SpringfieldNewsSun.com

FAIRBORN — Wright State released the names of its final four athletic director candidates today, May 2, and the list includes current associate AD Bob Grant.

The other three candidates — all with strong Midwestern roots — include Stephen Downing, senior associate AD at Texas Tech and a former administrator and basketball player at Indiana; Brian Teter, director of athletics at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and former Great Midwest Conference assistant commissioner and sports information director at Miami University; and Kevin McNamee, deputy associate athletic director at George Mason and an Indiana graduate.

"These are the four we're bringing in, but none of the others (47 applied for the job) have been excluded," said Dr. Dan Abrahamowicz, WSU's vice president of student affairs. "After talking to these people and some of their references, we feel we're in a very good place at Wright State. We've found people around the country think highly of our school."

When longtime athletic director Mike Cusack recently announced his retirement — to take place at the end of June — the school launched a search to find his replacement. From the initial list of candidates, a committee cut the finalists to six, then four this week.

Abrahamowicz expects interviews to be held the last three weeks of this month and the new athletic director to be chosen at the end of that process.

"We've had a good administration in athletics under Mike," Abrahamowicz said. "We're not saying win at all costs. Yes, we want to fill the Nutter Center and we want to win the all-sports trophy and we want our student-athletes to graduate.

"We want someone who values our athletes and values our school."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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