Vandermark following coach to Franklin

Logan Vandermark of South Putnam signs his national letter-of-intent to attend Franklin College. He is flanked by his parents (Christine and K.J.). Also witnessing (back, from left) were assistant coach Heath Prewitt, head coach Brandon Welti and assistant coach Marie Neumann.

Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

Brandon Welti knows a few things about what it takes to run competitively at Franklin College.

The South Putnam head coach was a star runner for the Grizzlies in his college days, earning the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference’s Most Valuable Track Athlete honor and also being named to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s 2008 Division III All-Academic Track and Field team.

Welti has no doubt that Eagle senior Logan Vandermark, who signed a letter-of-intent last week to follow in Welti’s footsteps at Franklin, will succeed there.

“I use a lot of the program at South Putnam that they used at Franklin, so Logan is going someplace where he can adjust just fine,” Welti said. “Academically, South Putnam does a great job of preparing people for college so he’ll do well in that area also. He’s a hard worker.”

Welti noted that the college cross county is 8,000 meters, compared to 5,000 in high school, but doesn’t sees that as a problem in Vandermark’s transition.

“He will have that adjustment to make, and he’s used to putting in high mileage so having a longer race shouldn’t be that tough to get used to,” he said. “He’s already started working on longer distances, and he’s studied a lot of the runners and their times so he knows what the expectation is.”

Vandermark ran second for the Eagles last fall, behind senior teammate Kieffer Vittetow, and placed seventh in the Western Indiana Conference meet and 14th in the sectional meet.

He has stayed in shape this winter competing for the South Putnam swimming team, and is looking forward to continuing his running career collegiately.

“I am typically better at longer distances now,” he said. “It’s a small school, which I wanted to go to. I got to talk to the team and the coaches and everything seemed to click together.”

Vandermark plans to eventually major in athletic training at graduate school, so he will study biology or exercise science.

Between now and the start of the college season later this summer, Vandermark definitely plans to get in a lot of miles.

As the season gets much closer, the strategy changes.

“We’ll start off with lighter mileage, then build it up and maintain mileage,” he said. “Then toward the end of the season, we’ll cut it back to get ready for the tournament and see how far I can go.”