Four ex-Wildcats headline hall class
5/23/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Track & Field
Four ex-Wildcats headline hall class
Former national champions going into track hall of fame
ABILENE, TX -- Four former Abilene Christian University track and field standouts headline the five-member 2005 NCAA Division II Track and Field Hall of Fame class, which will be inducted Wednesday night at the banquet the night before the outdoor championship meet begins at ACU's Elmer Gray Stadium.
Former short hurdles champion Brian Amos, along with triple-jumper James Browne, pole vaulter Dale Jenkins and all-around superstar Yolande Straughn are the four Wildcats who will be inducted into the hall. Angelo State's standout heptathlete Amy Bippert-Bohensky rounds out the class, which will bring the total number of members of the NCAA Division II Track and Field Hall of Fame to 56 (35 men and 21 women).
With ACU's four 2005 inductees, the Wildcats now have five men and four women in the hall. Previous ACU inductees were throwers Cliff Felkins and Marlene Lewis in 1998, jumper and hurdler Syvlia Dyer-Barnier in 2002, high-jumper Yolanda Henry in 2003 and sprinter Mark Witherspoon in 2004.
Amos was named Athlete of the Year in men's outdoor track and field in NCAA Division II in 1994 after winning his third straight title in the 110 hurdles in Raleigh, N.C. He also won two NCAA Division II indoor hurdle races and was the top-ranked collegiate hurdler in the U.S. as a senior in 1994.
A five-time NCAA Division II national champion, Browne was an Olympian and one of only two three-time triple jump champions at the Division II outdoor championships. Browne's Division II national titles for the Wildcats came in the triple jump at the national indoor meet in 1988 and 1990 and the national outdoor meet in 1988, 1989 and 1990.
Jenkins, one of six Wildcats to win pole vault titles at the NCAA Division II national championships, still holds the outdoor meet record at 18 feet, two inches as a junior in 1984 in Cape Girardeau. He also won the title as a sophomore in 1983 and senior in 1985 and finished runner-up as a freshman in 1982.
Straughn was one of the most decorated athletes in the history of women's track and field at Abilene Christian University. She won a total of 17 conference and national championships in individual events and relays, and she was a member of four straight Lone Star Conference championship teams and a total of six national championship teams in indoor and outdoor track and field. She helped the Wildcats win national titles at the indoor meet in 1988, 1990 and 1991 and at the outdoor meet in 1986, 1987 and 1988.
Bippert Bohensky completed her impressive career in women's track and field at Angelo State as a senior in 1997 by winning the heptathlon at the NCAA Division II national championships in Edwardsville. That year she was also named first team academic all-America for the second time and recipient of the prestigious NCAA post-graduate scholarship. She continues to rank among the top 10 performers of all-time at Angelo State in five events -- heptathlon, 100 hurdles, high jump, triple jump and long jump.
Here's a complete bio on each of the inductees:
Brian Amos (Abilene Christian) -- Brian Amos was named Athlete of the Year in men's outdoor track and field in NCAA Division II in 1994 after winning his third straight title in the 110 hurdles in Raleigh, N.C. He also won two NCAA Division II indoor hurdle races and was the top-ranked collegiate hurdler in the U.S. as a senior in 1994.
He was a two-time Texas Relays champion in the 110 hurdles, won a silver medal at the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival in St. Louis in 1994, and finished runner-up to win another silver medal at the World University Games in 1995 in Japan. He still holds the NCAA Division II meet record of 13.43 and the Division II all-time best time of 13.37.
He was also academic all-America for the Wildcats and appeared in Faces in the Crowd in Sports Illustrated magazine.
Before coming to ACU to compete for coaches Jerry Dyes in 1992 and Wes Kittley in 1993 and 1994, Amos was a Texas high school state champion and a junior college national champion.
Amos reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Olympic trials in 1992 in New Orleans and the semifinals in 1996 in Atlanta. He was a member of two indoor national championship teams for the Wildcats and won a total of nine Lone Star Conference titles in the 100, 110 hurdles, 400 relay and 1600 relay. He won the Paul Goad Memorial Award as the outstanding male student-athlete at Abilene Christian for the 1993-94 school year and the Cap Shelton Memorial Award as outstanding runner in the Lone Star Conference in 1992 and 1994.
James Browne (Abilene Christian) - A five-time NCAA Division II national champion, James Browne was an Olympian and one of only two three-time triple jump champions at the Division II outdoor championships.
A graduate of Whittier, Calif., High School, Browne finished 17th in the long jump at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul as a representative of Antigua, where he grew up as a soccer player. He was one of the last Division II athletes to advance for competition at the Division I championships. He placed 11th in the Division I outdoor triple jump in 1990 in Durham, N.C., as a senior.
Browne's Division II national titles for the Wildcats came in the triple jump at the national indoor meet in 1988 and 1990 and the national outdoor meet in 1988, 1989 and 1990.
He still holds the ACU school record in the triple jump at 54 feet, 3.75 inches set in 1990 as a senior when he received his third Kirk Goodwin Memorial Award as Abilene Christian's outstanding field event athlete. He was a member of coach Don Hood's 1988 team that won both NCAA Division II men's indoor and outdoor national championships. That year the Wildcats became the first school ever to sweep all four men's and women's indoor and outdoor titles in one year.
Browne was also a Kansas and Drake Relays champion and five-time Lone Star Conference champion. He still ranks seventh on the Division II all-time performer list in the triple jump.
Dale Jenkins (Abilene Christian) -- Dale Jenkins, one of six Wildcats to win pole vault titles at the NCAA Division II national championships, still holds the outdoor meet record at 18 feet, two inches as a junior in 1984 in Cape Girardeau. He also won the title as a sophomore in 1983 and senior in 1985 and finished runner-up as a freshman in 1982.
Jenkins and his teammates won four straight NCAA Division II outdoor team championships under coach Don Hood.
Before joining the Wildcats he became the first Texas high school athlete to vault 17 feet, set a national high school record at 17 feet, 10.5 inches, and appeared in Faces in the Crowd in Sports Illustrated magazine. Also, he was named to the high school all-America team by Track and Field News.
Jenkins was selected to compete in the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival in 1985 in Baton Rouge, La., and three times he was a finalist in the NCAA Division I pole vault with a best finish of seventh in Eugene in 1984 at 17 feet, 4.25 inches.
He finished eighth in the U.S. Olympic trials in Los Angeles in 1984 at 17 feet, five inches.
Jenkins was a three-time Lone Star Conference champion and still holds the meet record of 18 feet, eight inches set in 1985. He received both the Kirk Goodwin and John Sasport Memorial Awards from ACU and the Oscar Strahan Memorial Award from the Lone Star Conference.
Amy Bippert-Bohensky (Angelo State) -- Amy Bippert Bohensky completed her impressive career in women's track and field at Angelo State University as a senior in 1997 by winning the heptathlon at the NCAA Division II national championships in Edwardsville. That year she was also named first team academic all-America for the second time and recipient of the prestigious NCAA post-graduate scholarship. She continues to rank among the top 10 performers of all-time at Angelo State in five events -- heptathlon, 100 hurdles, high jump, triple jump and long jump.
She won all-America honors nine times in her Rambelle career and held school records in the triple jump and heptathlon. As a senior Bohensky paced her team to sixth place at the national meet by scoring 19 of its 37 points by winning the heptathlon with 5,268 points, finishing runner-up in the triple jump, and placing eighth in the 100 hurdles.
She was team captain for coach David Noble and won the Nathan's award for Rambelle track and field. Bohensky also was honored as the ASU student-athlete with the highest grade average in 1995 and was selected to Who's Who among Students in American Universities and Colleges in 1996.
Bohensky is now a successful high school volleyball coach and has led her team to the Texas state tournament in Austin. She is married to another former NCAA Division II national champion, Mike Bohensky, who won the decathlon for the Rams in 1994.
Yolande Straughn (Abilene Christian) -- Yolande Straughn was one of the most decorated athletes in the history of women's track and field at Abilene Christian University. She won a total of 17 conference and national championships in individual events and relays, and she was a member of four straight Lone Star Conference championship teams and a total of six national championship teams in indoor and outdoor track and field.
She helped the Wildcats win national titles at the indoor meet in 1988, 1990 and 1991 and at the outdoor meet in 1986, 1987 and 1988.
She won NCAA Division II national titles in the 55 and 400 dashes and 1600 relay indoors and the 100 and 200 dashes and 1600 relay outdoors. As a senior in 1990 she was a double winner at the NCAA Division II national meet in Hampton in the 100 and 200 and ranked among the top 10 women's collegiate sprinters in the U.S. in both events with times of 11.47 and 23.40.
Straughn was Lone Star Conference champion in the 200 and 400 and both relays and all-America all four years of her Wildcat career. She twice won Abilene Christian's award to the outstanding performer in running events on the women's track and field team.
She was an Olympian in the 200 for her native Barbados in 1988 in Seoul, and in 1987 at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis she was a finalist in the 200 with an eighth place finish in 24.16. Only three of the 21 members of the women's Hall of Fame won more individual national titles than Straughn.
