His father could throw a hurdle, but most likely couldn't get over one. Definitely not like his son can.
 
Senior Parker Bowden, a second generation member of his family to compete for the Eastern Washington University track and field program, has his sights set on a Big Sky Conference title after a record-breaking season for the Eagles thus far in the 2021 season.
 
A former competitor for his father, Chuck Bowden, at Central Valley High School in Spokane, Wash., Parker has been among the top high hurdlers in the league since transferring from Community Colleges of Spokane. His father was a thrower at Eastern in the late 1980's, so hurdling wasn't necessarily in the family genes.
 
But the 110-meter hurdles race has been for Parker, and he's the best at it in EWU history. Earlier this season he set the school record in that event, but his lasting legacy at Eastern is way beyond that. He's won Big Sky Conference All-Academic honors five times in his career, and is currently working on his master's degree in business administration. He has a 3.96 grade point average in that program after previously earning his bachelor's degree in marketing.
 
"Parker is a great teammate," said long-time Eastern head coach Stan Kerr. "From his methodical warmup, diet and sense of humor, to his being a dedicated student of the sport, his competing at this high level of sport is an example to others. He serves as a solid testimony to being in the here-and-now, and doing everything you need to do in order to be successful at the NCAA Division I level."
 
After a pair of All-Big Sky Conference honors with top three finishes at conference meets indoors, Bowden is expecting a top three finish this year – at least in his second try of his career outdoors.
 
A title is definitely a possibility when the Big Sky Conference Championships take place on May 12-15 in Ogden, Utah, as he'll most likely enter with the league's top time of 13.89 seconds. He had a school-record time of 13.87 on March 27 in Missoula, Mont., but for rankings purposes that time is altitude-adjusted to 13.91.
 
"The school-record performance for Parker is something that represents a lifetime of work in the event," said Kerr. "He's a fifth-year student, has been through injuries, is in graduate school maintaining a near-4.0 grade point average, and he works. There's a lot on his schedule, so to come out with a blazing time like that, it set him up well for the rest of the outdoor season."
 
Eastern has never had a champion in the league in the 110 hurdles, with a total of six finishing in the top three. The last came in 2014 when Steven Warner finished second. Earlier this season, Bowden broke Warner's school record of 14.23, set at the league championships that season.
 
Idaho junior Ben Doucette is ranked second in the league with a 14.07 time, but it is Idaho State's Tanner Conner who has captured three recent league titles. Included was the 2018 league title in the 110 hurdles (14.01), with Bowden finishing fifth (14.25).
 
Most recently, Doucette had a time of 7.91 at the 2020 Big Sky Indoor Championships to finish second ahead of Bowden's 7.94 clocking for third. The winner was Conner from Idaho State, who is ranked just eighth outdoors this year with a time of 14.41. This year's indoor championships were canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but Bowden didn't have any indoor eligibility remaining anyway.
 
In 2019 indoors, Bowden was fourth (8.07), Doucette sixth (8.28) and Conner was victorious (7.92). In 2018, in his Big Sky debut season, Bowden was the runner-up (8.00) behind a senior from Sacramento State with a 7.87 time. Bowden holds the school record in the 60-meter hurdles with a 7.94 time in 2020.
 
Beyond the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships are the NCAA West Regional Championships in College Station, Texas, on May 27-29, and the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., on June 9-12. Currently, Bowden is tied for 39th nationally.
 
Chuck Bowden received his degree from Eastern in 1991 in education after competing as a thrower for the Eagles. Formerly from Prosser, Wash., he has since gone on to a successful teaching and coaching career, including serving as President of the Washington State Track & Field Coaches Association.
 
The Bowden's are actually one of three second-generation families in the Eagle program.
 
The father of freshman pole vaulter Brayden Freitag is Todd Freitag, who in 1988 won the Big Sky Conference indoor title in the pole vault and the outdoor title in the decathlon. He ranks sixth all-time at EWU with a pole vault of 16-7 that season, and he's fourth in the decathlon with 6,599 points. Both of those marks stood as school records for more than 10 years (12 for the decathlon, 17 for the pole vault).
 
Freshman sprinter Samiah Kuntz out of Spokane's  Lewis & Clark High School is actually a second-generation Eagle twice. Her parents are both former Eastern competitors from the 1990's, Greg Kuntz and his wife Celeste Kuntz (formerly Stutheit).
 
Greg Kuntz remains eighth on EWU's all-time best lists in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 9:15.9, and was also EWU's top finisher at the Big Sky Conference Cross Country Championships in 1994 (17th) and 1993 (29th). Celeste Kuntz (Stutheit) placed second at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships in 1998 in the 100 to earn All-BSC honors, and twice she was named to the league's All-Academic team. In addition, she ranks fourth on the women's all-time list in the 100 outdoors (11.71), and is also sixth in the 60 meters indoors (7.67). She held the school record in the 60 meters for 10 years. In addition, she ranks on both lists in the long jump -- 18-9 to rank eighth indoors and 18-7 1/4 to rank 10th outdoors.