TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State men's track & field and cross country head coach John McNichols has put up a lot of numbers during his illustrious career, but the most impressive one is happening this Saturday in McNichols' 100th Missouri Valley Conference championship meet.
You read that right. Across the indoor and outdoor track seasons and cross country, Saturday's MVC Championship will be McNichols' 100th at the helm. In 34 years at ISU after taking over in 1983, McNichols has coached in 33 indoor meets, 33 outdoor meets and this Saturday will be his 34th cross country championship.
"That's a big number," McNichols said. "That's a bit startling that it's come to that. I've really enjoyed this conference and the number of coaches from the schools in the conference over the years."
Cross country has always been a solid sport for the Valley, and McNichols has been the constant that connects the modern era of the MVC (since about 1975), from the dominant days of SIU legends Lew Hartzog and Bill Cornell from the mid-1970s to the early '80s, to the Illinois State dominance led by John Coughlan in the late '80s-early '90s, to UNI's run in the '90s-early 2000s with current Arkansas head coach Chris Bucknam, to the McNichols and John Gartland era of the '90s that hasn't quite faded away over the last two decades of MVC cross country.
"(I've had) a lot of good friendships and good rivalries and exciting competitions," McNichols said. "The Missouri Valley is a very good, strong conference with great history, and I'm very proud to have been around the league as long as I have. I've got a few more coming too, but it's a big number and it's kind of a surprise to me to think about it."
McNichols and the Sycamores broke through with their first MVC title in 1996 with a 10-point victory at UNI over two-time defending champion Southern Illinois. ISU had finished third each of those previous two seasons and prevailed with some of the better runners in school history to help kickstart the program.
"It had been a long time before we won one," McNichols said. "It was a young team made up of a lot of guys who went into coaching across the country now in high school and college. That team had the Wayton's (Geoff and Kurt), (Rick) Sluder, (Matt) Holbrook, David Birke, and that is the one that I think will probably always stick in my mind just because it was the first. We had been runner-up a number of times up to that point, and I just felt like maybe we were a little bit jinxed to ever win the darn thing."
"Since then, we've had a lot of great guys come through the program and we've been fortunate to have won quite a few titles since '96," McNichols continued. "That one was most memorable of all, but each one of them is very sweet, and they're hard to come by. It's a tough league and they're hard to win."
That would hardly be the last for McNichols and the Sycamores, though, as they closed the decade with another win in 1998 before a string of greatness in the aughts. ISU won men's titles from 2004-2006 and 2009-11, becoming just the fifth Valley school to ever pull off the three-peat on the men's side and only the third school behind Drake and Illinois State to do so twice.
Most peculiar of McNichols' titles came 10 years apart in 2004 and 2014 – coincidentally the same years that Indiana State tied with Southern Illinois at SIU for the team title.
"We had a unique situation," McNichols said. "Ten years apart in 2003 and 2013 we raced at Drake and placed seventh. And then in 2004 and 2014 we ran at Southern Illinois and tied both of them. By the time of the second one they had added a tiebreaker to the rules, so the second one in 2014 we were declared the winner, but that first one was a tie between us and Southern. That's about as unique a situation as you can come up with."
"Don't think I'm gonna be around 10 more years to go through that again," McNichols said. "But to go from seventh and have terrible, disappointing meets and then come back with the same guys one year later and finish at the top of the conference was a remarkable situation. One of those coincidences where you can't make that stuff up."
That 2004 championship sparked a rivalry between the Sycamores and Salukis – then coached by current Notre Dame coach Matt Sparks. Every season from 2004-14, either Indiana State or SIU came away with the men's team title (or a share, like in 2004). McNichols won the decade-long battle, though, taking seven titles to SIU's five in the timespan.
The previous four seasons from 2012-15 saw more history linked with McNichols' name, as star pupil and All-American John Mascari became the first runner in the history of the conference to win four consecutive individual cross country championships.
Not to mention all of ISU's success on the track under McNichols' leadership, as he has led the Sycamores to 14 men's MVC track titles and put Indiana State on the map as "Hurdle U" with several national-caliber men's hurdlers – most recently two-time First-Team All-American Adarius Washington.
In 28 years since taking over the combined men's and women's director position, Indiana State has won 37 total MVC team titles across both genders. In just men's competition that total stands at 23 (14 track, nine cross country), nearly one quarter of his 100 career MVC meets. Not bad.
McNichols, a 1972 Indiana graduate and member of the Valley All-Centennial team, will look to lead the Sycamore men to team title No. 10 this Saturday at UNI for the MVC Championships.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Track and Field team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.
