Background

The first time he met with his coach after arriving at Div. III UW-LaCrosse, the state champion hurdler out of tiny Stratford, Wis., (pop. 1,523) said he’d really didn’t want to hurdle anymore and would rather run the 400 flat, if that would be OK.  “I wanted to try something new,” Andrew says, and Guthrie agreed they could give it a whirl.

Good idea. After running the third leg in the first round of the 4x400m relay in Athens, the “experiment” brought him a gold medal. It has also brought the well-mannered Midwesterner into perhaps the most competitive track event in the U.S., with Americans sweeping the medals at the 2004 Olympics.

On June 24, 2006, Andrew won his first US title when he edged LaShawn Merritt at 400 meters at the AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Asked at the press conference afterward what he thought of a Div. III athlete winning a national title: “I don't think of myself as a Division III athlete. It was a great college choice for me... I don't think it has anything to do with what division you come from or what size town you come from …. if you run the times, you run the times. The stopwatch doesn't lie."