ASSISTANT COACH
Doug Clark
Ninth Year at Kansas/18th Overall (Central Missouri State, 1981) Doug Clark begins his ninth year at the University of Kansas as an assistant cross country coach and middle distance/ distance coach for the track team. Clark came to KU after six successful seasons as an assistant coach to Stanley Redwine at the University of Tulsa. Clark has worked closely with Redwine throughout his career, also coaching alongside him from 1988-93 at the University of Arkansas. In Clark’s last four seasons at Kansas, the men’s cross country team has had four All-Americans. Colby Wissel (2006, 2007) became just the fifth cross country runner in school history to earn back-to-back AllAmerica honors with his 39th-place finish at the 2007 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Benson Chesang earned the honor in 2004, while Paul Hefferon earned the distinction in 2006. Hefferon and Wissel’s 2006 honors made them the first pair of Jayhawks to receive All-America status in the same season since 1994. Under Clark, the Jayhawk men’s cross country teams finished 12th at the 2005 NCAA Championships and 20th at the 2006 NCAA Championships, Kansas’ first two top-20 finishes since 1994. The team also had back-to-back third-place showings at the conference level in 2005 and 2006, which were the highest finishes since Kansas placed second in the Big Eight Conference in 1981. The second-place finish at the 2006 NCAA Midwest Regionals matched the team’s best effort since the inception of the regional format in 1978. Kansas also boasts three of the last four Big 12 individual champions in Benson Chesang (2004,2005) and Colby Wissel (2006). The 2007 women’s team was headlined by Lauren Bonds, who earned all-region honors. The future is bright for the KU women’s team. The 2008 squad could be the best women’s team since Clark has been at KU. The Jayhawks lost only three seniors to graduation in 2007, with nine letterwinners returning. Only one of those returnees, Megan James, is a senior. The rest of the roster features four juniors, four sophomores and six freshmen.
1,500 meters (two), Mile (two), 3,000 meters (one), 3,000-meter steeplechase (one), 5,000 meters (two), and distance medley relay (four), as well as an additional nine NCAA qualifiers in cross country and track. In that period, the team has also made major revisions to the school’s all-time performance lists, including school records in the men’s and women’s 1,000 meters, women’s 1,500 meters, men’s 3,000 meters and the men’s and women’s distance medley relay. Since arriving at Kansas, Clark also directed Jayhawk alumnus Charlie Gruber to a secondplace finish at the 2004 Olympic Trials, earning him a spot on the 2004 USA Olympic Team in the 1,500-meter run. That year, Gruber ran a 3:34.71 (1,500 meters) and 1:46.30 (800 meters), was champion at the USATF 4K Cross Country Championships and finished second at the USATF Indoor Championships in the 1,500-meter run. In 2005, he oversaw Paul Hefferon to the title at the USATF Junior Championship and to the silver medal at the Pan American Junior Championships (both in the 5,000-meter run). During Clark’s tenure at Tulsa, the distance and middle distance athletes made major modifications to the school record book, including multiple Western Athletic Conference and Missouri Valley Conference championships. Most notably, Clark directed Dwight Davis to a school-record 3:59.29 mile, and Tulsa’s first-ever track All-America honors in the indoor mile and outdoor 1,500-meter run in 2000. Prior to Tulsa, Clark served as an assistant coach at the University of Texas-El Paso in the spring of 1994. While with the Miners, he coached Jim Svenoy to a NCAA Championship in the outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase. Under Clark, Svenoy also set a Norwegian record in the indoor 3,000-meter run (7:51), good enough for a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships. UTEP finished third in the nation during the indoor season, and was national runner-up during the outdoor championships. While with Arkansas, Clark helped assemble one of the most dominant teams in the history of college athletics. During the 1991-92, 1992-93 and 1993-94 school years, Arkansas won all nine NCAA Championships in cross country (three), indoor track (three) and outdoor track (three). Clark was an NCAA qualifier in cross country at Southwest Missouri State University and qualified for the 2000 Olympic Marathon Trials, running 2:17.40. He was the top Masters runner in Oklahoma from 1996-2000, posting times of 14:58 (5K), 25:45 (8K), and 31:41 (10K).
Throughout Clark’s eight-year tenure, the Jayhawks have produced All-Americans in the
THE CLARK FILE Coaching History
2000-Present Kansas Assistant Cross Country Coach Track and Field Distance Coach 1994-2000 Tulsa Distance Coach 1994 Texas-El Paso Distance Coach 1988-93 Arkansas Assistant Cross Country Coach Track and Field Distance Coach
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Athletic History • Top Masters runner in Oklahoma (1996-2000) • Qualified for Olympic Marathon Trials (2000)
Honors and Achievements • Coached first Kansas Olympic distance runner (Charlie Gruber, 1,500 meters in 2004) since Jim Ryun in 1972 • Coached 12 track and field All-Americans in eight seasons at Kansas • Coached four All-Americans in cross country in the last four seasons • Coached for nine national championship teams from 1991-94 Education • Central Missouri State, 1981 Bachelor’s in Education • University of Arkansas, 1989 Master’s in Sports Management
2008 JAYHAWK CROSS COUNTRY
