1st year at BVU
Lage B13
712.749.2361
randsr@bvu.edu
Robert Rands joins the Buena Vista University athletic coaching staff in the fall of 2012 and will begin duties as an assistant coach for both the cross country and track and field teams. He spent last season as an assistant track and field coach at Midland University (Neb.), working primarily with the jumps.
Rands competed collegiately at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln) where he competed for three years. He was a three-time top-10 finisher at the Big 12 Championships, earning a career-best fourth-place finish at the indoor meet as a sophomore with a leap of 24’ 10.5”. He placed fifth a year earlier at the outdoor meet was ninth as a junior during the indoor meet. In addition to the long jump, he also competed in the triple jump as a sophomore and junior, posting a personal-best leap of 46’ 2-75” in 2007. His personal-best jump in the long jump is 25' 1" and he also holds a personal best clocking of 7.07 seconds in the 60 meter dash.
Prior to his stint at Nebraska, Rands was a U.S. Junior Long Jump Champion during high school, posting a winning mark of 24’ 7”. He followed that up with a win at the Pan American Junior Championships. In 2005, he broke the state’s oldest high school state meet record when he won all-class gold medal in the long jump with a leap of 24’ 11.25”. The mark was previously set in 1961 by current NFL Hall of Famer, Gayle Sayers (24’ 10.5”).
A sociology major, Rands went on to serve as a student assistant with the Huskers (2008-10) and has also had stints as coach of the Bellevue Breeze Track Club and at Lincoln Lutheran High School.