Holding their own against some of the best decathletes in the world, Central College graduates Will Daniels and Kurtis Brondyke competed at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials over the week. Daniels, a 2019 Central graduate, and Brondyke, a 2011 grad, qualified for the meet after having two of the top-18 decathlon scores by American athletes since January 1, 2019. Daniels placed 14th with 6,803 points and Brondyke was 15th with 6,575 points.
Garrett Scantling won the event with 8,647 points. Joining Scantling in Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics will be Steven Bastien (8,485 points) and Zach Ziemek (8,471 points).
Daniels finished eighth in the javelin throw (185 feet, 8.75 inches) and was ninth in the high jump (6-7.5). He took a zero in the 400-meter dash after being disqualified for a lane violation. Daniels had a busy spring of decathlons after competing at the Big 10 Championships on May 14-15, the NCAA Division I West Preliminary May 26-27 and the NCAA Division I Championships June 9-10 for the University of Iowa.
Brondyke had the fifth-best pole vault mark (199-3.75) in the field, but also absorbed a zero with no mark in the high jump. Brondyke has been an assistant coach at the University of Central Missouri since 2012.
In addition to Will and Kurtis, Jack Flood a 2018 graduate of SUNY-Cortland was also in the field, meaning three Division III national champions competed.
At Central, Daniels earned All-American status four times and won three national championships. He won the NCAA Division III decathlon title in 2019 and won the heptathlon crown in 2018 and 2019. In six conference championship meets for the Dutch, he finished in the top three of individual events 16 times.
During his four years at Central, Brondyke earned NCAA Division III All-American honors four times and was a national champion at the indoor meet in 2011 in the pentathlon. He finished fifth in the decathlon in 2009 and 2010 and was the runner-up 2011. Brondyke is now an assistant coach at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.