LaVon Eblen visits with Randal and Phyllis Baier about their adventures.
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LaVon Eblen visits with Randal and Phyllis Baier about their adventures.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (24.1MB)
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AMES, Iowa – Jeremy Sudbury, who has coached four Cyclone individual NCAA champions during his outstanding tenure in Ames, has been named Iowa State’s Director of Track & Field and Cross Country. Iowa State Director of Athletics Jamie Pollard made the announcement Friday morning.
“Jeremy is the perfect person to assume the directorship of our track & field and cross country programs as we continue to build on our positive momentum,” Pollard said. “He has recruited and trained some of our most outstanding individuals and was instrumental in our programs becoming highly successful at the national level. As a long-time assistant at Iowa State, he is familiar with our current team, incoming recruits, the Big 12 and campus. It will be a seamless transition and I’m excited to see where he takes our women’s and men’s programs.”
Sudbury has served as an assistant coach at Iowa State since 2013, leading a decorated group of student-athletes to historic accomplishments and record-breaking performances. His abilities are evident, helping Cyclone runners reach pinnacles of their craft in both track and cross country.
His work has paid dividends for Iowa State, as the program has taken home four Big 12 team titles during Sudbury’s tenure. The ISU men have run to four-straight top-10 finishes at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
“I am extremely excited about the opportunity that Jamie Pollard and Calli Sanders have given my family and I,” Sudbury said. “I am also thankful to Martin Smith for his mentorship, as it has prepared me for this position. I am confident the transition will be seamless and my staff and I will be able to build off the successes we have had the past eight years. The resources and support at ISU are incredible for the track and field program to be positioned as a Big 12 and national contender. I am committed to make my vision for our current and future student-athletes a reality.”
Sudbury was a 2020 and 2021 USTFCCCA National Finalist for Assistant Coach of the Year. No better examples of Sudbury’s coaching acumen can be found than his work with Edwin Kurgat and Wesley Kiptoo.
Kurgat’s kick, developed under Sudbury’s watch, helped the Kenyan make history at the 2019 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Kurgat pulled away from the field to become Iowa State’s first men’s NCAA Cross Country national champion since 1990. Sudbury’s mentoring of Kurgat resulted in 10 career All-America honors and eight Big 12 titles. He was twice the Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships High Point Award winner and earned Big 12 Men’s Indoor Track & Field Performer of the Year in 2020.
In Kiptoo, Sudbury has mentored one of the strongest and most versatile runners in the nation. In 2020-21, Sudbury coached Kiptoo to a program-record six Big 12 titles. Kiptoo became the first male in Big 12 history to win three individual titles at a single conference outdoor championships, which he did with meet records in all three events: 3,000m steeplechase, 5,000m and 10,000m. Kiptoo also took home an NCAA indoor national title (5,000m), earned four All-America honors and set five school records in 2021.
Under Sudbury’s watch, Iowa State’s 800m group has also consistently been one of the best in the nation, and 2021 was no different. The Cyclone men’s 800m group was No. 1 in the outdoors USTFCCCA Event Squad Rankings with three competitors (Jason Gomez, Festus Lagat and Alex Lomong) earning bids to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Lagat has been a star pupil for Sudbury, earning five All-America honors in his career, topped with his third-place effort at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships in a school record 1:45.05.
Sudbury also helped mentor Daniel Nixon, whose season culminated in a phenomenal showing at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Nixon advanced to the finals, and put together perhaps the best run of his career, clocking a 1:45.56 – the second-fastest time in program history – while finishing seventh overall.
Sudbury first Cyclone star was Edward Kemboi, who swept the 2015 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Titles in the 800-meter run. Kemboi collected six All-America honors and seven Big 12 titles during his time as a Cyclone.
Sudbury has shown an elite ability to identify and coach student-athletes coming from a variety of backgrounds, whether that be directly from high school (All-Americans Roshon Roomes, Cebastian Gentil and Joe Schaefer), through the JUCO route (All-Americans Kiptoo, Lagat and David Too), moving up a Division (Gomez joined ISU from Division II Notre Dame de Namur) or through transfers to Iowa State (Daniel Everett, Kurgat, Lomong and Nixon).
Prior to his Iowa State tenure, Sudbury was the assistant coach of the men’s distance runners at the University of Oklahoma, while also overseeing recruiting operations for the Sooners.
The native of Las Vegas graduated from Oklahoma (2009-12) and was a two-time All-Big 12 performer on the track. He also helped lead the Sooners to sixth (2011) and 12th (2009) place finishes at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Sudbury, a 4.0 student in Leadership and Communication at OU, was named the 2010 Big 12 Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Prior to running for the Sooners, Sudbury attended Paradise Valley Community College, where he garnered NJCAA All-America honors five times and helped guide the Pumas to the 2008 NJCAA national title.
Sudbury is married to Maria Sudbury. The couple welcomed their first child, Jack, in December 2020.
In an update to our earlier reports, officials with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office today (Friday), said no injuries were reported following a single-vehicle accident that took place early Tuesday afternoon, north of Atlantic. Authorities say a 2015 Toyota Camry driven by Paige Elizabeth Henderson, of Amarillo, Texas, was traveling north on 620th Street (Olive Street) at around 12:14-p.m., when her car struck a “Road Closed” sign that was in the northbound lane, near Chicago Road. The vehicle then crossed into the southbound lane, entered the west ditch and rolled over.
The Sheriff’s Office reports also, three arrests took place this week:
On June 20th, Cass County Deputies arrested 50-year-old Sandy Paulline Coburn, of Griswold, on a charge of driving while barred. Coburn was transported to Cass County Jail and was later released on her own recognizance.
On June 21st, Deputies arrested 24-year-old Jordan Travis Lee Comstock, of Irwin, on a Cass County warrant for operating without a valid drivers license. Comstock was transported to Cass County Jail and was later released on bond. And, 33-year-old Kayla Milliam, of Shenandoah, was arrested on a Cass County warrant for violation of probation. Milliam was transported to Cass County Jail where she was being held on $2,000 bond.
The 8:06-a.m. broadcast, with News Director Ric Hanson.
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(updated 10-a.m.) The latest data from the Iowa Department of Public Health’s Coronavirus dashboard shows the some notable improvements in case numbers and hospitalizations. On Friday (Today), the IDPH reports four additional deaths, for a pandemic total of 6,124, and 76 additional (positive) COVID test results, for a total of 404, 208. A COVID-19 outbreak was reported at the Friendship Home in Audubon, where there are 14 cases. The last time they had an outbreak, but overcame it, was during the week of June 10th. The latest Long-Term Care Center outbreak brings the total number of such facilities with outbreak in Iowa, to three, after having gone to two, just three days ago. There are now a total of 34 patients/staff at those three facilities, who have tested positive, and a total of 11 who have recovered. Deaths at LTC’s in Iowa currently stand at 2,372.
The number of persons hospitalized with COVID in Iowa, has dropped to 46. Health officials report 18 patients are in an ICU, two were admitted, and 12 patients are on a ventilator. For the first time since records were kept from the start of the pandemic, hospitals in RMCC Region 4 (those in western & southwest Iowa) report NO no cases, no one in an ICU, no one admitted and no one was on a ventilator.
The State’s 14-day positivity rate is 2%. The seven-day rate is 2.0%.
In the immediate KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County (since the beginning of the pandemic) and the total number of deaths (Since the beginning of the pandemic) in each county to date:
Cass, 1,475 cases; 55 deaths
Adair, 996; 32
Adams, 356; 4
Audubon, 553; 11
Guthrie, 1,317; 32
Harrison County, 1,935; 73
Madison County, 1,790 19
Mills County, 1,809; 24
Montgomery, 1,116; 38
Pottawattamie County, 12,367;174
Shelby County, 1,380; 37
Union County, 1,382; 35
Ag/Outdoor, Heartbeat Today, Podcasts
Jim Field visits with Deb Schuler about the 16th Annual Women In Agriculture Conference in August. For more information or to register, go to: www.iowawomeninag.org.
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The broadcast news from 7:06-a.m., w/Ric Hanson.
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The latest version of the Iowa Drought Monitor (released June 24th), shows very little change in drought conditions across the State, despite rain last week and earlier this week. The data show last week, slightly more than 94.6% of Iowa is Abnormally dry (D-0 to D-4 rating). This week, the rate improved slightly, to about 92.5%. Three months ago, a little more than 41% of the State was Abnormally Dry.
Cass and many other counties across parts of western, southern and east central Iowa are in a Moderate Drought (D1-D4). The percentage (76.15%) is slightly higher than last week (76.04%), thanks to widely scattered rainfall. The worst (Severe) drought conditions (D2-D4) continue to impact a large area of central, north central, northwest and northeast Iowa, where nearly 44% of counties are affected. That’s up from 40.82% last week. The Severe drought expanded as well across southern and northwest Minnesota, due to worsening precipitation deficits and vegetation conditions.