Coyote Sports Hall of Fame
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Olympian Derek Miles, originally of Sacramento, Calif., is one of three South Dakota graduates to compete in the Olympic Games. At USD, Miles won the North Central Conference pole vault title in 1996 and finished fifth at the 1996 NCAA Division II indoor meet. He was third at the 1994 NCAA Division II outdoor nationals. Currently an academic adviser at Arkansas State, he earned an undergraduate degree in history and a master’s degree in athletic administration at USD in 1996. Miles ranks as one of the world’s top pole vaulters. He finished seventh at the Athens Olympics in 2004, and was ranked fifth in the world at the end of the 2005 season. Miles of Bell Athletics/Nike currently resides in Jonesboro, Ark., where he trains with some of the best pole vaulters in the world. He holds a personal best of 19-2.50 that he set at the DakotaDome in 2005, which was the seventh best in the world that year. Miles was the USA Indoor champion in 2003 and fifth at the World Outdoors, also in 2003. Miles was ranked third in the U.S. by the Track and Field News in 2005. He has also set up the Derek Miles and Friends Pole Vault Competition at his alma mater. The competition annually brings some of the world’s top vaulters (Jeff Hartwig, Toby Stevenson, and others) to the DakotaDome.
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