Augustana College Athletics

During her eight seasons of track & field at Augustana (four indoor and four outdoor), Meghan Voiland never failed to earn All-America honors in the pole vault and as a senior in 2007, she finally ended a maddening string of runner-up finishes with a national championship in the event. She also excelled for Coach Fred Whiteside’s Vikings in jumps and hurdles and tonight, she and her husband Ted McMillan join LeRoy and Jane Brissman as the only married couples inducted into the Tribe of Vikings Hall of Fame. The McMillans are the first to enter together, as 23 years (1979-2002) separated Leroy and Jane’s respective inductions. 
 
Voiland was a model of consistency in the pole vault. Not only did she achieve All-America status all eight seasons, but she claimed the CCIW outdoor title all four years. A testament to her constant improvement is the fact the she set a new school record, both indoors and outdoors, each season she competed for the Vikings.
 
Whiteside landed Voiland out of Yorkville High School in Yorkville, Illinois, where she won a state title in the pole vault as a junior. She paid immediate dividends, taking down Kim Baier’s indoor and outdoor school records during her freshman year. She cleared 11’ 5¼” to place fifth in the nation at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Outdoors, she won a conference title and placed seventh (11’ 8½”) at the national meet in Decatur, Illinois, where she also qualified in the triple jump and 100 hurdles.
 
As a sophomore, Voiland placed second in the nation with an 11’ 11¾” vault in Bloomington, Illinois. Injuries kept her from competing outdoors until the CCIW Championships. All she did was break her own school record as well as the conference mark with a winning 12’ 6¾”. At the national meet in Waverly, Iowa, she cleared 11’ 10½” to place eighth.
 
The 2006 indoor season saw Voiland claim a CCIW triple jump title, boost the school pole vault record to 12’ 5¾” and qualify for nationals in the triple jump, 55 hurdles and pole vault, where her 12’ 3¾” earned her second place again. Outdoors, she set new school and conference records with a winning height of 12’ 9½” at the CCIW meet. At the NCAA Championships in Lisle, Illinois, she matched the winning height of 12’ 6¼”, but again placed second based on fewest misses.
 
As a senior, Voiland was again the indoor CCIW triple jump champ. She qualified for nationals in that event, as well as the 55 hurdles and of course, the pole vault. Competing in Terre Haute, Indiana, she and North Central’s Megan Rossi both set a new NCAA Division III record of 12’ 11½”. The tie necessitated a jump off, with Rossi eventually capturing the title. Voiland, who executed a remarkable 21 vaults during the competition, placed second in the nation for the fourth time in her career.
 
At the 2007 CCIW outdoor championships, Voiland was named Outstanding Field Athlete after winning the pole vault and triple jump and placing second in the long jump and 100 hurdles. She carried that momentum over to the national meet in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where she cleared a school-record 12’ 10¼” to finally claim that elusive pole vault national championship. She also achieved All-America status with a school-record, third-place 39’ 8” triple jump. Her performance helped lead Whiteside’s bunch to a ninth-place finish in the team standings.
 
The honors rolled in for Voiland after her outstanding senior season. She won Academic All-America honors for the second straight year, earned an NCAA postgraduate scholarship and was named the CCIW’s Woman of the Year. A nine-time All-American and seven-time CCIW champion during her career, she set school records in the pole vault indoors (12’ 11½”) and outdoors (12’ 10¼”), the triple jump indoors (38’ 6¾”) and outdoors (39’ 8”) and with the 400-meter shuttle hurdle relay (1:02.41). All but the indoor triple jump mark still stand.
 
After graduating from Augustana with a degree in biology, Voiland went on to receive her Doctor of Physical Therapy from Mayo School of Health Sciences in Rochester, Minnesota. While there, she also coached pole vault at Mayo High School. From 2010-2013, she worked as a physical therapist at Capitol Physical Therapy in Verona, Wisconsin. She is now an assistant track coach at Verona Area High School. She also serves as a care ministry coordinator, confirmation mentor and Sunday school teacher at Sugar River United Methodist Church. She and Ted reside in Belleville, Wisconsin with their children Addie, Grant and Sawyer.
 
“I am so thankful for all the opportunities I had at Augie,” says Meghan. “There were so many professors and coaches and teammates that believed in me, taught me how to think, supported me and helped me have fun in the process. I loved that I could be at a place where academics were a priority, but I could still be totally immersed in sports, including intramurals, without any being negatively impacted.” She added thanks to “all of the people who helped to make this possible—my parents, coaches and teammates—everyone at Augie.”