Central College Athletics

Brandon Sturman was named Central’s men’s and women’s track and field coach prior to the 2018-19 year.
    
Since his arrival, Dutch student-athletes have qualified as individuals 72 times for 11 NCAA Division III Indoor or Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In 2024, Central’s women’s team had eight athletes compete at the outdoor national meet and four at the indoor championships. The men’s team had seven at the outdoor and three at the indoor national competitions.

Central has won six individual national championships during Sturman’s five-year run, led by three from Will Daniels in the heptathlon and decathlon. Mark Fairley also won the 2018 outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase, Sam Beatty won the 2023 indoor high jump and Megan Johnson won the 2024 women’s outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase. Dutch athletes have earned All-American status 37 times including 19 times in 2024.

At the 11 American Rivers Conference Championships with Sturman, Central has piled up 45 event titles and 130 all-conference performers. Megan Johnson was the women’s running events MVP at the 2024 outdoor championships and Brock Lewis was the men’s field event MVP at the 2021 and 2022 indoor championships. The Dutch have finished in the top five 21 out of 22 times.
            
Sturman heads a deep and experienced coaching staff that includes three veteran collegiate head coaches in associate head coach Joe Dunham and assistants Aaron Fuller and Jim Fuller. Dunham, who led Central to eight men’s and women’s championships in 10 seasons as head coach, continues working with the squad’s distance runners. Aaron Fuller was the head coach at Simpson College in 2022 and 2023. Aaron Fuller, who joined the Central staff in 2013, spent 24 highly successful seasons as head coach at NCAA Division II Northern State University (S.D.). He works with Central’s multi-event athletes, a traditional area of strength for the Dutch. Sturman works primarily with the sprinters and horizontal jumpers.

In two seasons as head coach at Aurora University (Ill.), Sturman piloted the Spartans to five indoor and outdoor men’s and women’s Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference titles. At the 2017 NCAA Division III Indoor track and field championships, Aurora finished sixth as a team and had the school's first individual national champion. The Spartan men were also 12th outdoors that year with another individual national championship. The 2018 women's team was 13th at the outdoor national meet.

A Brookeville, Maryland native, Sturman was a two-year football team captain at Valparaiso University (Ind.) where he played middle linebacker for the 2003 Pioneer Football League champs and graduated in 2006. He received a master’s degree there in 2008. Sturman was a graduate assistant football coach at Valparaiso for two seasons, then served as an assistant football coach and strength and conditioning coordinator at Aurora from 2008-13. He was also a part-time assistant track and field coach in that span. In 2014, he gave up his other duties to become head assistant men’s and women’s cross country and track and field coach before taking over as head men’s and women’s track and field coach in 2016.

Honors

Aurora University (Ill.)

• (1) Northern Athletics College Conference Outdoor Men's Coach of the Year –  2018

Achievements

Central College

• (3) men's indoor NCAA Division III champions -- 2018 - Will Daniels (heptathlon); 2019 - Will Daniels (heptathlon); 2023 - Sam Beatty (high jump)
• (2) men's outdoor NCAA Division III champions -- 2019 - Will Daniels (decathlon); 2019 - Mark Fairley (3,000-meter steeplechase)
• (1) women's outdoor NCAA Division III champions -- 2024 - Megan Johnson (3,000-meter steeplechase)
• (6) men's indoor NCAA Division III All-American performances
• (9) men's outdoor NCAA Division III All-American performances
• (8) women's indoor NCAA Division III All-American performances
• (11) women's outdoor NCAA Division III All-American performances

Central College (sprints and horizontal jumps)

• (1) men's indoor NCAA Division III All-American performance
• (2) men's outdoor NCAA Division III All-American performance
• (2) men's triple jump indoor conference champions - 2020 - Brock Lewis; 2021 - Brock Lewis
• (2) men's long jump indoor conference champions - 2021 - Brock Lewis; 2022 - Brock Lewis
• (2) men's long jump outdoor conference champions - 2021 - Brock Lewis; 2022 - Brock Lewis
• (1) men's triple jump outdoor conference champions - 2024 - Kale Purcell
• (1) women's 4x400 relay indoor conference champions - 2024
• (1) women's 4x100 relay outdoor conference champions - 2024
• (1) women's 4x400 relay outdoor conference champions - 2024
• (18) men's all-conference performances
• (11) women's all-conference performances

Aurora University

• (1) men's Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference outdoor track and field championships –  2018
• (2) women's Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference indoor track and field championships – 2017, 2018
• (2) women's Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference outdoor track and field championships –  2017, 2018
• (1) men's indoor NCAA Division III champions -- 2018 - Ryan Njegovan (shot put)
• (1) men's outdoor NCAA Division III champions -- 2018 - Ryan Njegovan (discus throw)
• (8) men's NCAA Division III indoor/outdoor All-American performances
• (6) women's NCAA Division III indoor/outdoor All-American performances

Athletics career

• Team had 17-28 (.378) record, 5-11 (.313) mark in conference games in his four seasons
• Linebacker who finished career with 224 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, 2 fumble recoveries, 3 forced fumbles, two interceptions and two blocked kicks
• (1) Pioneer Football Championship - 2003
• (2) seasons as team captain