Tribe of Vikings Hall of Fame
Ted McMillan was one of the finest and most versatile athletes that Paul Olsen had during his 50 years as Augustana men’s track & field coach. Owner of national championships in two separate events, tonight Ted joins his wife, Meghan Voiland McMillan, as just the second married couple ever inducted into the Tribe of Vikings Hall of Fame and the first to enter in the same year.
Olsen welcomed McMillan in the fall of 2005, fresh off a career at Erie High School in Erie, Illinois that included nine varsity letters in four sports. As a senior, McMillan was the IHSA Class A state champion in the 110 high and 300 intermediate hurdles and finished second in the high jump. He was also an all-conference basketball player and state qualifying golfer for the Cardinals.
During his freshman indoor season, McMillan logged a pair of second-place finishes at the conference meet. He was edged out by one one-hundredth of a second in the 55-meter hurdles and in the high jump, broke the previous meet record and equaled the winning height of 6’ 8”. Amazingly, of the eight seasons of track & field in which he competed at Augustana (four indoor and four outdoor), this was the only one that didn’t include multiple individual CCIW titles. He saved his best for last though, placing second in the nation with a high jump of 6’ 8” at the 2006 NCAA Division III Championships in Northfield, Minnesota.
At his first collegiate outdoor meet, on St. Patrick’s Day, 2006, McMillan cleared 7’ ¼” in the high jump, joining fellow Hall of Famer Craig Lyon as the only Vikings ever to surpass seven feet. By the end of the season, he had been named CCIW Athlete of the Meet, claimed conference titles in the 400 hurdles and high jump, and collected his second and third All-America certificates with fourth-place national finishes in the same two events in Lisle, Illinois.
As a sophomore, McMillan won CCIW indoor championships in the 55 hurdles and high jump, took second in the 800 and was named Track Athlete of the Meet. He went 6’ 8¾” at nationals to place seventh in the high jump. Outdoors, he repeated as CCIW champ in the 110 and 400 hurdles and qualified for the national meet in three events. While he didn’t reach the finals in the 110 hurdles, he was crowned a double national champion in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, capturing the 400 hurdles in :51.50 and the high jump with a leap of 6’ 9”.
In 2008, McMillan added an indoor 4x400 relay title to conference championships in the 55 hurdles and high jump. He again high jumped 6’ 8¾” at the national meet in Ada, Ohio, placing fifth. Outdoors, he set a school record of :14.55 in the 110 hurdles at the Meet of Champions and a week later at the Drake Relays, broke his own Augustana standard with a :51.21 in the 400 hurdles. At the NCAA Championships in Oshkosh, he garnered three more All-America certificates, finishing second in the 400 hurdles, third in the high jump and eighth with the Viking 4x400 relay.
The 2009 indoor season saw McMillan repeat as CCIW Field Athlete of the Meet, as he just kept adding new events to dominate. He won his third consecutive indoor titles in the 55 hurdles and high jump, ran on the winning 4x400 relay for the second year in a row and threw in a pentathlon championship for good measure. After running a school-record :07.68 in the 55 hurdles at the Wisconsin-Stevens Point Qualifier, he carried over his pentathlon success to the national meet, where he placed second with a school-record 3,721 points. In addition, he became a four-time indoor All-American in the high jump, clearing 6’ 8¾” for the third straight year to place fifth.
McMillan won conference titles in the 110 hurdles and high jump during the outdoor season, but a hamstring injury slowed him at the national meet, where he failed to reach the finals in the 400 hurdles or clear a height in the high jump.
When he left Augustana, McMillan’s athletic resume included two individual national championships (along with three second-place performances), a total of 12 All-America efforts in four separate events, 18 CCIW titles in six different events and four school records, three of which still stand.
“Augie had an amazing community of students, professors and coaches,” says McMillan, who counts a 2006 intramural volleyball title among his most prized athletic achievements in college. “There was constant support, timely challenges and fervor for life like nowhere else. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of my journey through Augie.”
Since graduating from Augustana in 2009 with degrees in mathematics and chemistry, Ted—a two-time Academic All-American and three-time Jack Swartz award winner—has been employed by Epic Systems Corporation in Verona, Wisconsin, doing cognitive computer software testing. He stays busy by serving as a confirmation director at Sugar River United Methodist Church and as a track coach at Verona Area High School. He and Meghan reside in Belleville, Wisconsin with their children Addie, Grant and Sawyer and dog, Fermi.
