Four School Records, One Meet Record, and Numerous Personal Bests in Kansas & California
Coach Lefever by the Numbers •21 All-Americans • 12 Conference Champions • 1 Pan American Junior Silver Medalist • 1 NACAC U23 Silver Medalist • 1 USATF Junior Decathlon Champion •30 All-Big 12 Honorees
Dan Lefever enters his 10th year as a Tiger assistant coach and is responsible for Mizzou's verticaljumpers and combined-event athletes. During hisnine seasons, Lefever has played a paramount role in sustaining the success of the Tigers' combined events program and 2010 was one of the best examples of his dedication to the combined events. He enters his first year as the associate head coach for the men's track and field team.
Most recently, Lefever mentored both Lars Rise and Brian Hancock to All-America honors in 2011 at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. Rise was an All-American in both the heptathlon and decathlon, highlighted by a national runner-up finish in the heptathlon at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships. Hancock earned All-America honors in the pole vault during both the indoor and outdoor season as the two Tiger seniors highlighted the 2011 season for Mizzou.
Both Lars Rise and Nick Adcock earned All-America honors in both the 2010 indoor heptathlon and the outdoor decathlon. He also guided Adcock and Rise to a 1-2 finish on their home track at the 2010 Big 12 Outdoor Championships. He also led Adcock to an indoor heptathlon title at the 2010 Indoor Big 12 Championships as he helped him reset the meet and school record in the event. Rise finished on the podium for the Tigers at the Indoor Championships as well. Not only that, but Adcock and Rise were ranked in the national top three in both events all season long, proving that Lefever has indeed established himself as one of the nation's best coaches in the combined events.
2009 was another banner year for Lefever as he coached three student-athletes to All-American honors, highlighted by combined event standouts Nick Adcock and Lars Rise. Adcock claimed All-America honors in the heptathlon during the indoor season while Rise was an All-American decathlete during the outdoor slate. Both Adcock and Rise, along with women's combined event standouts Kaela Rorvig and Lauren Begany all earned All-Big 12 honors under Lefever in 2009.
Internationally, Adcock also saw plenty of success over the summer. Competing against the world's best decathletes at the Thorpe Cup in Marburg, Germany, Adcock placed fifth amongst a field that included several Olympians and former NCAA National Champions.
Not only did Lefever's athletes excel in the combined events, but he coached pole vaulter Brian Hancock to All-America status during both the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2009. Senior Steven Shimkus was also named All-Big 12 in the pole vaultthat season as well.
He also guided Daniel Hunter to a third-place finish at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships as he finished with a personal-best leap of 2.15m (7-0 1/2), just one height shy of claiming the Big 12 title.
In 2008, Lefever's athletes achieved four All-America honors and eight All-Big 12 placings, thanks in large part to the young decathlon duo of Nick Adcock and Lars Rise.
In just his sophomore season, Adcock earned All-America honors in both the indoor and outdoor season in the heptathlon and decathlon, respectively. In addition, Adcock won the Big 12 heptathlon title, scoring a new school record 5,795 points. Adcock also went on to earn his second international medal in scoring Silver at the NACAC U23 Championships in Toluca, Mexico. Adcock, in 2007 won Gold at the USATF Junior Championship in the event and earned Silver at the Pan-Am Junior Championships in Brazil.
Rise, as a freshman, placed seventh at the NCAA Championships in the decathlon and was third at the Big 12 Championships.
Sophomore Brian Hancock earned All-America honors in the pole vault and set a new indoor school record. JaNay Woolridge was a regional qualifier and finished fourth in the Big 12 with the long jump. Jason Miller also earned All-Big 12 honors in the high jump.
Lefever was also instrumental in the successes of decathlete Hans Uldal's run as a Tiger. In April 2006, Uldal eclipsed the prodigious 8,000-point mark in the decathlon with an 8,018-point effort at the Audrey Walton Combined Events. Uldal, a 2004 Olympian and 2008 Olympic hopeful for his home-country Norway, also qualified for the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan. Uldal, the 2005 Big 12 Champion, also claimed Gold at the 2007 European Cup Combined Events.
In 2008, Lefever coached post-collegian Fiona Asigbee to a Drake Relays Championship in the heptathlon and at the USATF Olympic Trials where Asigbee took sixth. In 2007, Lefever coached Hedvig Glomsroed, who broke Mizzou's record in the triple jump.
Lefever comes to Missouri from Boston College where he established the pole vault as a strong event in the Eagles' women's program in addition to coaching the horizontal jumps, with three of his athletes earning All-BIG EAST honors. While at Boston College, Dan earned his master's degree in Counseling Psychology. As an undergraduate, Lefever was an outstanding pole vaulter and team captain at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He was the 1999 NCAA Division III and NAIA runner-up in the pole vault, and finished his collegiate career having won five conference titles and placing second in the remaining conference meets. He was honored as the Nebraska Wesleyan University's Outstanding Male Athlete in 1999.
