Locker Room: On the Right Track

Before their season was cut short due to COVID-19, track & field and cross-country squads were trending upward under new head coach Christine Engel.

From the San Joaquin Valley to the Red River Valley, the last year has been a year of change for Christine Engel. Hired away from Fresno State a year ago to lead the University of North Dakota track & field and cross county programs, Engel has seen a lot of change over the last 12 months.

Engel, who has previous coaching experience in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Mountain West Conference and The Ivy League to name a few, oversaw several changes to the record book in her first year at the helm with a total of 51 new entries on the program’s all-time top-10 chart. School records were set in the women’s distance medley relay, women’s 60-meter hurdles, women’s 100-meter hurdles, women’s pentathlon, men’s heptathlon and the men’s weight throw.

In the fall, to go along with the changes in the track and field school record book, there were four all-conference cross-country performances at The Summit League championships. Junior Madison Overby along with seniors Hannah Oscarson and Erica Eades were recognized on the women’s side as well as freshman Luke Labatte earning the honor for the men. At the NCAA cross country regional, the women’s squad enjoyed its best finish in Division I history during Engel’s first year in charge.

Oscarson continued to make her presence felt at The Summit League Indoor Championship, scoring 21 points by finishing second in the 5,000-meters and 3,000-meters while coming in fourth in the mile.

A native of New Jersey, Engel wasted no time on the recruiting trail, working to rebuild the men’s distance program in an effort to reach levels of success unseen in this millennium.

Junior College All-American Sylvester Kibarar highlights the class with proven success at the collegiate level. The transfer from Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College placed seventh overall, and fourth among sophomores at the NJCAA Cross Country Championship, finishing behind signees of distance powers Arkansas and Iowa State.

New assistant makes immediate impact

Before Engel got too far down the recruiting trail, she had an open assistant coaching position to fill. She chose former Arkansas All-American

Cale Wallace, who was serving as a volunteer assistant coach at his alma mater. An All-American in the distance medley relay with personal records of 3:40 in the 1,500-meters and 8:41 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Wallace made an immediate impact on the distance recruiting scene for the Fighting Hawks.

Engel and Wallace signed four of the top 27 finishers in the boys 2019 Minnesota Class AA State Cross Country Championship, led by Buffalo High School product Nick Oak who finished sixth overall. The talented group of four will join Minnesota native Labatte to bolster the men's distance roster.

The distance coaching staff of Engel and Wallace teamed to reach further than the upper Midwest to round out the men's recruiting class with signees Tyler Jackson of Cherokee (N.J.) High School, who won the 1,600-meters at the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Indoor Meet of Champions.

On the women’s side a more balanced class signed to compete for the Fighting Hawks. Distance ace Cornelia Wohlfahrt, a two-time Austrian National Senior Champion highlights the women distance signees.

As some things change, others stay the same – in the field, the throws group under the direction of assistant coach Drew Jones continued to shine. The throws group was led by senior Adam Mehr who broke his own school record in the weight throw on multiple occasions including three times in the same day at the UND Tune Up. On the women’s side, the high point was senior Makayla Keefe who improved to second all-time at North Dakota in the weight throw.

Jones, who recruited and developed former UND thrower Molli Detloff into a three-time All-American continues to add high caliber studentathletes to the throws group with a pair of highly decorated high school state champions in Eve Goldstein of Somerset (Wis.) High School and Kenna Curry of Elk Point-Jefferson (S.D.) High School. Goldstein and

Curry will add immediate quality depth to Jones’ throws crew in one of the nation’s top throws conferences.

Hurdling to success

Assistant Coach Dan McCarty’s group turned in a solid indoor season with senior Erin Brown leading the way finishing second at The Summit League Indoor championships in the 60-meter hurdles. McCarty mentored Brown as she bested her own school record on numerous occasions over the last two seasons. McCarty led sophomore Jack Vetsch and junior Erica Benson each to school records in the indoor multievents.

In the lone outdoor meet of the season, in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Brown became the only hurdler in program history to finish the 100-meter hurdles in under 14-seconds clocking a time of 13.96 to set yet another school record. The meet saw 12 other Fighting Hawks take event wins and two meet records including Brown’s 100-meter standard and Eades’ 800-meter time of 2:10.09. Junior Destinee Rose-Haas hurled the discus 163-11 (49.97) which was further than the previous meet record but finished second in the meet.

McCarty — who also coached a UND All-American last year, Kyley Foster — welcomes a promising group of women jumpers and sprinters for 2020-2021 including three-time Alaska state hurdle champion Brooklyn Gould.

The changes continued as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the nation and the world, preventing the outdoor season from completion for the first time at UND since the flood in 1997. As the university, athletic department and track and field program continue to navigate the future with Engel leading the way, more changes and history will be made. ///

— By Kyle Doperalski