The Kennesaw State men’s track and field team recently completed a streak of dominance that would make an SEC football team blush: eight consecutive conference titles in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Powering those championships, four in indoor and four in outdoor, are a group of seniors of which two will get one more chance in the coming NCAA regionals to solidify their status as arguably part of the more dominant group of athletes in Kennesaw State’s history.
“These seniors are pretty special,” Andy Eggerth, the director of the men’s and women’s track and field teams, said. “Their marks are pretty tremendous.”
The group — athlete Bilal Abdullah of Snellville; sprinter Zac Davis of Buford; combined event/jumper Andre Dorsey of Chalmette, La.; thrower Martynas Sedys of Lithuania; and combined eventer Joseph Yates of Douglasville — have set 29 school records and 18 conference records during their careers. Abdullah and Dorsey will compete in the regionals in Jacksonville, Fla.
Their success is a bit more than Eggerth envisioned when he signed them.
The team was coming off the sting of losing the conference outdoor title by one point.
Eggerth wanted to sign athletes to help the Owls not only continue to compete for titles, but also to send some competitors to national events.
The goal quickly changed to becoming one of the nation’s top-10 teams, something that likely won’t happen this season because injuries robbed athletes of opportunities to earn the necessary points.
That the Owls even set that goal shows the development of the program and the quality of the seniors and the rest of the members of the team.
“When you are shooting so far above winning conference championships then that becomes easy,” Eggerth said.
Some of the group signed with Kennesaw State because they didn’t have the right look or experience.
Dorsey didn’t have the right look. He said when he graduated high school he was 5-foot-10, 160 pounds, which wasn’t ideal for a high jumper.
He has since made the All-Atlantic Sun team 25 times in indoor and outdoor track, including 16 conference individual championships. He is ranked in the NCAA’s top 28 this season in the long jump, high jump, and triple jump. He currently holds eight school records and conference championship meet records.
“We have something to prove,” Dorsey said. “A lot of the kids that are seniors now and junior now were kind of outcasts.”
Before signing with Kennesaw State, Abdullah’s only participation in track and field came as a senior at Brookwood High. That happened only when he realized he didn’t have much of a future in basketball. His training as a runner came from playing outside with his friends.
He became a natural, making the All-Atlantic Sun team 20 times in indoor and outdoor track and winning six conference individual championships. He holds 10 school records. He became the first track and field athlete in school history to earn a point in an NCAA championship when he placed fourth in the heptathlon last year.
“The boys team in general, we are a really competitive family,” Abdullah said. “When it’s a competitive family, you are happy but you want to do better. You go back and forth, back and forth.”
Even if they don’t qualify for the NCAA championship, they have hopes to one day make it to the Olympics. Abdullah has been invited to participate in the Pan-Am Games. Dorsey wants to compete on the circuits in Europe before trying to make the U.S. team for 2020.
