Lindenwood University Athletics

Richard Cochran, an Olympic medalist, is the longest-tenured coach in the Lindenwood track and field program as he begins his 13th season coaching the throwers in 2018. He also previously served as the head coach of the program during the 2008 outdoor season.
 
In 2017, Cochran helped Michelle Kyle advance to the indoor national championships. She earned second-team All-American honors with a 12th-place finish. Kyle also won a MIAA Individual Championship in that event, and was runner-up in the hammer throw during the outdoor season.

Lindenwood qualified one thrower for the 2016 Indoor NCAA Division II National Championships. Deondra Canaday qualified in both the weight throw and shot put, and his highest finish was 14th in the weight throw.
 
At the conference championships in 2016, Canaday earned all-conference honors in three events in the indoor weight throw, and the outdoor discus and hammer. Kyle had the top finish on the women’s side coming in fourth in the indoor weight throw.

In 2015, Cochran had three throwers earn a spot at a NCAA Championship event. On the women’s side, Lindsey Blackwell qualified for both the indoor and outdoor championships. She earned All-American honors in the outdoor hammer throw with a third-place finish. On the men’s side, Bryan Kertz and Deondra Canaday both qualified for the outdoor nationals.
 
At the 2015 MIAA Championships, Blackwell scored in two indoor events and three outdoor events. Her highest finishes was second in the indoor weight throw, and she was also all-conference in the outdoor hammer. On the men’s side, Canaday placed fourth in the indoor season in the weight and shot put events, and he was runner-up in the outdoor shot put. Kertz and Ryan Hermann also scored for Lindenwood at the outdoor conference meet.
 
Cochran had two throwers earn All-American honors in 2014 in the program’s first year of eligibility for the national competition. Blackwell finished third in the women’s outdoor discus, and Kertz was sixth in the men’s outdoor discus. Blackwell and Michelle Kyle also qualified for nationals in the women’s outdoor hammer throw.
 
At the conference level, Lindenwood had four top-three finishes during the year. Kertz won a conference championship in the men’s outdoor discus, Blackwell had two runner-up finishes in both indoor and outdoor, and Kyle was runner-up in the women’s outdoor hammer.

In 2013, Lindenwood’s first in the MIAA, Cochran’s throwers won three MIAA titles. Mitchell Heady won the weight throw title at the MIAA Indoor Championships, and Heady and Blackwell swept the men’s and women’s hammer throw titles at the MIAA Outdoor Championships. Two other throwers, Jessica Ecker and Kertz, also earned all-MIAA honors at the outdoor meet, and his throwers combined to score 55 points at the four MIAA track and field championships in 2013.

While Lindenwood was a member of the NAIA, Cochran helped the Lindenwood track and field teams win 18 conference championships. The program won five HAAC titles in women’s indoor and men’s outdoor competitions, and four each in men’s indoor and women’s outdoor events. Cochran had 38 throwers qualify for the NAIA National Championships. Eleven of throwers earned All-American honors and two were NAIA National Champions. Cochran also coached a pair of throwers who represented the United States at the 2009 World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia.

Since Cochran arrived at Lindenwood, its throwers have set 11 school records and had 75 marks in the top-10 of all-time program performances.

Cochran has also coached at University of Missouri Track and Field camps and was a featured coach at the Ironwood Thrower Development Camp.

Cochran was a high school All-American thrower and attended college at the University of Missouri. He won two NCAA Division I National Championships in the discus competition in 1959 and 1960. Cochran also won Big Eight Conference titles in those seasons and in 1959 he captured the college track "Grand Slam" by winning the discus competitions in the Kansas, Texas and Drake Relays all in the same year. Cochran was a 1993 inductee into the University of Missouri Athletics Hall of Fame.

Cochran was also a member of the United States International Track Team. He participated in the 1959 Pan American Games and the 1960 Olympics in Rome. In Rome, he captured a bronze medal in the discus event. Cochran is a USATF certified official and is a ten-time USATF Masters Champion.

Cochrane received both his Bachelor of Science and Master’s degrees in education from the University of Missouri.