Cruikshank became a top track athlete at Ault High School and remained so at Colorado State University. His main events were the hammer throw and the discus throw, but he also competed in other events, including shot put and high jump. In addition, he played as an end on the Colorado State Rams football team, winning conference football titles in 1933 and 1934. At the 1933 NCAA championships Cruikshank placed second in the hammer throw, throwing 155 ft in and losing to Roderick Cox of Michigan by only an inch and a half. At the national championships later that summer Cruikshank threw 160 ft in and finished as the top American; however, he still only placed second to Olympic champion Pat O'Callaghan of Ireland, who was also taking part and won the title. In the 1934 NCAA meet Cruikshank threw the hammer 163 ft in, but lost to Henry Dreyer, Pete Zaremba and Donald Favor; the top five all threw well beyond the previous year's winning mark. In the discus Cruikshank placed sixth. Cruikshank set his personal discus best, 160.45 feet, in May 1935; it was also a Rocky Mountain Conference record, but only briefly, as Hugh Cannon broke it the following week. Cruikshank was allowed to compete in the 1935 NCAA championships, even though he was in his fourth year of collegiate track and field competition; at the time, collegiate eligibility was normally limited to three years per sport, and Cruikshank had been taking part in varsity track meets since his freshman year. He was a leading favorite in the hammer throw, but despite throwing 159 ft in he lost to Anton Kishon of Bates by almost nine feet and took second. In the discus he placed seventh. At the 1935 AAU championships Cruikshank won the junior hammer title; in the senior competition, he threw 165 ft in and placed second to Dreyer. Cruikshank entered the 1936 season as one of the favorites to qualify for the American team for the Olympics in Berlin, but at that summer's Olympic Trials his best throw of 166 ft in was only good enough for fourth place. He lost to Donald Favor, who got the third and final Olympic spot, by less than eight inches. Cruikshank won his first national senior hammer title in the 1939 championships, throwing 174 ft in. At the 1940 championships he threw 176 ft in, which was and would remain his personal best, but he still only placed third behind Stanley Johnson and Bob Bennett. Cruikshank won his second national title in 1942 while on leave from the U.S. Army, throwing 173 ft in and beating defending champion Irving Folwartshny by more than five feet. Due to World War II Cruikshank missed the national championships of 1943 and 1944, but he returned in 1945 and immediately placed fourth despite not having trained much during the war years; the low quality of that year's competition helped, as he only needed to throw 147 ft in, the lowest fourth-place mark since 1926. He continued competing for several more years, placing in the top six at the national championships in every year until 1948; he also placed sixth, with a throw of 161 ft in, at the 1948 Olympic Trials.
