William Woods University
Level: NAIA
Conference: American Mid West Conference
Public or Private: Private
Size: 1,000 Students
Setting: WWU is a rural school, and is located in a town called Fulton, which is roughly 20 minutes from Columbia, 15 min from Jefferson City, and a 1hr and a half from St. Louis.
Popular Majors: The Woods is known nationwide for our equestrian science programs. We have over 100 horses on campus and that program attracts students from all over the world. Our second and third most popular programs would be education and business. A lot of the student athletes at the Woods also study athletic training, sports management, and exercise science.
The Program
Program Size: WWU has roughly 55 student athletes on the track and field/cross country team. I would say there are 30 men on the team, and 25 women on the team, and that is the size that the team will likely always be, we believe in individualizing training and if we carried more than that we feel we wouldn't be able to give each student athlete the amount of time they deserve.
What type of student-athlete does your program recruit?
William Woods typically recruits small class student athletes, that love the sport and wants to be part of a great team atmosphere. Besides the attitude and hard work ethic we always look for student athletes that will gel and get along with the rest of the team. Being a close nit group is very important to us.
What are some recent accomplishments of the program or individuals in the program?
Some recent accomplishments that the student athletes have achieved are that the men's and women's track and field team won back to back conference championships for both indoor and outdoor track. This past season we also had our first individual National champion in the hammer throw. We also had a student athlete become All America in all three seasons (cross country, indoor 5km, and outdoor 10km); plus we had our 4x4 team finish 5th at nationals with a time of 3:11, and that whole team will be back for at least one more year.
How can the student-athletes contact you to find out more information about your program?
The best way for student athletes, parents and coaches to get a hold of the cross country/ track and field program is through our website. There you can find a questionnaire, phone numbers and email addresses.
Other Comments
Another interesting fact about our program is how young the team is. The Cross Country program has been established for over ten years, but the track and field team has just completed its 5th year. Most of the student athletes on the team have a lot of untapped talent and over the years training hard, and having great teammates they usually surprise themselves with how good they become. Another interesting thing about WWU is that the conference we are in is very young and very competitive and is getting better by leaps and bounds and is represented well at the national level for NAIA schools.