COLUMBUS – Legendary Sycamore head coach John McNichols and current assistant John Gartland were honored by the USATF at the Annual Awards Breakfast on Saturday morning as part of 2017 USATF Annual Meeting at Hyatt Regency Columbus.
 
The late coach McNichols was honored with the President's Award by current USATF President, Vin Lananna. Lananna was named the President of USATF last December and also serves as an Associate Athletic Director at Oregon, President of Track Town USA in Eugene and was a former head coach for Oregon track and field.
 
"Coach McNichols was such an icon within our track and field and cross country programs at Indiana State," program director Angela Martin said. "It is a great honor for him to receive this award posthumously. He was a huge advocate for our sports and I know that he would have been humbled to receive this award from President Vin Lananna and USATF."
 
The President's Award is given out annually by the current USATF president to USATF figures who have made notable contributions to the organizations and the sport. In his comments, Lananna highlighted McNichols' long time service to USATF, his vision for Cross Country Town USA and his many years of coaching excellence at Indiana State.
 
McNichols was named the head men's track & field and cross country coach at Indiana State in 1983, and despite many opportunities over the years to leave for higher-level jobs, he remained for 34 years until his death in 2016. In that span of time, McNichols not only turned ISU into a track and cross country powerhouse, but he also transformed the sport of cross country and put Terre Haute on the map worldwide as Cross Country Town USA with his vision and design for the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course, site of 12 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships since 2002.
 
In 34 years as the men's head coach and 28 seasons as the director of the combined program, McNichols coached in 100 total Missouri Valley Conference Championships (33 indoor, 33 outdoor, 34 cross country), taking home 38 total team titles -- 11 cross country titles (nine men, two women), 10 indoor track titles (six women, four men) and 17 outdoor track titles (10 men, seven women). McNichols was named MVC Coach of the Year 23 times for his 23 men's titles, which does little to show just how much success the McNichols-led Sycamores had in the Valley. During his career, he coached 456 MVC Track Champions (251 women, 205 men), eight MVC Cross Country Champions (four men, four women), 355 Track MVC Scholar-Athletes (201 women, 154 men) and 110 Cross Country MVC Scholar-Athletes (56 men, 54 women). In addition, McNichols is just one of 11 coaches in Valley history to be named to the MVC All-Centennial Team (unveiled in 2007). He was named alongside Gartland, the only coaching duo to make the list. McNichols coached 37 members of that MVC All-Centennial Team.
 
McNichols' success wasn't limited to the conference level, though, as he brought Indiana State national prestige in both track and cross country. During his career he coached 15 NCAA Track Champions, 113 All-Americans (across both track and cross), 173 NCAA Track National Qualifiers (98 women, 75 men) and 13 NCAA Cross Country National Qualifiers (10 men, three women). McNichols and Gartland-led track teams also finished in the top-25 nationally 16 times (11 women, five men), which included two incredible streaks: four-straight top-15 finishes for the Sycamore women during the 1993-94 seasons (three of which were top-10) and four top-25 finishes for the men from 1999-2001. The men had an all-time high finish of 11th indoors in 1990 in Indianapolis and the women finished tied for fifth at the 1993 indoor championships, also in Indianapolis.
 
Current Indiana State assistant coach John Gartland was also honored over the weekend, as he received the Ron Buss Award.
 
The Ron Buss award recognizes a coach whose career has a distinguished record of service in leadership roles, teaching, strengthening curricula, as well as advising and mentoring coaches. This person is a leader whose counsel others seek, and who selflessly gives his/her time and talents to the profession.
 
"Coach Gartland has worked tirelessly with USATF the past few years to help further their coaching education programs. He is always continuing to help mentor young coaches as he himself advances his knowledge of track and field. He is not only an endless sounding board for myself and our staff members here at Indiana State, but also for coaches from the high school to professional level around the country. He is very deserving of the Ron Buss Service Award," Martin said.
 
Following an amazing 27-year run at Indiana State, former women's head coach John Gartland returned to Indiana State in 2015-16 as a volunteer assistant coach. After the untimely passing of close friend and legendary head coach John McNichols in December of 2016, Gartland returned to the staff as a full time assistant coach for the 2017 season.
 
Gartland served as the women's head cross country coach from 1988-2014 and the head women's track & field coach from 1989-2010 before handing off the women's program to his former pupil and current director of the combined program, Angela Martin. Gartland is one of just 11 coaches in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference to be named to the league's track and field All-Centennial Team which was released in 2007. The veteran women's head coach joins McNichols on the list to form the only coaching tandem in the league on the all-time list.
 
The honor stems from his team's successes over two decades on the course and on the track, including two cross country conference titles (1991, 1993), four indoor track conference titles (1993-95, 2001) and six outdoor crowns (1991-94, 1998-99). Gartland's squads have also fared well at the national level as the women's track and field teams have finished in the top-10 at the NCAA Championships three times, including a fifth-place finish at the 1993 NCAA Indoor Championship and a sixth-place finish at the 1994 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
 
In total, Gartland has coached 11 NCAA Champions, six NCAA runners-up, 50 All-Americans, 88 NCAA qualifiers, 200 MVC individual champions and 212 MVC Scholar-Athletes. He has been named the MVC Coach of the Year 11 times (six in outdoor track & field, three in indoor track & field, and twice in cross country) and the NCAA District V Coach of the Year four times (indoor track & field and outdoor track & field in both 1993 and 1994).
 
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.