2017 Hall of Fame: Chance chat at state track meet was first step on Nelson’s path to BV Hall of Fame

By: 
Jill Meier. BV Journal editor

Kevin Nelson - BVHS Class of ‘86

Cross-country * Track & Field

Kevin Nelson was a student-athlete at Brandon Valley for just three years, but he certainly made the most of those three years in the Lynx boys’ cross country and track and field programs.

Nelson’s story as a Lynx legend, however, may never had been written if a conversation with a pair BVHS ’85 alums hadn’t taken place during the state track meet back in the early ‘80s.

“I honestly owe most of it to Chris Anderson and Kent Tekrony for approaching me during the 1983 state track meet,” recalls Nelson, whose family relocated here from Pierre. “I knew we were moving to the Sioux Falls area and Lincoln High School had been fairly dominant up to that point, so that’s where I thought I needed to run. Chris and Kent spoke with me about BVHS and Coach (Lyle) Claussen and it made an impression. My parents agreed to take a look at Brandon, and the rest is history.”

Nelson’s rise into the Hall of Fame is certainly warranted. Earning a trio of varsity letters in both cross country and track and field during his three years as a Lynx, upon graduation, Nelson is one of the most decorated middle/long distance runners in school history. 

After earning All-State cross-country designation for two years at Pierre Riggs High School, Nelson’s success at BV got off to a strong start in his sophomore year, where he collected the Big 8 Conference title and placed third in the state AA meet. His junior season awarded him the Big 8 title and state AA runner-up, in addition to aiding the team to a runner-up state meet finish.

Nelson culminated his high school cross-country career behind an undefeated senior campaign, where he won Big 8 and state AA crowns, and once again, helped guide the Lynx boys to a third-place state finish.

Due to his string of success on the cross-country course, Nelson was invited to the National Prep All-American Cross-Country Championships, where he finished 12th.

Nelson also left his mark on the Lynx track and field program, where he was a common fixture on the awards stand.

Take the Howard Wood Relays, for example. During his senior season, a Brandon Valley Challenger report deemed the Lynx boys as “BV’s big guns” who “unloaded at the Howard Wood Relays by sweeping four of the five relays.

The boy’s special 800-meter run is where Big Red pride was most evident. Nelson and his teammate, Tate Metcalf, were a competitive duo in the 800, and according to media reports, it was Metcalf who surged ahead of the pack in the last 200 yards and snapped the tape just ahead of teammate Nelson, last year’s runner-up in the state 800-meter run.

Metcalf clocked in at 1:56.22, which was the best time in the ‘86 season by a South Dakota half-miler.

As for Nelson who ran the course in 1:56.62, well, he flashed Metcalf a grin and a second-place signal at the finish line, making the one-two placing truly a special event for the Lynx.

“My experiences with Tate are some of my favorite memories,” reflects Nelson. “In fact, they’re fairly vivid since we’ve had the chance to reconnect after a long time and meet for the NCAA Track and Field Championships last year and the PAC-12 Cross Country Championships last fall. I think we’re working on a version of ‘running tourism’. But the individual 800m at the Howard Wood Relays in 1986 was certainly special. We’d been analyzing this for a couple years thinking the invitational event in 1986 would be the 800m. I don’t think the organizers had ever invited two participants from the same school and I remember considering declining the invitation if Tate wasn’t invited. I’d only lost once that school year and it was to Tate in an indoor 800m in Vermillion. But things aligned and we were both invited. However, going into the race, neither of us was the favorite. A guy from southern Minnesota had a significantly faster personal best than either of us. As the race developed, I think the guy from Minnesota established the early pace and Tate and I were probably in the top four-five through the first lap but then Tate took the lead with approximately 300m to go and in those few seconds I saw him start to pull away from the Minnesota runner. I realized I couldn’t wait like I usually did, so I attempted to go after them. I think I caught the guy from Minnesota with a little more than 100m to go and then left everything I had on the home straight away trying to catch Tate.”

Nelson sums up the one-two finish as “an amazing moment.”

“I think we both set personal best times, but after everything we’d gone through on the track over the last three years, it didn’t feel like losing,” the Lynx runner-up said. “I think it was a crowning moment for the BVHS track and field program and for Coach Claussen.”

Ironically, neither Nelson or Metcalf ran the 800m at state later that season, but instead bought into Claussen’s team-first concept to help optimize BV’s participation in the events most likely to help win the team championship.

On the track, as a junior, Nelson landed the “Most Valuable Performer” award at the Dan Lennon Indoor Meet by winning both the 1,500- and 5,000-meter races. He was also the state AA runner-up in the 800m, helping the Lynx boys to win the program’s very first State AA Track and Field title.

The Lynx took the track and field scene by storm in his senior year and Nelson had a huge part in that success. He won four events at the Big 8 meet, three events at the Region 2AA level and four events at the State AA meet. The Lynx won all three meets, the latter being the team’s second consecutive state title, and was named “Most Valuable Athlete” at the State Meet.

So, what initially got Nelson up and running? The answer is simple: his parents. And it started in the third grade when his parents insisted that he and his brother “do something.” So the brothers took to swimming.

Fast-forward to seventh grade, Nelson said he wasn’t “big enough to play football,” and opted to join the cross-country team instead.

“It was more of an intramural program, but that was my first taste of running of any kind,” he remembers.

Prior to the eighth grade, he explains, the high school coach at Pierre was recruiting junior high girls to run on the high school team due to lack of numbers.

“I asked why I couldn’t try out, (but) he offered me the opportunity and, lo and behold, I made the team and went to the state meet in both cross country and track,” he said.

Between school meets and local road races, his interest grew from there, he said. But it was his time as a Lynx that solidified his interest.

“ ‘Growing up’ running track and cross-country for the Lynx was an incredible experience. Pierre didn’t really have a strong distance running program, so running was largely an individual event up to that point. Starting at BVHS in the fall of 1983 was my first experience with other great runners, often better than me, and with the concept of a team,” he said. “Lyle Claussen’s brilliant coaching style and approach to each of the different personalities on the team, including an incredible degree of patience with me, had a significant influence on my perspective when approaching my experiences with the Navy. Of course, that’s in hindsight, since I know I wasn’t the easiest runner to deal with back then. But those experiences with Chris Anderson, Kent Tekrony, Tate Metcalf, Mark Mattox, Matt Swenson, Mark Moeller, Jason Weller, Scott Shaffer, and so many other athletes showed me that a successful program in any business isn’t built around any one individual. Being part of these great teams also showed me how diverse elements work together to achieve success. Even though they weren’t my events, I became interested in the different aspects of the sprints, hurdles, throws, etc., to the point where these would often be some of the conversations Lyle and I would have.”

Nelson said that while it may have been unusual for a distance runner - who was already a little busy – help in later in his career with the Navy.

“It helped me understand how the different elements connect and interact for the ‘team’ to be successful,” he explains. “An aircraft carrier and the supporting strike group is a pretty complex system of systems, but it only works if each element, man and machine, is working smoothly and in concert. Every team has potential, but success like the Lynx had in cross country and track in 1985-1986 resulted from a group of athletes who were dedicated to the sport and their different events, and led by a coach who understood the bigger picture.”

From BV, Nelson went on to the University of Arizona, where his collegiate running career was cut short by a knee injury. He later went on to earn his master’s degree from the Naval War College and currently serves as a Commander in the U.S Navy.

Nelson describes his induction into the Hall of Fame as a “tremendous honor” and “truly humbling.”

“I started at Brandon Valley in 10th grade, so I didn’t have a lot of the history, and then moved shortly after starting college, so my perspective is fairly narrow,” he concludes. “But I know that I had the great fortune to be surrounded by some great high school athletes during those years, and to be included this year is truly humbling."

 

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