Throughout the 2018-19 academic year, the Great Lakes Valley Conference is celebrating its 40th anniversary by recognizing 40 teams that made a significant impact both on campus and at the Conference level.
40 TEAMS | 40 YEARS
WEEK 3: 1982 University of Southern Indiana Men’s Cross Country
SEASON SUMMARY
The 1982 men’s cross country team helped propel USI, then known as Indiana State University Evansville, into the national spotlight and laid the groundwork to what has arguably been the most dominate program of any sport in GLVC history. In 1982, the Screaming Eagles ranked in the top 10 all season and swept the Indiana Intercollegiate “Little State,” GLVC and NCAA II Great Lakes Region titles. At the GLVC Championship, the host Eagles dominated the 10,000-meter course with a total of 18 points, which held as the best winning score at the Conference meet until Lewis posted 16 points en route to the 1996 GLVC crown. USI went on to finish third at the NCAA Division II National Championships, four spots ahead of Bellarmine in seventh, which marked the first of four occasions (1994, 1997, 2015) in GLVC history where two league squads finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships.
IMPRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS
Jim Nolan
- Recorded his third-straight GLVC Championship in 32 minutes, 58 seconds
- Earned his third of four consecutive All-GLVC honors
- Went on to win his fourth GLVC title in 1983 – a feat no runner has accomplished since
- Has since been inducted to the USI and GLVC Hall of Fame
Todd Reller
- Finished second overall at the 1982 GLVC Championships in 26:15
- Earned first of two-straight All-GLVC awards
- Became USI’s first All-American with a sixth-place finish at the 1982 NCAA Championships
- Has since been inducted to the USI Hall of Fame
Brett Brewer
- Finished fourth overall at the 1982 GLVC Championships in 34:09
- Earned second All-GLVC accolade
Mike Atkinson
- Finished fifth overall at the 1982 GLVC Championships in 34:29
- Earned first of two-straight All-GLVC awards
Bill Stegemoller, Head Coach
- USI and GLVC Hall of Fame member
- Earned his first of six GLVC Coach of the Year accolades in 1985, the first year on record for postseason honors
LASTING LEGACY
The 1982 GLVC Championship, which was won in record fashion, was actually the program’s third league title as the Screaming Eagles won in 1980 and 1981. In fact, USI continued to win the Conference crown until Lewis unseated the eight-time champs in 1988. The Eagles responded by winning the 1989, 1990 and 1991 league titles – the latter being secured by a runner-up finish by Mike Hillyard. While Lewis took over at the top in the 1990s, which included a span of eight consecutive titles from 1992-99, Stegemoller was putting the finishing touches on a decorated career that saw him lead the USI men’s program to 11 GLVC Championships, six individual GLVC titles and six GLVC Coach of the Year accolades. He concluded his career coaching Elly Rono to the 1997 NCAA Championship.
Hillyard took over the reins of his alma mater in 1998 and laid the foundation to return the Eagles to GLVC supremacy. Under his direction, USI secured the 2003 GLVC Championship – its first in 12 years. After a narrow two-point loss to Lewis at the 2004 Conference meet, which was the smallest margin of victory in GLVC history, USI returned to the top in 2005 and has never looked back. Winners of the last 13 GLVC crowns, the Eagles have now secured 25 league titles. On a national level, USI has recorded 11 top-15 finishes at the national meet under Hillyard’s watch.
While Rono is the only NCAA Champion in USI men’s cross country history, Nolan is the most decorated runner in GLVC history as the only four-time league champion. Flashing forward to 2017, Nolan’s legacy continued as his son, Austin, captured the GLVC individual title and was named the ninth GLVC Runner of the Year under Hillyard’s watch. In fact, outside of Bellarmine’s Chris Striegel winning the 2016 GLVC crown, a USI runner has earned the title and Runner of the Year distinction in every year since 2011. Brendan Devine and Michael Jordan captured the 2011 and 2012 titles, respectively, while Johnnie Guy would win the next three, becoming just the fourth person in GLVC history to win three league championships. Among the other notables, Trent Nolan, Austin’s older brother, was a multiple-time All-GLVC honoree, while former standouts Tyler Pence and Chase Broughton are following Hillyard’s lead by getting into the coaching ranks. Pence, a former NCAA II Midwest Region Runner of the Year, is currently serving as an assistant coach at the University of Illinois Springfield, while Broughton is serving as an assistant under Hillyard at USI.