NDSU

Going into his 41st season as the head men’s track & field and cross country coach for the Bison in 2019-20, Don Larson has established a championship track & field tradition at North Dakota State.
 
Under Larson’s guidance, the Bison have claimed 11 of the last 12 Summit League outdoor team championships, along with seven indoor league crowns. NDSU has captured 10 consecutive Summit League outdoor team titles, winning the league every year since 2010.
 
In 40 years as the head coach at NDSU, Larson has directed his track & field and cross country teams to 58 conference team championships. He is a 17-time Summit League Coach of the Year.

Larson helped North Dakota State claim its first Division I individual national champion (in any sport) in 2019, when thrower Payton Otterdahl won both the shot put and weight throw at the NCAA Indoor Championships. NDSU advanced 11 men to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in 2019 -- the largest group of individuals in school history.

The Bison sent a school record 17 entries -- 10 men, with several competing in multiple events -- to the NCAA West Prelims in 2016.
 
From 2013-17, five different Bison men earned All-American honors at the NCAA Championships, led by a fifth-place finish from Matti Mortimore (javelin, 2017) and a seventh-place finish from Andy Lillejord (heptathlon, 2013).
 
In 2008, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017 and 2018, NDSU swept the Summit League indoor and outdoor team titles. In NDSU’s first season in the Summit League in 2008, Larson led the Bison to the conference titles in both indoor and outdoor track & field.
 
In 2009, Larson helped guide the program to new heights when Bison senior Matt Bishoff finished 11th in the heptathlon at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships to earn NDSU’s first-ever Division I All-America honor.
 
In the program’s first three years at the Division I level, Larson guided the Bison to three team titles at the Division I Independent Championships. In 2005, the first year of Division I competition, NDSU claimed eight individual titles and two relay golds at the Independent Championships en route to a dominating victory.
 
In his first 25 years, all at the Division II level, the Bison captured 36 total North Central Conference titles including a conference-record string of 13 consecutive outdoor titles (1987-99) and 20 of the last 22 outdoor crowns.
 
He coached a total of 193 NCAA Division II All-America performances including four individual competitors who won 11 national championships, headed by seven-time NCAA Division II national champion and 1991 Drake Relays 10,000 meter champion Doug Hanson.
 
Larson’s indoor track & field success included 14 NCC titles and seven runner-up finishes. NDSU participated in 19 NCAA Division II national indoor meets, finishing fourth once, fifth on three occasions, sixth once and seventh twice.
 
NDSU’s outdoor squad was even more successful, capturing the NCC crown 21 times. During Larson’s reign, the Bison placed no worse than third. North Dakota State had success at the Division II national meet as well, finishing in the top 10 seven times including a third-place finish in 2004, the school’s best finish at a national meet.
 
As the head cross country coach, he also coached nine cross country athletes to 13 NCAA Division II All-America awards.
 
“Philosophically, our program believes that we need to work hard, train hard, train smart and still have a lot of fun,” said Larson, the United States Track Coaches Association’s 2004 Division II indoor and outdoor National Coach of the Year.
 
“I think we’ve been able to balance having time for school, having time for sport and still having free time for family and friends.”
 
“Most of the athletes we get know the main ingredients of success are hard work and dedication,” Larson said. “Our goal is to help them continue to grow and develop. We want to help them make the best of their collegiate careers at NDSU.”
 
The North Central Conference was nothing new to the coach when he took over the Bison in 1979. While competing for conference rival South Dakota State University (1971-76), Larson captured two All-America awards and seven NCC championships in track & field.
 
He set three league records and still holds a share of the retired 600-yard indoor mark of 1:11.90 set in 1975. Larson captured his All-America honors in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 1972 (6th) and 1975 (4th).
 
Larson, a native of Madison, S.D., holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education from South Dakota State and a master’s degree in physical education from Minnesota State University-Moorhead. He coached at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., prior to joining the Bison.
 
Larson, a 59-time Coach of the Year at various levels, was the 1998 recipient of South Dakota State’s Ralph Ginn Award for Coaching Excellence and is a member of the Howard Wood Dakota Relays Hall of Fame.
 
Larson’s wife, Desire’e, held assistant coaching duties in the high jump for 20 years at NDSU. The coaches have two children, Kelsey and Kira.