Drew Jones, who joined UND’s coaching staff prior to the 2013-14 season, has guided UND's throwers through an annual ascension that has established his group as one of the best in the Upper Midwest.
Entering his eighth season in charge of the Fighting Hawks throwers in 2020, Jones has found a niche for the program, recruiting raw talent, and developing that talent into championship level throwers.
The 2018-19 was the pinnacle of North Dakota's track & field history as Jones guided Molli Detloff to a pair of All-American honors at the indoor and outdoor championships. Detloff became the first indoor championship qualifier in UND's Division I history, finishing 11th to earn Second Team All-America honors. She closed her Fighting Hawk career with a sixth place finish at NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships to earn First Team All-America honors with a throw of 222-11, qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
In 2020, the Fighting Hawks throwers accounted for seven new top-10 marks, including a school record in the men's weight throw by Adam Mehr at the UND Open and Multi with a 65-9 (20.05m), smashing the previous mark by almost three feet (62-10.5).
In 2018 the achievements and accolades came early and often for Jones and his pupils. Twenty-three new entries were added to UND's all-time top-10 list, including four school records: Michael Quesenberry in the outdoor shot put, Detloff in the weight and hammer throws, and Katelyn Weber in the outdoor shot put.
That trio was among the seven throwers North Dakota sent to the 2018 NCAA West Region Preliminary, joining Matt Culhane, Chris Evenson, Jessica Drady and Destinee Haas.
Detloff, who was a returning All-American, repeated as the Big Sky Conference Outdoor MVP after winning her second straight discus title and ranking second and seventh, respectively, in the hammer and shot put. Her weight throw was the second-best in conference history. Weber, meanwhile, repeated as the conference champion in the shot put.
In all, UND throwers combined to earn 14 all-conference honors in 2018 while earning 54 of the women's team's 75 points at the Big Sky Outdoor Championship and 23 of UND's 50 points on the men's side. In the classroom, Quesenberry, Evenson, Detloff and Haas all earned USATFCCCA All-Academic recognition.
The 2017 season marked another season of upward trajectory for Fighting Hawks throwers, culminating with Detloff earning second-team all-America honors with a 12th-place finish in the hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Detloff also earned Big Sky Conference Athlete of the Meet honors -- the first in UND history to do so -- at the conference outdoor meet after winning the discus title and finishing as the runner-up in the hammer. She also placed fifth in the shot put to total 22 points at the conference championship. Additionally, Detloff broke the school records in the discus and hammer during the outdoor season.
Detloff was the headliner of a deep and talented throws group in 2017. Weber was the Big Sky runner-up in the shot put with a school-record performance in the event, while Molly Griep joined her on the podium for her third-place finish. Griep also earned indoor all-conference honors with a runner-up effort in the weight throw, while Weber won the conference championship in the shot put and became the first woman in school history to eclipse 50-feet in the event.
On the men's side, Adam Mehr (third in hammer) and Quesenberry (third in shot put) both earned all-conference honors, with Mehr becoming just the second male in program history to surpass 190 feet.
In all, Jones' throws group topped the Big Sky Conference with 91 points combined during the indoor and outdoor seasons, 21 points better than the next-closest school, and 19 new entries were etched into UND's all-time top 10 lists.
UND's throwers were spectacular in 2016 as well, cementing 14 new additions to UND's All-Time Top 10 on the women's side and nine on the men's side. Those included new school indoor and outdoor shot put records by Alyssa Lueck and a new women's weight throw record by Detloff.
Detloff went on to win a Big Sky Conference championship in the weight, while Jayd Eggert captured a conference title in the javelin. Female throwers scored 46 of UND's 85 team points, helping UND to a fourth-place finish at the Big Sky meet that was the best in the program's young Division I history.
In addition to the two conference champions, Jones also oversaw five other Big Sky medalists on the women's side, including a runner-up finish and four third-place performances.
In 2015, Jones' second season with the program, UND’s athletes enjoyed tremendous success in the field. On the women’s side, his student-athletes entered 17 new marks into the program’s all-time top-10 lists.
Three new school records were set, as senior Shawny Kramer snapped the record in the weight throw, and junior Jayd Eggert did the same in the javelin while also breaking the hammer record once. Freshman Detloff had a very impressive collegiate debut under Jones’ tutelage, setting a new program-best mark in the hammer on three occasions.
UND’s men’s throwers saw seven of their marks crack the top-10 on the program’s all-time lists during the 2014-15 campaign, and two school records were broken there as well by senior Jakob Bissell. He bested the program records in both the weight and the hammer, breaking each three different times.
On both the men’s and women’s sides, UND’s throwers compiled six all-conference honors. Bissell was an All-Big Sky Conference honoree in both the hammer and the weight, while classmate Roman Waldera turned in an All-Big Sky performance in the discus. Freshman Quesenberry secured all-conference honors in the shot put at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships.
For the women, Eggert captured All-Big Sky honors in the javelin, and Detloff took home all-conference honors in the hammer.
His first season in Grand Forks was a resounding success as well, as his student-athletes broke five different school records and totaled 35 new entries in UND’s men’s and women’s all-time top-10 lists.
Senior Jakob Bissell took down the school records in the weight and hammer throws, sophomore Ke-Ke Burks did the same on the women’s side, and classmate Griep broke the school record in the shot put.
In all, 12 male student-athletes and 23 female student-athletes cracked UND’s all-time top-10 lists, including six new marks in the women’s hammer, five in the women’s weight, and four each in the women’s shot put and discus and men’s weight.
Jones came to North Dakota after five record-setting seasons as an assistant coach at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minn. During his tenure, Jones mentored 15 Division III All-Americans, four Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Field Athletes of the Year, and 21 individual MIAC champions. His throwers set four MIAC and seven school records over those five seasons.
In 2013, Jones coached the Division III national champion in the women’s discus and was later named the 2013 USTFCCCA Central Region Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year.
Jones, who also served as an assistant strength coach for the past two years, oversaw the strength and conditioning plan for Hamline men’s and women’s track, while also serving as the program’s travel coordinator.
Prior to his time at Hamline, Jones was an assistant coach for one season (2007-08) at Concordia University in Saint Paul and helped the Golden Bears score points in the throws at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Championship for the first time in five years. Additionally, he coached the school record-holder in the women’s indoor shot put and weight throw.
Jones is a 2008 graduate of Hamline with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. A four-year letterwinner and two-year captain, Jones was a 10-time All-MIAC performer and a two-time MIAC All-Academic selection. He received his USATF Level 2 certification (throwing events) in 2009, his USA Weightlifting certification in 2013 and his USTFCCCA Academy Throws Specialist Certification in 2014.
