Here is the place for all other LU sponsored sports. Come here to post about: Men's/Women's Cross Country, Men's Golf, Men's/Women's Soccer, Men's/Women's Tennis, Men's/Women's Track & Field, Women's Lacrosse, Women's Swimming & Dive, Women's Volleyball

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#382334
Lost in all this basketball and baseball talk, the Liberty University Mens and Womens Indoor track teams successfully defended their Big South titles up at Virginia Tech today. For the men its their 15th consecutive title and the women its three in a row and 10th overall
User avatar
By prototype
Registration Days Posts
#382419
jcmanson wrote:Could we win the Sunbelt?
YES. Track and CC will be sports we will compete in right away no matter what conference we are in - right now!!

Barber just better keep Tolsma happy and continue to let him do his thing...
User avatar
By 01LUGrad
Registration Days Posts
#382466
Tolsma isn't going anywhere until he is ready to retire.
Brant Tolsma = Liberty Track & Field
User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#382467
Agreed...he should go straight to the HoF (and not collect $200)
User avatar
By prototype
Registration Days Posts
#382482
01LUGrad wrote:Tolsma isn't going anywhere until he is ready to retire.
Brant Tolsma = Liberty Track & Field
I wouldn't be so sure about that... Coach is Liberty Track, but he coaches 6 teams a year and makes no where what he should make to do that... The school needs to recognize this... I'm not saying he leaves, but could retire early from coaching if we don't encourage him to keep this going.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#382486
I totally agree with proto (for a change :wink: ). With the current financial blessings the school is experiencing and the $$ being spent on athletic upgrades, Tolsma needs to be VERY well compensated.
By steve hoffman
Registration Days Posts
#382494
jcmanson wrote:Could we win the Sunbelt?
The worst we might enter is 2nd. WKU is good all around, and has a ton of foreigners. In cross country this year they swept the sun belt, and at the southeast regional meet the men finished 10th to LU's 11th, though they were only separated by 9 points. Their number 1 runner graduates, and Liberty returns everyone next fall, so I would expect them to be back on top of WKU next fall as they usually are. http://www.deltatiming.com/results/xcre ... =1&sp=True

The WKU women finished a few spots higher at the southeast regional than Liberty. http://www.deltatiming.com/results/xcre ... =2&sp=True Although High Point beat Liberty women this year in cross country, and our distance girls seem to have stepped it up in track and are running much better than the high point girls right now. I would anticipate a close race between WKU an LU next fall as well.

In track its hard to compare WKU and LU as they don't compete against each other head to head like they do in cross country. However I think it would be a close match up. They dominate the Sunbelt, and we dominate the Big South. At the very least we would enter the sunbelt head and shoulders above everyone but WKU. Id anticipate track/xc would get the edge over them and win 4 of the 6 possible sunbelt titles in their first year in the conference.
User avatar
By R i
Registration Days Posts
#382508
We have a great coach in waiting when Tolsma does decide to retire, which could be soon.
I dont think we will miss a beat when he retires. The staff he has putt together is very strong.
I like Tolsma, but he does not equal our program.

He definately built the machine, but it would be very hard to screw up that machine at this point. Track and Field athletes are much easier to recruit to the mountain than most other sports.
User avatar
By prototype
Registration Days Posts
#382531
R i wrote:We have a great coach in waiting when Tolsma does decide to retire, which could be soon.
I dont think we will miss a beat when he retires. The staff he has putt together is very strong.
I like Tolsma, but he does not equal our program.

He definately built the machine, but it would be very hard to screw up that machine at this point. Track and Field athletes are much easier to recruit to the mountain than most other sports.
I hope you are right, but I respectively disagree... That's like saying Duke will be alright once Coach K leaves, because of the machine he has built? Pay the coach and the assistants and not take that chance...
User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#382557
not sure where the financials would be...the current records arent a matter of the public record I dont think
User avatar
By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#382559
steve hoffman wrote:
jcmanson wrote:Could we win the Sunbelt?
The worst we might enter is 2nd. WKU is good all around, and has a ton of foreigners. In cross country this year they swept the sun belt, and at the southeast regional meet the men finished 10th to LU's 11th, though they were only separated by 9 points. Their number 1 runner graduates, and Liberty returns everyone next fall, so I would expect them to be back on top of WKU next fall as they usually are. http://www.deltatiming.com/results/xcre ... =1&sp=True

The WKU women finished a few spots higher at the southeast regional than Liberty. http://www.deltatiming.com/results/xcre ... =2&sp=True Although High Point beat Liberty women this year in cross country, and our distance girls seem to have stepped it up in track and are running much better than the high point girls right now. I would anticipate a close race between WKU an LU next fall as well.

In track its hard to compare WKU and LU as they don't compete against each other head to head like they do in cross country. However I think it would be a close match up. They dominate the Sunbelt, and we dominate the Big South. At the very least we would enter the sunbelt head and shoulders above everyone but WKU. Id anticipate track/xc would get the edge over them and win 4 of the 6 possible sunbelt titles in their first year in the conference.
Another strong debut ... Welcome, Steve!
User avatar
By 01LUGrad
Registration Days Posts
#382597
Okay, let me clarify my earlier post.
Unless Tolsma has changed a TON since I was a lowly walk-on in the late 90s, he is incredibly happy with the situation at Liberty. He is all about keeping Christ first with the team and competing with dignity and respect, upholding all of the attributes that Liberty University was founded upon. I would be completely shocked if he ever decided to jump ship and go somewhere else due to money. That being said, he really does deserve to be compensated for what he has done for the most successful program on the mountain.

When the day comes for Coach to hang up the stopwatch, Liberty Track & Field/Cross Country will be fine. This program has pumped out dozens of athletes that would be more than qualified to continue the tradition of success.


*I personally know an amazing middle school/high school coach who has trained several state champions and even an NCAA champion who would be interested in the position if someone were to ever contact him about it. 8)
User avatar
By R i
Registration Days Posts
#382654
prototype wrote:
R i wrote:We have a great coach in waiting when Tolsma does decide to retire, which could be soon.
I dont think we will miss a beat when he retires. The staff he has putt together is very strong.
I like Tolsma, but he does not equal our program.

He definately built the machine, but it would be very hard to screw up that machine at this point. Track and Field athletes are much easier to recruit to the mountain than most other sports.
I hope you are right, but I respectively disagree... That's like saying Duke will be alright once Coach K leaves, because of the machine he has built? Pay the coach and the assistants and not take that chance...
I dont think its anything like saying Duke will be okay when K leaves. Tolsma is great, but track and field at Liberty is destined to be successful. Its the nature of the sport and the type of kids that run track, they are attracted to our school. I think track and field's best days are ahead.
User avatar
By jcmanson
Registration Days Posts
#382663
steve hoffman wrote:
jcmanson wrote:Could we win the Sunbelt?
The worst we might enter is 2nd. WKU is good all around, and has a ton of foreigners. In cross country this year they swept the sun belt, and at the southeast regional meet the men finished 10th to LU's 11th, though they were only separated by 9 points. Their number 1 runner graduates, and Liberty returns everyone next fall, so I would expect them to be back on top of WKU next fall as they usually are. http://www.deltatiming.com/results/xcre ... =1&sp=True

The WKU women finished a few spots higher at the southeast regional than Liberty. http://www.deltatiming.com/results/xcre ... =2&sp=True Although High Point beat Liberty women this year in cross country, and our distance girls seem to have stepped it up in track and are running much better than the high point girls right now. I would anticipate a close race between WKU an LU next fall as well.

In track its hard to compare WKU and LU as they don't compete against each other head to head like they do in cross country. However I think it would be a close match up. They dominate the Sunbelt, and we dominate the Big South. At the very least we would enter the sunbelt head and shoulders above everyone but WKU. Id anticipate track/xc would get the edge over them and win 4 of the 6 possible sunbelt titles in their first year in the conference.
Great first post! I like how you speak as a fact that we will be in the Sunbelt!
By steve hoffman
Registration Days Posts
#382701
jcmanson wrote:Great first post! I like how you speak as a fact that we will be in the Sunbelt!

I just responded to the inquiry of whether or not the team could win the Sunbelt. I know a lot about the team, but no more than anyone else about what conference Liberty is destined to end up in. Track/Cross Country is perhaps the only team that could do very well anywhere the school ends up. Personally I think the MW/CUSA merger would be ideal. Its higher level than the sunbelt, and a conference track meet with 20+ schools is a whole different animal than the Big South conference meet with around 10. That many teams means it will be a low scoring meet to win. No 180-200 point performances, I bet 80 points could win it. Which would allow/force the team to be more opportunistic. Expect a team of 8 highly motivated athletes to be able to put up enough points to win the meet. Its really going to start encouraging the team to really find their strong niches, and not necessarily having to come to conference being as well rounded in every event for fear of losing points to a rival school. The parity on this level will really help LU who tends to have some of the nations best standouts. Sam Chelanga could easily score 30 points at Big South, but when the team scores 180 and wins by 86 points it really doesn't matter. In a conference like this one though having a guy who can put up 30 points is practically getting yourself half way to Victory.


Sly - my first post under this name, though I have posted before under others.
Dondi Costin - LU President

Ive gone there a few times since moving to texas[…]

NCAA Realignment Megathread

Duke Gonzaga B12? https://larrybrownsports.com/co[…]

FlameFans Fantasy Baseball

We are on!!! Hope to see everyone tonight at 9:30[…]

Another player that most people who post on here[…]