EUGENE, Ore. – The Bushnell men’s track & field team was recognized as the 2025 Cascade Collegiate Conference Les Schwab Men’s Team of Character, as voted on by the CCC athletic directors.
Bushnell has now been home to six winners of the Les Schwab Team of Character Awards in the last five years.
Cascade Conference Team of Character (Bushnell Recipients):
- 2021 – Women’s Basketball
- 2021 – Men’s Soccer
- 2022 – Baseball
- 2023 – Women’s Track & Field
- 2024 – Baseball
- 2025 – Men’s Track & Field
The award, which recognizes one male and one female team, is voted on by the conference athletic directors after schools submit their nominations.
The Beacon Men’s Track & Field team have established themselves as a team of strong character, with a great reputation on campus as men of integrity, respect, responsibility, servant leadership, and sportsmanship. Responsibility is reflected in a 3.11 Team GPA as they will earn NAIA Scholar Team designation.
Servant Leadership is a hallmark of the men’s track & field program as they go above and beyond with their volunteer work throughout the year, with the team members averaging over 20 hours of community service each. The team volunteered on campus move-in day, helping first-time collegiate students move into their dorm rooms. As part of Bushnell’s “Embrace the Community Day” in the fall, part of the team worked at Everyone Village, a dynamic transitional shelter program for people experiencing homelessness. There they did some work in their community garden and helped with weatherproofing tiny homes. The other half of the team worked at the Springfield Youth Gardens, doing general gardening work and vegetable harvesting. The team was also a key contributor to a FOOD For Lane County canned food drive, which collected over 2000 pounds of non-perishables for the most needy in our community. Additional team projects included buying Christmas presents as part of the athletic department Adopt-a-Family program and a “feed the community” day in which they spent time in Eugene’s homeless community passing out food, water, and emergency blankets. The team also volunteered at both the Eugene Marathon and the Run to Stay Warm 5k/10k race, serving as course marshals and at the finish line. Team service is a year-round affair for the Beacons as they worked last summer with a rotation of 3-4 athletes and coaches, serving at the Lane County Food Bank in July and August.
Members of the team have also served in their local churches or on campus as tutors. In addition, six men’s track & field athletes worked on the Orientation team, welcoming freshman and transfers and hosting community building activities with junior Sayer Pescosolido serving as the Orientation Coordinator.
Sportsmanship played out and was on full display at the Cascade Collegiate Conference championships, led by the efforts of Bushnell’s large contingent of jumpers. The Beacons led group prayers for the competitors before each event, led efforts to get the crowd behind all competitors, and following events were quick to go out of their way to thank meet officials and competitors.
“I am beyond proud of our Men’s Track & Field team for their performance on and off the track this season. While community service and campus leadership is a big part of this team’s DNA, it is their ‘team-first’ approach toward training, while training to compete for a “higher purpose” that really stands out in my eye,” stated Bushnell University Athletic Director, Corey Anderson.
Director of Track & Field Kyle Will said, “Bushnell Men’s Track and Field is incredibly blessed to receive this honor. As [Associate Head Track & Field] Coach Walcott and I continue to build this program we have tried to instill certain CORE values on the team that we feel are as important if not more important than winning. Things like TEAM and respect. We have challenged these young men to be better in every part of life so it is truly a blessing to see the growth and to see them come together and represent our team and our University so well. We kind of got in trouble at the conference meet for being so supportive and having such a large contingent out supporting all the jumpers. If those are the things we get in trouble for, I will never have an issue! I am extremely proud of this team and am honored to be a part of it.”