Arkansas Runners- McDonnell Era

Kenyon College swim coach Jim Steen has won 29 men's NCAA championships and 21 women's. I believe this is 50 NCAA championships since 1980 - a few more than Arkansas' coach. Kenyon has won 31 consecutive Men's titles. So Steen has more NCAA titles than any NCAA coach and this is doing 2 swim teams, not indoor and outdoor track, along with CC.

I'll pass on to my brother (although I'm sure he already saw your post as he checks the site). Yes, I ran at Tulsa for a bit with Siler while Coaches Redwine and Clark were building the program. Watching Coach Redwine (a former Hog) workout in 95-96 was impressive as well.

Some of those championships were taken away for cheating... The ones they could prove at least.

falcon once told me that there were 15 guys on campus his senior year (counting "pros") that had run sub 4. he also told me about a similar ladder that they did: 1600, 1200, 800, 600, 400, 200 done on the old flat indoor track in the tennis arena. something like 4.06, 3.00, 1.58, 56, 27. i forget what the recoveries were, as it has been quite some time. i actually was personally privy to a sunday run (14? but some went longer) at one time around '95 with hanley, bunston, bruton, etc., and i can assure you, the last 5 miles were very close to 5-5.10 pace. "recovery" days were well under 6 minute pace. everyone did an easy 4 miles every weekday morning (maybe except contreras- ha!). i can still remember seeing dewayne minor doing lap after lap on the turf going about 8 minute pace. remember that teddy mitchell also tranfserred to arkansas during his last year (2 years of track?). think of the studs that mcdonnel has brought along...o'shaughnassy, aspel, pat vaughn, consiglio, hood, bunston, godfrey, hanley, falcon, rein, donovan, bruton, cragg, lincoln, baker...you get the point. what a time it was to be in fayetteville!

Jim Steen from Kenyon College has won more NCAA titles in swimming.

Head Coach

Under the tutelage of head coach Jim Steen, the Kenyon College men’s swimming and diving team has developed into the most successful program in collegiate athletics history.

One of the most respected coaches in the nation, Steen has directed the Lords to 29 of their record 31 consecutive NCAA national championships, while at the same time, he guided the Ladies to 21 of their 23 national titles. Steen has won more NCAA national championships (50) than any other coach in any NCAA sport.

Not to be "that guy", but Kenyon is NCAA Division III and swimming is even more marginal than track as a real sport.

You do have a point on the one swimming season vs. 3 track / xc seasons. Coaching men an women to equal success is also very impressive.

Not to bash Mr Steen wrote:

Not to be "that guy", but Kenyon is NCAA Division III and swimming is even more marginal than track as a real sport.

You do have a point on the one swimming season vs. 3 track / xc seasons. Coaching men an women to equal success is also very impressive.

You're right, Kenyon is DIII. That means he's managed to motivate and recruit athletes who have no future as professional athletes at a superior academic institution that costs quite a bit of money. Obviously, he's done this without athletic scholarships. Yes, it's DIII but that doesn't mean it's not still competitive within the spectrum of athletes who compete on that level.

Well, I suppose given last year's nationals results no one was really "competitive" with the Lords!

Coach Steen also stepped down this year as the Ladies coach, so he'll only be adding 1 national title a year to that total from here on out.

I remember going to the Arkansas summer track camp in 93 or 94 in high school. The boys were cutting hair and one of the younger stars of the womens team came into one of the rooms for a late night hair cut session on the spur of the moment. That girl was Deena Drossin. She was very funny and free spirited all during camp. One of the most high energy people I've ever seen. I had no idea one of my counselors was a future Olympic marathon medalist and double World XC medalist. People like Mike Conley and Erick Walder were just walking around. I remember being amazed to see all these guys like Graham Hood just chilling out. I learned about the camp cause I went to school in Russellville, Arkansas. One of my mentors, Tom Aspel, who McDonnell trained, recommended I go there. I still remember the underwear mile we ran at night and all the girls came and chased us after we were done. What a great running camp. Listening to McDonnell tell us stories like the time he beat Jim Ryun were incredible to hear in person.

These workouts are mostly true. I was in a workout with Maloney, Donovan, Redwine, and a few others on the old indoor flat track, around 1986, where we ran 4x800 with a 400 recovery and averaged around 156.low. Lots of "steady state" 10 mile runs on no-race Saturdays that were in the low 50's, and 4 to 6x 1 mile repeats on a golf course on Mondays (second half mile uphill) where 4:30's were not uncommon (and this after XC on Saturday and a 14-18 miler on Sunday). No magic, just real hard work and total trust in a great coach.

Regarding the comment about Arkansas cheating by "Let's Remember . . ", yes, there is a lot of jealousy out there along with disbelief, so let's compare training diaries sometime, and you'll understand.

one of the greatest that never was in my opinion was chris zinn. he came into camp his freshman year, and was just crushing people...i mean guys like donovan and others who had been all americans just the track season before. i'm pretty sure he roomed with falcon. zinn steps in a hole, blows out his knee, and never made it back into the animal that he once was. out on the old golf course, coop got blasted in the leg by a golf ball. that one left a mark.

"One of Them": Are you Consiglio or Matt Taylor?

Although Zinn did place in the top 5 at NCAA XC in 1988.

Cooper was a big key to their XC titles in 86 adn 87. The blue collar guy that was always dependable to run solid at number 5. Except for 1988 when both he and Reina bombed.

Yeah I remember reading their media guide in 1986 and counting 10 or 12 runners on the roster at 3:45 or better, including Falcon, Consiglio, Taylor, and Donovan who were 3:34 to 3:37 in college. I don't remember all 4 of those guys ever running a 4 by 1500. Donovan might have graduated by then. They always had a guy like Iovine leading off. He wasn't that good.

I loved watching them in the distance relays, if a guy had the lead they always tried to demoralize people from coming back by running the first lap hard. They raced XC nationals that way also.

But I don't believe they had 15 sub 4:00 milers on the team at oen time. Maybe Falcon was counting post grad guys like O'Mara and Donovan.

They used to go 1-8 in the Indoor SWC mile. It was a joke. Plus they always would go to regionals in XC and sit out 3 of their top 5 guys and still win.

One of the things people always knew the Arkansas guys for was their ability to crush people and then party harder than anyone else in the country that same night.

Consiglio era

Bruton/Schiefer era

R. Wilson era

Kerr/Kaley era

All these guys were badasses and represented when it came to having a good time.

I remember the Cragg/Lincoln era had changed a lot...those teams didn't have fun together -- didn't even really like each other. Maybe the fact that they took running too seriously is what led to the unraveling of the NCAA's greatest program?

Hood and Bunston were boozers and had lots of fun ... and good for them ... at CDN xc championships (after party) they hit on my girlfriend! Later that evening with Jeff Schiebler they were seen hitting on more chicks ... and getting shot down.

Why is no one mentioning Ruben Reina, Olympian, still hold the FL record at Balboa.

"But I don't believe they had 15 sub 4:00 milers on the team at oen time. Maybe Falcon was counting post grad guys like O'Mara and Donovan."

-hence the statement, "counting pros".

With few exceptions, the stories are true. Keep in mind, when I arrived in the fall of 1991, we had the old flat 200m track, so the workouts were nothing as fast as Cragg, et al. Here are some common workouts:

16x400m 59.5 60 sec rest

8x400m 56.560 sec rest

3x 1 mile 4:18 4 minutes rest.

2000m 5:17 (5 min rest) 1,600m 4:17 (4 min rest), then 1,200, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m.

With respect to the # of sub 4 minute milers, in the early 90s, I believe it was more like 6 on the team, and maybe 9 total. Keep in mind, breaking 4 for a mile didn't win NCAA champs, so we never set them up. Like I used to say, "I can run 3:41 for 1,500m 3x per day 2 days back to back. However, I couldn't break 3:40.

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