Joey Woody’s Iowa track and field program is on the verge of a dynasty

For Joey Woody, formulating a university observe and area program that’s on the verge of a Large Ten Convention dynasty has required a constant message over an extended time period, a trusted teaching workers … and a calculator.

There are 61 males on the Iowa males’s roster. The NCAA (because it does with all males’s observe and area packages) limits Woody to distributing 12.6 scholarships per yr to his athletes. Do the mathematics, and the {dollars} are unfold skinny: a mean 20.6% scholarship per roster spot.

And contemplating 42 of these athletes come from outdoors Iowa — together with 13 from Illinois, six from California and at the very least two every from states like Florida, Mississippi and New York — with out-of-state tuition pushing $32,000 yearly, Woody’s potential to area a constant winner is nothing wanting outstanding.

“We’re not getting the top-five (nationwide) youngsters on a regular basis,” Woody mentioned. “What we have now to do is outcoach folks.”

Fifth-year senior Alec Nonetheless serves as a fantastic instance of a low-cost, high-producing funding. Nonetheless started his faculty profession as a walk-on from tiny Woodbury Central Group Excessive Faculty in northwest Iowa. As a Hawkeye freshman in 2018, Nonetheless was operating 800 meters within the 1 minute, 56-second vary. The next yr, he had improved to 1:51 and 1:52.

“Now he’s operating 1:47.5 and ranked first within the Large Ten,” Woody mentioned. “That’s the way you win championships.

“We’ve had a number of guys like that through the years which have are available in on small scholarship {dollars} or are walk-ons (who) developed into Large Ten point-scorers or Large Ten champions.”

Woody’s Hawkeyes have been on fairly a run.

And from Friday by Sunday on the Large Ten Championships in Minneapolis, they’ll attempt to preserve it going.

Iowa is aiming to develop into the primary Large Ten crew to win three straight (contested) outside males’s observe titles since Wisconsin gained 4 in a row from 2004 to 2007.

Final yr, the Hawkeyes dominated the Large Ten race, outdistancing second-place Michigan by 33 factors and scoring a school-record 127½. This yr, Woody thought he had the items to not solely proceed that convention stranglehold however contend for a nationwide championship — or possibly an NCAA trophy (high 4).

“That is most likely the most effective crew we’ve ever had,” Woody mentioned. “However we’ve had a pair youngsters banged up the final couple weeks, so it’s truly going to be a a lot tighter race on the high (in Minnesota).”

Amongst these recovering from damage is the second-year Hawkeye in Jenoah McKiver. The previous twin menace soccer quarterback from North Carolina ran a blistering 44.74 seconds within the 400 meters on April 9 in Tucson, Arizona. That was this yr’s second-fastest 400 on the earth on the time and stays the highest mark in Division I.

However every week after that school-record run, McKiver pulled his hamstring whereas operating a 200 and hasn’t returned to competitors since.

If McKiver doesn’t go this weekend, the NCAA regional qualifying meet Might 25-28 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is on deck.

“His head is in the correct place,” Woody mentioned. “He’s attempting to get again for the top of the season.”

McKiver’s ascent from eighth place within the 400 on the 2021 Large Ten Championships to one of many quickest on the earth underscores Iowa’s expertise analysis and improvement. Nevertheless it additionally represents one other tenet to Woody’s program success: Constructing a crew round 400-meter runners. Two of Woody’s late teaching mentors, Jim Bush and John Raffensperger, had been huge believers in that. And Woody, a world-class 400-meter hurdler in his day, is minimize from the identical material.

A high 400 runner can present versatility within the 200 or the 800 and even run on the 4×100 relay. Within the indoor season, the 600-meter run is a giant occasion for the Hawkeyes. They scored 27 factors within the 600 on the Large Ten Indoor Championships — taking 5 of the highest seven spots — on the way in which to a crew title.

The depth Iowa can placed on the observe within the 400 is spectacular. If an damage crops up, Woody can seemingly capable of pull out an unknown reserve who can run a 46-second cut up. That is useful for the ultimate occasion of any meet, the 4×400-meter relay, with 10 crew factors going to the winner.

“I all the time say, in the event you’re going to have a championship crew,” Woody mentioned, “you’ve received to have a fantastic 4-by-4.”

On the Large Ten outside meet, groups are restricted to 34 rivals. Which means 27 rostered Hawkeyes gained’t compete. Numerous these athletes are constructing blocks for what Woody thinks generally is a future of fine instances at Iowa. He mentioned this system’s freshman/sophomore class is nearly as good because it’s ever been.

“We’ve received athletes sitting at house that anyone within the nation would take,” Woody mentioned. “Some guys simply want one other yr to develop. You may see they’re going to be contributors within the subsequent yr or two. We’re in a great spot.”

He thinks the Large Ten meet may come down to 2 or three factors. Ohio State will current a tricky problem to Iowa’s three-peat bid (which started in 2019 and continued in 2021, with a canceled COVID-19 yr in between). Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana might be within the combine, too.

On the ladies’s aspect, third place may be the Hawkeyes’ ceiling this yr. Woody thinks Iowa is 2 years away from competing for a Large Ten championship however likes the tradition that’s growing.

For now, the boys’s observe program is changing into the gold customary on Iowa’s campus. The final Hawkeye program, males or girls, to win three straight Large Ten championships was Tom Manufacturers’ wrestling program, from 2008 to 2010.

This weekend, Woody and Co. will attempt to proceed a brewing league dynasty.

“When you begin successful, that turns into the expectation — not simply the hope or the dream or the want-to,” Woody mentioned. “It’s, ‘No, we count on to win yearly.’ As soon as you identify that, it’s onerous to get beat.

“I do imagine we will (sometime) win a nationwide championship. And now we’ve received the blokes believing it as properly.”

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has lined sports activities for 27 years with The Des Moines Register, USA TODAY and Iowa Metropolis Press-Citizen. Observe @ChadLeistikow on Twitter.