January marked the beginning of Danny Cash’s sixth season as the head coach of Guilford’s men’s track and field team, and his team has another shot at winning the Quakers’ first outdoor league championship since joining the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

In only five years as the head coach, Cash has garnered 23 All-ODAC selections and athletes he’s coached have set 22 different school records.

Despite this, the Quakers have not seen higher than a fifth-place finish in ODAC championships since 2013.

But like every college sport, every year is a new team. Cash’s unit this year features a pair of multisport athletes who look to build off their historic indoor track season. Both members of Guilford’s football team, sophomores Jeremiah Hedrick and Juwan Houston, now have a year of experience under their belt in both of their sports.

On Jan. 20, Hedrick set the College mark for triple jump at 13.14 meters at the Wake Forest Invitational. This record was quickly broken a month later at the 2018 Indoor ODAC championships, Feb. 25, when sophomore and teammate Wanya Alford recorded a 13.20 jump in his debut for the Quakers.

Last outdoor track season, Hedrick notched the seventh and eighth-best marks in College history in the triple jump as well as the eighth-best mark in the long jump.

“I just really hope that I’m setting the bar high and laying a foundation for our future track athletes coming to Guilford,” said Hedrick.

Over the course of his young career, Houston also showed off his leaping ability, but in a different way. On March 15, Houston set the College record in the 110-meter high hurdles 49er Classic. He currently holds the top two times in College history for the indoor 60-meter hurdles at 8.51 and 8.61, both set at ODAC Championships.

On the distance side, the team is led by junior Caleb Amstutz and senior Caleb Anderson. Junior LeeShawn Joyner, sophomore Kieran Arbury and first-year John Martinez joined Anderson in the distance relay medley team that finished sixth at the Indoor ODAC championships, garnering three points for the Quakers.

To credit their success this season, Houston stated that coaches have used the same messages throughout the season.

“(Coach always preaches) consistency and accountability,” said Houston. “They preach this because the only way you’re going to be good, and no matter what you do, you’re going to need to be consistent with it.”

The messages the coaching staff communicates with the team extends beyond their action on the track.

“Since we’re Division III, education is above athletics,” said Houston. “You have to be accountable to make time so you can be successful.”

Overall, the team is looking to the future.

“Right now, our program is still a little small with few accessible resources, but if people see that we are still producing high marks and setting high standards in the record books, then people will have no choice but to acknowledge the work that we are putting in and see that our program is the truth regardless of the adversity,” said Hedrick. “I hope, in turn, this will bring more support to our program and more accessible resources to our team.”

The team continues its season at the Dr. Jack Toms Invitational at Lynchburg College on March 23 and 24.