Peter Wagner '03

Peter Wagner hurdle — **Peter Wagner '03**

Peter Wagner '21
Men's track and field

A three-time NCAA champion, Wagner was Central's first national winner in the multi-events, an area that has blossomed into a niche for the tradition-drenched program.

He won the 2001 and 2003 national decathlon crowns while also helping take first place in the 2002 4x400-meter relay.

Wagner received all-America honors nine times, the most ever by a Central athlete, including four times in the decathlon. He was eighth in the decathlon and outdoor high jump in 2000, third in the indoor 4x400-meter relay in 2001, second in the decathlon in 2002 after finishing fifth in the indoor 4x400 and was eighth in the 2003 indoor 4x400.

The Iowa Conference MVP in 2002 and 2003, he placed in a remarkable seven events in the 2003 outdoor meet and was a 20-time league outdoor place winner. While indoor track and field was not yet an official league championship at the start of his career, he nonetheless placed in indoor conference meet events 17 times giving him 37 conference meet place finishes overall, an achievement unrivaled in Central history.

He was also Central's team MVP and co-captain in 2003.

His competitive athletics career continued beyond graduation. He was 13th in the 2004 USATF Indoor Combined Events Championships in Chapel Hill, N.C. and is a four-time top-six place winner in the Drake Relays decathlon, most recently finishing sixth in 2018.

Since 2005 Wagner has served as a criminalist in the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. He was an assistant boys track and field coach at Ankeny Centennial High School in 2017-18.

Wagner's wife, Raegan Schultz Wagner '04, was inducted into the Central Athletics Hall of Honor last year. She was also an NCAA multi-event champ, winning the 2004 heptathlon while her twin sister, Lindsay Schultz Janke '04, placed second. The Wagners are the first husband-wife duo to join Central's athletics hall.

A Des Moines native and Southeast Polk High School graduate, Wagner now lives in Cambridge with Raegan and their daughter Reese, and sons Nathan and Will.