligibility is streamlined since there is no clearinghouse. What about National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools? Regretfully, the NCAA does not recognize the race walk as a track & field event. Current NCAA rules prohibit student athletes who are race walkers from receiving financial assistance from the athletic departments at their colleges. Therefore there are NO athletic scholarships for race walking within the NCAA ranks. That said, there still exists some opportunities for race walking at certain NCAA universities because of extremely supportive coaches at those institutions. These schools are mainly on the east coast where race walking is historical strong: NCAA Division I: NCAA Division II: NCAA Division III: At lot of the NCAA limitations are also applied per gender. The Scholarship Limits for NCAA Division I Track & Field/Cross Country athletes are 18 for the women and 12.6 for the men. Current NAIA Race Walking Success Stories: In addition to having the race walk as a scoring event at its indoor and outdoor collegiate national track & field championships, the NAIA encourages its member conferences to include the walks at invitational meets as well as Conference Championships. The Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) and the American Mideast (AMC) conferences regularly have the walk as a scoring event at their conference championships. In 2008 the Mid-Central College Conference (MCC) added the walk as a demonstration event. In 2009 the Mid-South conference (which includes Lindsey Wilson College) will have the race walk as a scoring event. The conferences and the member schools with full track & field programs for men and women are: American Mideast Conference {Cedarville University (Ohio); Geneva College (Pa.); Houghton College (N.Y.); Malone College (Ohio); Notre Dame College (Ohio); University of Rio Grande (Ohio); Roberts Wesleyan College (N.Y.); Saint Vincent College (Pa.); Tiffin University (Ohio); Walsh University (Ohio)} Heart of America Athletic Conference {Baker University (Kan.); Benedictine College (Kan.); Central Methodist University (Mo.); Evangel University (Mo.); Graceland University (Iowa); Lindenwood University (Mo.); MidAmerica Nazarene University (Kan.); Missouri Valley College (Mo.); William Jewell College (Mo.)} Mid-Central College Conference { Bethel (Ind), Goshen (Ind), Grace College (Ind), Huntington University (Ind), Indiana Wesleyan University (Ind), Spring Arbor University (Mich), Taylor University (Ind), and University of St Francis (Indiana)}. Mid South Conference {Campbellsville University (Ky.); University of the Cumberlands (Ky.); Georgetown College (Ky.); Lindsey Wilson College (Ky.); Pikeville College (Ky.); St. Catharine College (Ky.); West Virginia University Institute of Technology} The following NAIA schools currently have race walkers on campus, or have had an athlete transfer there, or have signed a student athlete to start classes in the fall of 2009. Some offer scholarships to race walkers. All are actively recruiting additional race walkers:
These colleges are actively looking for race walkers but have none currently on campus. The coaches would like to have race walkers contact them about attending their schools.
Colleges that signed race walkers in 2007 for the 2008 season: Cedarville University, Ohio (Grant Bacon, Maine) Colleges that signed race walkers in 2008 for the 2009 season: Lindsey Wilson College (Ky) (Roberto & Ricardo Vergara, Edinburg, TX and Evan Crowdus, Union, Ky) Colleges with athletes participating in the NAIA Indoor T&F Championships (9-11 March, 2007):
Other contact persons in race walking: Hopefully you have found this article useful in identifying the colleges that are race walk friendly. The following individuals can assist you with questions you have about race walking at the collegiate level.
Addendum – Past NAIA National Championship Race Walk Results: 2006 NAIA National Collegiate Indoor Track & Field Championships Johnson City Tennessee Women’s 3,000m RW results: 1 Amanda Gorst FR Virginia Intermont 14:39.30 10 2 Lindsey Hipp JR Malone College 14:49.96 8 3 Caitlin Ayers SO Lindenwood U. 15:12.28 6 4 Ashley Thomas SR Malone College 15:21.68 4 5 Jennifer Reekie FR Lindenwood U. 15:26.63 2 6 Po-man Lo FR Virginia Inter 15:54.78 1 7 Missy Walker JR Malone College 16:27.36 8 Amanda Sullivan JR Roberts Wesleyan 16:32.61 9 Anne Stanley SO Lindsey Wilson 16:38.87 10 Kelly Steingass FR Cedarville Univ 16:42.05 11 Raven Pilgrim FR Virginia Inter 17:01.07 12 Rachel Rhodes SO Houghton 17:32.36 13 Brittney Williams SO Mount Marty 17:58.92 14 Brittany Lyons JR Malone College 19:26.54 15 Talathia Weekes SO Lindsey Wilson 19:41.28 -- Jenny Mitzel FR Walsh (Oh) DQ Men’s 3,000m RW results: 1 Patrick Stroupe JR Central Methodist U. 13:13.27 10 2 Chris Diaz FR Northwood Univ 13:48.57 8 3 Brad Sinick JR Malone College 15:04.87 6 4 Tim Thurber SR Concordia NE 15:10.43 4 5 Nate Hughes JR Malone College 15:10.51 2 6 Kevin Conrey JR Missouri Valley 15:23.88 1 7 John Pfiel FR Azusa Pacific U. 15:47.75 8 Everson Marsh FR Azusa Pacific U. 15:56.68 9 Nathan Dreher FR Concordia NE 16:02.61 10 Mitch Howell SO Azusa Pacific U. 17:03.35 11 David Hernandez SR Biola University 17:03.76 12 Bryan Lopes FR Malone College 17:44.30 13 Geoff Karhoff FR Central Methodist U. 17:49.66 14 Mike Groholy SO Walsh (Oh) 18:03.08 15 Jeremiah Stauffer FR Malone College 18:45.67 -- Jon Ripke JR Concordia NE DQ -- Mudasar Haidat SO Virginia Intermont DQ NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships - 5/25/2006 to 5/27/2006 Fresno Pacific University, Fresno, CA Event 12 Men 5000 Meter Race Walk ======================================================================= NAIA Champs.: N 20:07.38 1997 Al Heppner, Wisconsin- Parkside Name Year School Finals Points ======================================================================= Finals 1 Patrick Stroupe JR Central Meth 23:16.38 10 2 Nate Hughes JR Malone College (Oh) 26:10.78 8 3 Tim Thurber SR Concordia (Ne) 26:15.80 6 4 Christopher Diaz FR Northwood 26:32.61 5 5 Jon Ripke JR Concordia (Ne) 26:49.59 4 6 Nathan Comden SO Cornerstone (Mi) 26:51.61 3 7 Nathan Dreher FR Concordia (Ne) 27:25.19 2 8 Kevin Conrey JR Missouri Valley 28:00.23 1 9 Geoff Karhoff FR Central Meth 28:36.71 10 Joe Carmany FR Malone College (Oh) 28:41.23 11 Matthew Harriman FR British Columbia 29:25.33 12 Mike Groholy SO Walsh 30:02.01 13 Joshua Montenaro SO Tiffin 30:37.44 14 Bryan Lopes FR Malone College (Oh) 30:46.71 15 Jeremiah Stauffer FR Malone College (Oh) 31:47.56 -- Brad Sinick JR Malone College (Oh) DQ -- David Terenzoni JR Geneva College (Pa) DQ -- Brandon Hislop FR Dakota Wesleyan DQ Event 36 Women 3000 Meter Race Walk ======================================================================= NAIA Champs.: N 12:39.67 2000 Sarah Stevenson, Olivet Nazarene, Name Year School Finals Points ======================================================================= Finals 1 Megan Huzzey JR British Columbia 13:53.57 10 2 Amanda Gorst FR Virginia Intermont 14:15.54 8 3 Lindsey Hipp JR Malone College (Oh) 14:51.06 6 4 Jennifer Reekie FR Lindenwood 14:57.20 5 5 Alex Lo FR Virginia Intermont 15:11.28 4 6 Caitlin Ayers SO Lindenwood 15:29.29 3 7 Erica Brown SO British Columbia 15:43.08 2 8 Ashley Thomas SR Malone College (Oh) 16:02.53 1 9 Amanda Sullivan JR Roberts Wesleyan 16:42.81 10 Missy Walker JR Malone College (Oh) 16:53.61 11 Rachel Rhodes SO Houghton 17:33.51 12 Ashley Hauge SR Geneva College (Pa) 17:34.45 13 Raven Pilgrim FR Virginia Intermont 17:48.33 14 Maria Mudd FR Walsh 18:49.72 15 Brittani Lyons JR Malone College (Oh) 19:00.18
2007 NAIA National Collegiate Indoor Track & Field Championships Event: Women 3000 Meters Race Walk ======================================================================= Championship: 13:56.06 2002 Amber Antonia, Wisconsin Parkside 2006 Champ: 14:39.30 3/10/2006 Amanda Gorst, Virginia Inter Name Year School Finals Points ======================================================================= Finals 1 Tina Peters FR Goshen College 14:50.36 10 2 Amanda Sullivan SR Roberts Wes 15:10.47 8 3 Po-man Lo SO Virginia Inter 15:11.15 6 4 Amanda Johnson FR Lindsey Wilson 16:30.97 4 5 Sarah Peak FR Cedarville Univ 17:21.75 2 6 Rachel Rhodes JR Houghton 17:30.77 1 7 Raven Pilgrim SO Virginia Inter 17:43.41 8 Lindsey Connolly JR Westmont College 18:14.09 Event: Men 3000 Meters Race Walk ======================================================================= Championship: 12:16.56 2002 Lachlan McDonald, Wisconsin- Park 2006 Champ: 13:13.27 3/10/2006 Patrick Stroupe, Central Meth Name Year School Finals Points ======================================================================= Finals 1 Patrick Stroupe SR Central Meth 13:44.42 10 2 Chris Tegtmeier FR Concordia NE 14:03.76 8 3 Chris Diaz SO Malone College (Oh) 14:06.38 6 4 Thiago Ferreira SO Missouri Valley 14:31.18 4 5 Kevin Conrey SR Missouri Valley 14:31.74 2 6 Paul Greive FR Concordia Univ 14:38.06 1 7 Geoff Karhoff SO Central Meth 14:41.66 8 Nathan Dreher SO Concordia NE 14:49.16 9 Jon Ripke SR Concordia NE 15:10.58 10 Brad Sinick JR Malone College (Oh) 15:27.96 11 Joe Carmany SO Malone College (Oh) 15:32.51 12 Tom Stollee FR Concordia NE 15:47.86 13 Chris Dehning SO Concordia NE 16:18.54 14 Josh Montenero SR Tiffin University 16:20.61 -- Peter Muldoon FR Virginia Inter DQ -- Kelvin Shuneson FR Cornerstone DQ -- Brandon Hislop SO Dakota Wesl DQ
2007 NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships Fresno Pacific University, Fresno, CA Men 5000 Meter Race Walk ======================================================================= NAIA Champs.: N 20:07.38 1997 Al Heppner, Wisconsin- Parkside 2006 Champ.: 6 23:16.38 5/26/2006 Patrick Stroupe, Central Meth FPU Track: F 23:16.38 5/26/2006 Patrick Stroupe, Central Meth Name Year School Finals Points ======================================================================= 1 Patrick Stroupe SR Central Methodist 22:10.76F 10 2 Inaki Gomez FR Univ of BC 22:16.08F 8 3 Chris Tegtmeier FR Concordia (Ne) 23:01.49F 6 4 Jon Ripke SR Concordia (Ne) 25:45.19 5 5 Chris Diaz SO Malone 26:07.82 4 6 Nathan Dreher SO Concordia (Ne) 26:14.50 3 7 Seth Campbell FR Cedarville 26:36.15 2 8 Joe Carmany SO Malone 26:42.09 1 9 Jeremy Worley FR Concordia Univer 27:16.68 10 Creighton Connolly FR Univ of BC 27:32.96 11 Shawn Magee SO Concordia Univer 27:41.14 12 Kelvin Shuneson FR Cornerstone (Mi) 27:47.40 13 Chris Dehning SO Concordia (Ne) 27:52.54 14 Geoff Karhoff SO Central Meth 28:09.82 15 Kevin Conrey SR Missouri Valley 28:11.79 16 Cody Knight SR Missouri Valley 28:34.80 17 Brandon Hislop SO Dakota Wesleyan 29:18.54 18 Josh Montenaro SR Tiffin Universit 31:29.20 -- Mike Wright JR Malone DQ -- Ethan Howard JR Oregon Institute DQ -- Brad Sinick JR Malone DQ -- Thomas Stollee FR Concordia (Ne) DQ
Women 3000 Meter Race Walk ======================================================================= NAIA Champs.: N 12:39.67 2000 Sarah Stevenson, Olivet Nazarene, IL 2006 Champ.: 6 13:53.57 5/26/2006 Megan Huzzey, British Columbia FPU Track: F 13:53.57 5/26/2006 Megan Huzzey, British Columbia Name Year School Finals Points ======================================================================= 1 Tina Peters FR Goshen (In) 15:20.21 10 2 Po-man Lo SO Virginia Int 15:24.90 8 3 Rachel Rhodes JR Houghton (Ny) 15:26.12 6 4 Amanda Sullivan SR Roberts Wesleyan (Ny) 15:57.70 5 5 Amanda Johnson FR Lindsey Wilson (Ky) 16:54.68 4 6 Lindsey Connolly JR Westmont 17:31.23 3 7 Maria Mudd SO Walsh 18:24.55 2 8 Katie Malinowski FR Cornerstone (Mi) 19:12.29 1 9 Brittani Lyons SR Malone 19:21.24 -- Lacey Watkins JR Malone DQ -- Sara Morrion JR Geneva DQ
2008 NAIA National Collegiate Indoor Track & Field Championships Men 3000 Meter Race Walk ================================================================ Championship: 12:16.56 2002 Lachlan McDonald, Wisconsin- Parkside 2007 Champs: 13:44.42 3/9/2007 Patrick Stroupe, Central Meth ================================================================ 1 Tegtmeier, Chris SO Concordia (Neb.) 12:41.187 2 Ferreira, Thiago JR Missouri Valley 13:44.057 3 Wiseman, Josh FR Cedarville 13:58.24 4 Campbell, Seth JR Cedarville 13:58.37 5 Muldoon, Peter SO Cen, Methodist 14:14.19 6 Stolee, Tom SO Concordia (Neb.) 14:23.26 7 Karhoff, Geoff JR Cen, Methodist 14:42.85 8 Dreher, Nathan JR Concordia (Neb.) 14:50.53 9 Sinick, Brad SR Malone 15:00.86 10 Dehning, Chris JR Concordia (Neb.) 15:09.64 11 Adams, Zach FR Houghton 15:15.31 12 Lew, Daniel JR Westmont 16:31.12 -- Bacon, Grant FR Cedarville DQ Women 3000 Meter Race Walk ================================================================ Championship: 13:56.06 2002 Amber Antonia, Wisconsin Parkside 2007 Champs: 14:50.36 3/9/2007 Tina Peters, Goshen Coll ================================================================ 1 Peters, Tina SO Goshen 15:22.43 2 Rhodes, Rachel SR Houghton 16:43.49 3 Wong, Megan FR Westmont 16:51.88 4 Brown, Janelle FR Cornerstone 17:06.21 5 Malinowski, Katie SO Cornerstone 17:15.04 6 Hansen, Emily SO Concordia (Neb.) 17:36.13 -- Adams, Chelsea FR Houghton DQ 2008 NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships University of Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois Event 12 Men 5000 Meter Race Walk ======================================================================= NAIA Champs.: 20:07.38 1997 Al Heppner, Wisconsin- Parkside 2007 winner: 22:10.76 5/25/2007 Patrick Stroupe, Central Meth ======================================================================= Finals 1 Inaki Gomez SO British Columbia 21:06.16 10 2 Thiago Ferreira JR Missouri Valley 21:56.73 8 3 Seth Campbell JR Cedarville 23:46.42 6 4 Creighton Connolly SO British Columbia 23:52.79 5 5 Josh Wiseman FR Cedarville 24:24.19 4 6 Tom Stolee SO Concordia (Neb.) 24:35.58 3 7 Peter Muldoon SO Central Methodist 24:59.76 2 8 Grant Bacon FR Cedarville 25:18.79 1 9 Jeremy Worley SO Concordia (Ore.) 25:26.58 10 Brad Sinick SR Malone 26:00.32 11 Nathan Dreher JR Concordia (Neb.) 26:11.11 12 Daniel Lew JR Westmont 26:17.24 13 Shawn Magee JR Concordia (Ore.) 26:56.95 14 Chris Dehning JR Concordia (Neb.) 27:48.73 15 Geoff Karhoff JR Central Methodist 28:25.91 16 Randy Fox SR Oregon Tech 29:21.52 -- Chris Tegtmeier SO Concordia (Neb.) DQ -- Mike Mannozzi SO Notre Dame (Ohio) DQ -- Zach Adams FR Houghton DQ Event 36 Women 3000 Meter Race Walk ======================================================================= NAIA Champs.: 12:39.67 2000 Sarah Stevenson, Olivet Nazarene, 2007 winner: 15:20.21 5/25/2007 Tina Peters, Goshen ======================================================================= Finals 1 Megan Huzzey SR British Columbia 14:12.12 10 2 Nicola Evangelista FR British Columbia 14:52.53 8 3 Tina Peters SO Goshen 15:20.51 6 4 Rachel Rhodes SR Houghton 15:37.32 5 5 Janelle Brown FR Cornerstone 15:45.83 4 6 Megan Wong FR Westmont 15:50.13 3 7 Emily Hansen SO Concordia (Neb.) 16:04.25 2 8 Amanda Johnson SO Lindsey Wilson 16:19.61 1 9 Katie Malinowski SO Cornerstone 16:47.86 10 Bev Larssen FR British Columbia 17:08.76 11 Jennifer Olynyk FR British Columbia 17:22.03 12 Maria Mudd JR Walsh 17:25.33 13 Amanda Davis SO Concordia (Ore.) 17:47.65 14 Kortney Sekulich JR Malone 17:49.32 15 Laura Stoesz JR Goshen 18:20.93 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||