2010 Kansas Track and Field History during his career. In 1980, Sonya Owolabi won the NCAA indoor title in the triple jump and finished his outstanding career as a three-time All-American.
In addition, Michael Cox captured All-America honors in the mile and the 1,500 meters as well as in cross country. The Rise of the Women’s Program While the men are entering their 110th year of competition, the women are youthful in comparison. KU women’s track is in only its 37th year as an organized program, starting in 1973. In some ways, the women’s program started out in similar fashion to the men. Both programs had no formal guidance in their formative years, and both were led by coaches who gained more notoriety in other sports. Under the direction of former KU women’s basketball coach Marian Washington, the women’s track program was born in 1973. In addition to coaching basketball and track, she also served as the women’s athletics director. Teri Anderson became the fourth women’s coach in 1977. With Anderson at the helm, the KU women reached the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championships for the first time. The team also took second at the 1978 Big Eight indoor meet. In 1980, the women were second at both the conference indoor and outdoor championships. Sheila Calmese was one of the first outstanding track and field performers for the women at KU. In 1978, Calmese placed first in the 300-yard dash and second in the 60-yard dash at the AIAW Indoor Championships. That same year, she added a third-place finish at the AIAW Outdoor Championships in the 100 meters. She was the first three-time All-American in Kansas women’s track history. Calmese is still second all-time in the 100-meter dash in the Kansas outdoor record book. Kansas was also paced in the early years by All-American Charmane Kuhlman. Kuhlman finished second in the long jump at the 1978 AIAW Indoor Championships.
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A third standout in the early years was Kansas City, Mo., native Shawn Corwin. Corwin was an All-American high jumper in both 1978 and 1979. In 1981, Anderson was replaced by Carla Coffey. Coffey took Kansas to seven national championship meets. Her 1984 indoor team tied for 20th at the NCAA finals. The highest the Jayhawks have ever placed was in 1979 when they took third at the AIAW indoor meet.
Sheila Calmese
Under Coffey, Kansas became a national name in the throwing events. In 1984 and 1985, Stine Lerdahl was the Big Eight indoor champion in the shot put. In both those years, she gained All-American status when she placed sixth at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Anne Grethe Baeraas was the first woman at KU to be named an All-American in the javelin during the 1984 season. Denise Buchanan capped a brilliant career at Kansas by being named All-American in the shot put during both the indoor and outdoor season in 1987. She finished fifth at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a toss of 53-4.25, a school record. In fact, Buchanan broke both the indoor and outdoor shot put records at the NCAA finals. Ann O’Connor, a Salina, Kan., native, became an All-American her freshman year in the high jump in 1984. She set the indoor and outdoor record in the high jump while at KU as well as the pentathlon record. In setting her marks in the high jump, O’Connor became the first woman in Kansas track history to clear the 6-0 mark. Jumping Jayhawks For a time, the jumping events became KU’s most successful area. From the 1979 season through the 1990s, KU produced 31 All-Americans from the pole vault, high jump, long jump, triple jump, heptathlon and decathlon events. Much of the credit was deserved by vertical jumps coach Rick Attig, who coached at Kansas from 1985 through 2000. KU Hall of Famer Jeff Buckingham began the tradition in 1979 by finishing second in the pole vault at the NCAA indoor meet. Buckingham went on to earn three more All-America awards
After Warren Wilhoite finished second and fourth in the long jump during the 1982 and 1983 NCAA indoors, Chris Bohanan and Scott Huffman finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 1986 NCAA indoor pole vault finals. Huffman added a second-place finish in the 1988 event and went on to bigger and better things. In 1993, Huffman won the U.S. Track and Field National Championships and placed fifth at the world championships. A former American pole vault record holder, Huffman joined former Jayhawk sprinter Pierre Lisk (Sierra Leone) at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. At the end of Huffman’s college career, two vaulters stepped in as KU’s leaders. Pat Manson and Cam Miller combined for nine All-America awards from 1987-1991. Manson’s leap of 18-8 at the 1989 Big Eight Indoor Championships remains the KU record today. During that season, Manson, Miller and teammate Cedric Fullard averaged a combined height of 18-5 to rank as the best collegiate pole vault trio ever. Another vaulter who saw success at Kansas was two-time indoor All-American John Bazzoni. In 1995, he took honors in both the indoor and outdoor Big Eight pole vaulting championships. Earning All-America honors with Bazzoni in 1995 was high jumper Nick Johannsen. In 2002, KU vaulter Vadim Gvozdetskiy earned AllAmerica honors in the pole vault, while current KU vaulter Jordan Scott has twice been named an NCAA Indoor All-American in the event. On the women’s side, 11 KU jumpers have taken home All-America awards since 1979. Charmane Kuhlman became the first women’s All-American in 1977, finishing second in the long jump at the NCAA Championships. Shawn Corwin was a four-time recipient in the high jump, earning a pair of runner-up finishes in 1978. Halcyon “Tudie” McKnight earned All-America honors in the long jump three times from 1982-1983. The Kansas Relays long jump event was renamed the “Halcyon ‘Tudie’ McKnight-Blake Women’s Long Jump” in 1995 to honor McKnight’s accomplishments as a Kansas long jumper. She still owns the Kansas Relays and Memorial Stadium long jump records. Ann O’Connor was named All-America in both the high jump and the heptathlon during her career from 1984-88,