Prior to the 2004 season, Missouri S&T's men's track & field program had not enjoyed a great deal of success in conference competition as it had not finished in the top half of the standings at a conference meet in over three decades.  But when Sterling Martin was hired to lead the Miners prior to that campaign, he began to put the pieces together to build a championship roster and now Missouri S&T is annually found at or near the top of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

When Martin took the reins of the Miner program, the team had not finished above sixth in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association since 1978 and S&T had not been in the top half at an MIAA meet since placing fourth at the 1970 outdoor meet.

So in beginning the task of changing the direction of the team, the first thing Martin and his assistant coach, Bryan Schiding, did was change the outlook of the student-athletes in the program.

"The first thing we decided to do was try and raise the athletic expectations of our athletes," Martin said.  "Many people believed that because of the academic challenges of the university, they could not be expected to dedicate the time and effort needed to compete successfully at the NCAA Division II level.  We stressed to the team that our expectation was success in and out of the classroom.

"Once they realized that what we were asking them do to was not unusual, that many highly demanding universities around the country were highly competitive at all levels of the NCAA, their individual expectations began to rise," Martin added.

The Miners had a couple of pieces already in place in 2004 in pole vaulter J.R. Skola, who had finished second at the 2003 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships and tied for sixth outdoors and a long jumper by the name of Tyrone Smith, who was at the time was jumping in the 22-to-23 foot neighborhood early in his career. 

With those first pieces already there, a willingness to listen to anyone who had an interest in attending the university and continuing to compete athletically began the process of building the roster that could compete for championships.

"Many highly competitive track & field athletes are looking for a quality education coupled with an opportunity to continue their athletic success," Martin said.  "We made ourselves available to the admissions office to speak with any recruit visiting campus with a possible interest in competing in cross country or track.  We spoke with these students about our vision of the future of the program and the commitment of the coaches to their success on and off the track.

"As more and more individuals on the team began to buy into our vision of success and their expectations, our team expectations began to rise as did our ability to compete in the MIAA," he said.

The Miners' first trips to the MIAA Championships under Martin in 2004 saw them finish sixth at the both meets, then a year later – after S&T had announced it was leaving the MIAA to join the GLVC after the 2005 season – the Miners recorded a fourth place finish at the MIAA's indoor meet that was their highest mark since 1968.

As the Miners prepared the following February for its first appearance at the GLVC Indoor Championships and now with a couple of recruiting classes in place, the Miners were able to make their presence felt immediately.  Smith shattered the conference record in the long jump by over a half meter and also took the triple jump championship, Rodrick McDonald nearly set a new conference record in the 200-meters and S&T walked away with six conference titles and a second place finish as a team.

A little over two months later, S&T finished a close second to SIU Edwardsville at the GLVC Outdoor Championships as it recorded six event wins and nine second place efforts. 

Even though they didn't make it to the top of the standings in that season or the next two in the GLVC, the belief that they could become a championship team was getting closer to reality.  Martin sensed that the confidence his competitors were gaining along the way and having some willing to do a little extra to help the cause helped bring the Miners to the top.

"Jimmy Johnson was recently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and during his acceptance speech, he spoke about the difference between dreaming and believing," Martin said.  "I think after the 2006 season, a large number of our athletes started to believe we had the talent to win the GLVC.  Having some success against the MIAA teams at meets and continued success at the GLVC meets encouraged our competitors to continue to work hard and to believe we could win a conference championship."

Two of the Miners' top pole vaulters started the ball rolling of adding onto their plates to help push the team over the finish line.  Jordan Henry, who had already won three GLVC pole vault titles by this point in his career, and Peter Hollenbeck offered to compete in the multi-events.  At the 2009 GLVC Indoor Championships, Henry and Hollenbeck went one-two in the heptathlon, with Henry recording the best mark in the high jump portion of the competition, Hollenbeck posting the best time in the 55-meter hurdles and the duo easily outclassing the field in the heptathlon pole vault event.

In the meet, the Miners would win four events and add five second place finishes and six thirds.  The event wins came from Henry, Dan Hellwig in the open pole vault – where S&T competitors took four of the top five spots – Jarryd Dean in the triple jump as S&T swept the top three spots and the distance medley relay team of Brendan Smith, Paul Roland, Bryan Kluge and Drew Thomas.  Henry would be named as the GLVC's Athlete of the Year following the meet.

The Miners scored in every event and scored 183 points, their most ever at an indoor meet and finished 46 points in front of Indianapolis for the program's first conference championship since winning the MIAA's indoor title in 1948.

"During the 2009 indoor season, the team had competed extremely well all season going into the conference meet," Martin recalled.  "The guys were very confident that we would win if everyone did their job.  We scored in all 18 events that were contested, had multiple scorers in 10 and first and second place scorers in the pole vault, triple jump and heptathlon.  We had 15 individuals score in multiple events."

With the Miners now in possession of the indoor championship, the focus shifted to the outdoor championships in Indianapolis and the element of surprise was now gone.  The outdoor meet turned into a back-and-forth affair with UIndy and eventually came down to the final event of the meet, the 4x400-meter relay.

S&T went into that final race holding a three-point advantage over the Greyhounds and needed to at least stay on their heels to remain at the top of the team standings.  In a hotly contested race, UIndy's quartet edged S&T's by just two-tenths of a second, but the second place finish was enough to allow the Miners to complete the sweep of the conference meets in 2009.

As was the case at the indoor meet, the Miners got contributions from several individuals that competed and scored in more than one event as 11 Miners made scoring marks in multiple events.  There were eight events in which more than one Miner hit a scoring mark – S&T scored in all but two of the 21 events – and Miner competitors went one-two in the pole vault with Henry and Hollenbeck, long jump with Dean and Elijah Thomas and in the 800-meters with champion Joe Skelton and Brandon Etzold.  Hollenbeck, meanwhile, captured a conference title in the decathlon.

"In the final analysis, we won this championship on the strength of our depth, the willingness of our top student-athletes to compete in multiple events and our athletes to fight for sixth-through-eighth place finishes," Martin said.

The Miners scored 23.5 points in the meet – almost as many as UIndy did – out of its competitors that finished sixth, seventh or eighth in their events.

Since the Miners began competing in the GLVC, they have finished among the top three at 14 of the 15 indoor conference meets, 13 of the 15 outdoor championships and have never finished below fourth in any of them.

After capturing the two conference titles in 2009, the Miners remained near the top of the GLVC over the next four seasons before recording back-to-back outdoor championships in 2014 and 2015.  In both meets, the Miners used their superior depth to post sizeable winning margins in each, winning by 48 points over Indianapolis in 2014 and by 69 points over Lewis a year later.

"In most years, the winner came down to team depth, as well as who was healthy and got a little lucky," Martin said.  "The willingness of our top athletes to go the extra mile at the conference championship had become ingrained in our team and as we lost our older leaders, someone always stepped up to lead us.

"In 2014, we had a big group of those leaders -- Jusean Archibald, Brad Chronister, Cody Durand, Piotr Gal, Adriel Hawkins, Trevor King, Ryan McGuire, Trenton Morris and Joe Vellella," Martin added. "A year later, we had 10 individuals score in multiple events.  The addition of more quality teams in the conference made those sixth-to-eighth place finishes much harder to get and more valuable in supporting the work of our top athletes."

Shaun Meinecke took over the Miner program prior to the 2018 season and has already guided the team to three conference championships in that span, winning the 2018 outdoor title by six points, the 2020 indoor championship by 28.5 points and the 2021 outdoor championship in May by a 60-point margin.

"During training time, we know that we have two opportunities to be at our very best," Meinecke said.  "There are a lot of moving parts in a track meet.  We see groups like the sprinters or jumpers, or distance runners and throwers and say they're pretty good by themselves, but we have to be sure that pretty good is great when they come together."

On an individual basis, the Miners have won nine conference Athlete of the Year awards since joining the GLVC as well as 102 event championships in their first 16 years as a member of the GLVC.  Adriel Hawkins has been the most decorated in terms of individual titles as he won seven in his career (not counting relays), while Smith, Henry, McGuire and Terry Robinson all won five apiece.  Smith would continue his track career on the international circuit, competing in the Olympic Games on three occasions and setting Bermuda's national record in the long jump.

The Miners have had 42 individual competitors and 10 relay teams win conference titles over the last 16 years.

S&T has won at least one conference championship in the GLVC in 20 of the 21 outdoor events – the exception being the 5,000-meters – after capturing its first titles last spring in the steeplechase, high jump, shot put and discus throw.  Over the years at the GLVC Indoor Championships, S&T has won titles in 13 of the 17 events, all except for the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs, shot put and weight throw.

Martin, a three-time GLVC Coach of the Year who now serves as the head cross country and assistant track & field coach at the University of West Alabama, had three assistant coaches during his tenure that are now head coaches at MIAA institutions – Schiding at Missouri Southern, Kyle Rutledge at Pittsburg State and Brandon Masters at Northwest Missouri State – as well as throws coach Gary Hammock, who helped develop the student-athletes to the championship levels and laid the groundwork for the standouts that followed them into the program.

"I think about our team over the years and see J.R. Skola laying the foundation for our pole vaulters, or Tyrone Smith doing that for our jumpers…Charlie Hawkins and Adam Schuerman doing so for the middle distance runners…Jordan Henry and Peter Hollenbeck laying the foundation for success in multi-events and Rodrick McDonald doing so for the sprinters to follow," Martin said.  "To have a past of excellence is a powerful thing to chase for future athletes trying to distinguish themselves."