Men's Track and Field | 5/13/2013 12:31:57 PM

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – John Cochrane, Truman Track & Field and Cross Country coach for over 30 years, has announced he will retire on June 30, 2013. Cochrane has guided the women’s track & field and cross country program since 1980 and added the men’s teams in 2005.

“I have made many friends during the time on campus and enjoyed my years here,” said Cochrane. “The opportunity to work with a large number of men’s and women’s track/cross country athletes is priceless, I will miss very much the 33 years with them.”

“I want to thank John for the dedication he has given Truman and the Track & Field and Cross Country program throughout his long tenure,” said Director of Athletics Jerry Wollmering.  “John had an outstanding career and was the right person at the right time to combine the men’s and women’s programs under one umbrella when Ed Schneider retired as the men’s coach in 2005.  He embraces the mission of the University and student-athletes under his leadership thrived academically and athletically.  We are grateful for all he has done and wish him the best”

During his tenure, four women won five individual national titles in Track & Field. Marlene Frahm won both the 1985 Indoor and Outdoor Shot Put competitions, while Saundra Hester (1990) and Christina Winkler were (2004) captured individual titles in the 400 meter hurdles. Katrina Biermann added a national Pole Vault title in 2010.

In addition, Cochrane has had 52 individual and seven relays earn all-America honors at the Indoor, Outdoor or National Cross Country championships.  His 2004 cross country team advanced to nationals and placed 20th overall while Kerry Knepper had the highest individual finish at the Division II cross country meet with a fifth-place finish in 1988.

Cochrane produced 14 Academic All-Americans and his teams are consistently ranked amongst the NCAA-II leaders in team grade-point averages. Stacy Roberts (1991) and Virginia Hoefer (1996) were each finalists in the state of Missouri for the NCAA Women of the Year Award.

A benchmark of the program occurred during the 2000 calendar year, as the Bulldog women swept both the Indoor and Outdoor Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association championships before capturing the conference cross country title that October.  Cochrane’s teams won three other league indoor meets (1989, 1990 and 2003) in addition to the 1983 outdoor championship for a total of seven conference titles.

He is a five-time conference coach of the year award recipient and was named the 1999 Regional Coach of the Year by the United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association.  Cochrane received the Distinguished Service Award from the NCAA- II cross-country coaches for his contributions to the sport in 1992 and was a 1996 recipient of the NCAA-II Track Coaches Distinguished Service Award. In 2011, Cochrane was inducted into the Missouri Track & Field/Cross Country Hall of Fame.

In 1989 on an interim basis, Cochrane served one year as Athletics Director at Truman.

Cochrane was instrumental in many ways with the track & field facility improvements at Truman.  He oversaw the conversion from a cinder track to the all-weather Kenneth Gardner Track at Stokes Stadium along with the creation of a throw field. Cochrane was the meet director for the Truman Open Track & Field meet for several years.

He is a 1968 graduate of Iowa State University and received a master’s degree in physical education from Truman in 1982. He has been in the coaching field for over 40 years, including an 11-year stint at Williamsburg (Iowa) Community School. While there, Cochrane led his 1978 and 1979 cross-country teams to fifth-place finishes at the Iowa 2-A state meet, and in 1978, his track squad finished fourth in state competition. Prior to coaching at Williamsburg, Cochrane directed all sports at Colo, Iowa, for one year.