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NCAA Coaching Round-Up: New Faces In SEC, Pac-12, Big 10

NCAA Coaching Round-Up: New Faces In SEC, Pac-12, Big 10

New coaching announcements from around the NCAA.

Jul 24, 2017 by Johanna Gretschel
NCAA Coaching Round-Up: New Faces In SEC, Pac-12, Big 10
Keep tabs on this page all summer to stay updated on new coaching hires from universities across the NCAA.

7/24 Update:

The University of Southern California (USC) has hired Patrick Henner as its new cross country coach and assistant track coach for distance runners. The Trojans have not yet published an official press release, but Henner is listed on USCTrojans.com as "Assistant Coach, Distances and Cross Country" under the 2017 roster with a full bio, which you can read here. This is Henner's first university coaching job since resigning from his post as Georgetown's director of track & field and cross country in 2015 after eight years at the helm of the program and an additional eight years as an assistant coach. 

While at Georgetown, he coached the Hoyas to the 2011 women's NCAA Cross Country Championship title, as well as three podium finishes in cross country and over 150 All-Americans. Prior to Georgetown, Henner coached at James Madison University for nine years, where he coached athletes to 28 All-American honors, and Blacksburg High School in Virginia, where his teams won three state championships in 1984, 1985 and 1986.

7/22 Update:


Sara Vergote returns to the Ohio State cross country and track and field program after leaving for the track season. She will work under Khadevis Robinson, who is also rejoining the program this fall after spending the last four years at LSU; the two have never overlapped before. Vergote led the women's cross country team to their second-ever NCAA Cross Country Championships berth in 2014, and her resume includes coaching stints at Iowa State, the University of Toledo, her alma mater, and Manhattan.


Washington State announced the addition of alumnus CharLee Linton to their staff as an assistant for the women's cross country and track programs. The 2016 graduate has spent the last year serving as a volunteer assistant coach in Pullman. She joined WSU as a walk-on athlete and earned a scholarship for her last two years of school, during which time she set school records for the 10K and indoor 5K.

Linton will replace Allix Potratz-Lee, who left the program in June after three years to pursue other interests.

7/21 Update:


Stanford University announced the addition of former Georgetown All-American and professional triathlete Dylan Sorensen as the new men's assistant distance coach. Both Sorensen and Miltenberg ran under long-time Hoyas coach Patrick Henner and Miltenberg was an assistant coach for three years of Sorensen's tenure at the university.


The University of Oregon has hired Seth Henson as the new pole vault, high jump and multi-events coach, and recruiting coordinator for the Ducks. The Oregon native returns to his home state with three years of experience at the University of Texas and eight years at Portland State. He aided the Longhorns to a combined nine Big 12 Conference Championship titles, as well as dozens of All-American honors.

7/20 Update:


Earlier this week, Oregon State University announced the hiring of Louie Quintana, a 17-year veteran coach at Arizona State, as the new head track and field and cross country coach. In his tenure with the Sun Devils, Quintana coached 48 All-Americans and six NCAA champions in the distance and middle-distance events; his mentees include 2016 Olympians Amy Cragg and Shelby Houlihan. He was named the USTFCCCA Distance Coach of the Year in 2006. Quintana was a nine-time All-American at Villanova and won the 1990 Foot Locker Nationals title.

Quintana replaces Kelly Sullivan, who announced his retirement in May. Sullivan served as the head coach since 2004, when he helped reinstate the track and field and cross country programs after a 16-year hiatus.


Sun Devils alumnus Jeremy Rasmussen is tabbed as Quintana's replacement after three years in the assistant coach role. The former walk-on athlete developed into an All-American steeplechaser at ASU and subsequently earned his stripes in the coaching world as a graduate assistant and volunteer assistant with his alma mater. He then spent seven years as an assistant at the University of Illinois before returning home to Tempe. He is the first Sun Devil alumnus to lead the cross country program.

7/13 Update:


University of Florida announces the hiring of Chris Solinsky, former American record holder for 10K, as the new assistant cross country and track coach. Read more about Solinsky and the announcement here. The former William & Mary coach replaces Paul Spangler, who left the Gators to take over at Boston University, whose long-time coach Bruce Lehane announced his retirement earlier this year.



Elon University has hired Kevin Jermyn as the new head cross country and assistant track and field coach. He previously spent 14 seasons less than 40 miles down the road at Duke University, where was the head coach of the women's cross country team. From 2000 to 2014, he led the Blue Devils to 41 All-American honors, including the school's first-ever NCAA champion in Shannon Rowbury and the program's first NCAA outdoor champion in Juliet Bottorff. He was twice named ACC XC Coach of the Year and NCAA Southeast Region Coach of the Year. This past year, he served as the executive director of the Chicago Area Runners Association after moving to the area with his wife.

When Jermyn first left Duke, his replacement was Christine Engel, the then-cross country coach at Elon. She would resign after one year and be replaced by Rhonda Riley, formerly of Vanderbilt.

Jermyn will replace Nick Polk, who resigned in June to accept a position with USATF as Sports Science and Medicine Manager.

7/12 Update:


Purdue announced today that John Oliver will join the Boilermakers' program as the new distance and cross country coach. Oliver spent the past five years as an assistant coach to the men's distance program at Stanford University, where he helped guide the men's cross country team to three consecutive top three finishes at the NCAA Cross Country Championships and aided sophomore Grant Fisher to win the 2017 NCAA outdoor 5K title, the first individual crown for a Stanford man in six years. His first coaching gig was an assistant position at Syracuse University. He ran at North Central College, a DIII school in Illinois.

Original report:


LSU Track & Field tweeted today that Mark Rinker will join Louisiana State University as the new assistant coach advising middle distance and distance athletes. Rinker joins the Tigers after spending the past three seasons at Northeastern University in Boston, where he helped the Husky men win three straight CAA outdoor titles and coached Paul Duffey to a sub-four minute mile. Prior to Northeastern, Rinker worked in sports marketing for Orreco, a start-up company that tracks athletes' vital stats to improve performance; and he worked with the Oregon Track Club (OTC) Elite for six years as an assistant coach to Mark Rowland. He ran for James Madison University and graduated with a degree in kinesiology in 2008.

Rinker will replace Khadevis Robinson, who left Baton Rouge this spring after three years with the Tigers.


Only a few hours after LSU's announcement, Robinson's newest assignment went out on Twitter: the eight-time U.S. champion and two-time Olympian over 800m would be returning to Ohio State. He previously worked with the distance and mid-distance athletes in Columbus, Ohio during the 2012-2013 school year before assuming the LSU position from 2013 until this past spring. During his time in Baton Rouge, Robinson coached three All-Americans and two SEC champions.


Bruins alumnus Avery Anderson was hired as UCLA's new Director of Track & Field and Cross Country. A dual sport athlete during his time at UCLA in track and field and football, Anderson returns to Los Angeles after 13 years at Cal State Northridge, where he held the Director position since 2011. In that time, he helped the Matadors to 13 team conference titles and 91 individual conference titles. He was previously a volunteer assistant at Kansas State from 2002-2004 and at UCLA from 2001-2002.

Anderson enjoyed a distinguished athletic career while at UCLA and helped the Bruins win four Pac-10 titles on the track and the 1993 Pac-10 football title. He also ran on the 1996 NCAA runner-up 4x100m relay and played in the 1994 Rose Bowl. He played wide receiver for the Indianapolis Colts from 1996-1997.

Anderson replaces Mike Maynard, who resigned this spring after serving as head of the UCLA track and field and and cross country programs for the past five years. Before that, Maynard headed the men's program for three years.


Texas A&M announced the hiring of Sean Brady as assistant coach to jumpers and multi-event athletes. Brady joins the program after working as the head coach at Southeastern Louisiana University for 17 years, where he guided 19 athletes to All-American honors and was a three-time Southland Conference Coach of the Year. He and Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry have worked together before; Brady was a volunteer assistant coach in 1996 and 1997 during Henry's tenure at LSU. Brady also spent a year as an assistant coach at Utah State in 1998. He himself was a dual-sport athlete and specialized in pole vault at Southeastern Louisiana after spending two years playing defensive back for Northwestern State's football team.

Brady replaces Kris Grimes, who announced his resignation in February after working with the Aggies for the past four years.


In June, Mark Carroll was named Drake University Director of Track and Field. The two-time Olympian from Ireland joins the Bulldogs after spending eight years as the head cross country coach at Auburn, where he mentored five All-Americans and six SEC champions. Carroll was a five-time All-American and the 1995 NCAA indoor 5K champion while at Providence College; upon graduation, he ran professionally for Asics, adidas and Nike and made two Olympic teams and six World Championships teams for Ireland. He has broken national records at 3K, 5K and 10K and also previously assisted the Irish Olympic team as the distance coach at the 2012 London Games.

Dan Hostager, who served as an interim head coach of the track and field programs last year when former head Natasha Brown left for the University of Missouri, will stay on as an assistant coach in his 18th year with the Bulldogs.


Paul Spangler will take on cross country and distance coaching duties at Boston University after spending five and a half years at the University of Florida. In that time, Spangler coached Gators to 35 All-American honors and was named the 2012 SEC Cross Country Women's Coach of the Year. Before his arrival in Gainesville, he coached for nearly a decade at VMI and five years Florida State. As an athlete, the Florida native walked on to the University of Alabama distance team and earned a scholarship as a two-time NCAA qualifier in cross country.

Spangler replaces Bruce Lehane, who retired from his position after 35 years with the Terriers.


A reorganization of the University of Illinois athletics department sees three new faces join the Illini coaching roster. Jacob Cohen will coach the vertical and horizontal jumps after working as a volunteer assistant to head coach Mike Turk last year; he was previously an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech. Taking over the women's distance program will be Sarah Haveman, who previously spent five years at the University of Dayton and two years at her alma mater of Purdue, where she was an NCAA finalist in the steeplechase in 2010. Adrían Meléndez is the new Director of Operations after spending the last seven years with the Fighting Illini football team.


Corbin Talley will return to his alma mater, Weber State, to helm the men's track and field and cross country teams after spending the last 14 years coaching at Davis High School with Brad Anderson. Talley coached the girls team since 2003 and the boys team since 2007, during which time he led the Darts to 23 Utah Class 5A state titles and 11 appearances at Nike Cross Nationals (NXN). He was named the 2016 Nike Nationals Coach of the Year and has been named NFHS Coach of the Year six times. Davis was his first and only coaching job since graduating from Weber State, where he was a two-time NCAA qualifier in cross country and placed 15th in the steeplechase at the NCAA Championships in 2002.


Talley assumes the role vacated by Dan Walker, who announced his retirement as Weber State's Director of Track and Field earlier this month after 33 years at the university.


Kate Bucknam, the daughter of legendary University of Arkansas coach Chris, is the new assistant cross country coach for Belmont University. The Nashville, Tenn. position will be her second coaching assignment, as she previously spent the 2016-2017 season on the staff at Syracuse University. She competed for the University of Minnesota from 2011-2014 and spent her final season of eligibility at Lipscomb. She helped the Gophers qualify for the 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championship in what was just the 10th time in program history; she earned the 2014-15 NCAA Student-Athlete Sportsmanship Award for helping a Baylor athlete cross the finish line after collapsing in the final stretch in Terre Haute, the video of which you can view below:


Kate's father, Chris, is a 15-time SEC Coach of the Year and has mentored 240 All-Americans at the University of Arkansas.

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