Kurtis Brondyke March 14, 2009

Brondyke, Miller earn All-America honors

TERRE HAUTE, IND.—Central College sophomore Kurtis Brondyke (Clinton) was sixthand freshman Ethan Miller (Seymour) was eighthas each earned All-America honors in the first-ever pentathlon at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships Saturday at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind.

Central compiled four points in the meet and finished in 48th-place. Wis.-Oshkosh and Wis.-LaCrosse tied for first with 32 points. Whitworth (24), McMurry (23) and Buena Vista (21) rounded out the top five on the men’s side.

It was Brondyke’s second time earning All-America honors after he placed fourth outdoors in the long jump as a freshman in 2008.

Brondyke scored 3,544 points Saturday and Miller set a new personal best of 3,494 points in the event, topping his previous best of 3,440 points. The event was won by senior Todd Wildman of Trinity (Texas) with 3,859 points.

“Kurtis (Brondyke) and Ethan (Miller) both competed really well today,” said head coach Joe Dunham. “We’ve felt for a while like they both could be All-Americans and it’s nice to have seen them both actually do it.”

Both athletes eclipsed their previous best times in the 1,000-meter run. Brondyke ran a 2:56.61 in the final event of the pentathlon, down from a previous best of 2:57.10, and Miller dropped his best time from 2:54.22 down to 2:52.15.

“We expected both of them to step up today and have some good results,” Dunham said. “They’ve been getting better every week and they haven’t really had a whole lot of opportunities to do the pentathlon so they’ve been doing better and better every time.”

Brondyke recorded his best result of the day in the high jump, tying for third with teammate Miller as both cleared 6-feet, 5-inches. Miller was also third in the long jump, recording a distance of 22-0.75.  

With the indoor season over the Dutch will now turn their attention outdoors.

“As a team we’re in good shape right now,” said Dunham. “With today’s results and the way we’ve performed at our last few meets I think we’ve built up some momentum and we just hope it carries over into the outdoor season.”

Central opens its outdoor season in two weeks at the Viking Olympics in Rock Island, Ill. March 27-28 and will host the Central Inivtational at Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium on April 4 in Pella, Iowa.