Distance

Scott Christensen, Stillwater HS

Scott Christensen has been the boys head cross country and head track coach at Stillwater High School in Minnesota since 1981. During that period Stillwater has won eleven state titles and has been ranked by The Harrier five different years in the National Top 10 High School Rankings. In 1997 Stillwater was named the National High School Champions in cross country.

In 2011, his team was a Nike Team Nationals finalist claiming 10th place in that event. Since 1995, five different Stillwater milers have captured Minnesota State 1600 meter titles. Since 2003, four different Stillwater alumni have run sub four minutes for the mile. That list includes: Luke Watson, Sean Graham, Jake Watson, and Ben Blankenship.

Christensen worked 13 years as an instructor in the USATF Level II Endurance Schools from 1997-2010 and is currently serving as the lead instructor of the Specialist Certification Course of the USTFCCCA Track & Field Academy. He is the co-author of the Endurance Curriculum of the Track & Field Academy program. He was USATF Chairman of Endurance Education from 1999-2010. In 2003 he served as the USA Junior Team Leader to the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland and in 2008 served as the USA Senior Team Leader to the IAAF Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Ryun Godfrey, North Dakota State

In his 14th season as the head coach of the North Dakota State University women’s track & field and cross country programs, Ryun Godfrey has directed the program to nearly unparalleled success.

Under Godfrey’s leadership, the Bison have won all 10 indoor and outdoor league titles since joining the Division I Summit League in 2007. The Bison have won a combined 25 conference titles in indoor track, outdoor track and cross country since Godfrey became the head coach in 1999.

In the 2011-12 season, NDSU claimed the ‘Triple Crown’ in The Summit League, sweeping the league’s cross country, indoor and outdoor team championships.

The multiple team successes under Godfrey have not been without several outstanding individual accomplishments. Since 2009, five Bison women have combined to claim 10 total Division I All-America citations, and two of those All-Americans were coached directly by Godfrey in the 800 meters.

Damon Martin, Adams State

Head Coach Damon Martin has built the Adams State University cross country and track programs to the absolute premiere level, not only at Division II, but in all of collegiate athletics. Winner of 30 National Coach of the Year awards, Martin is recognized as one of the best coaches in the country, especially with distance runners, his specialty.

After 23 years in charge of the women’s program and 17 at the helm of the men’s (including an interim year in 1988), Martin has coached a total of 26 National Championship teams (17 women’s cross country, 6 men’s cross country, 1 women’s indoor track & field, 1 men’s indoor track & field, 1 men’s outdoor track & field), including a stretch of nine straight women’s cross country titles from 1991-99, another stretch of seven straight women’s titles from 2003-09 and a stretch of three straight men’s cross country national titles (2008-10). He has also guided athletes to 874 combined all-America honors and 91 individual national championships while coaching seven national championship relay teams.

In 2012, Martin guided the ASU men’s outdoor track & field teams to the NCAA DII title, the first outdoor national title in the history of Adams State. Also during the 2012 season, the women’s squad climbed atop the national rankings for the first time in program history.

Martin guided his men’s XC and track & field teams to four straight USTFCCCA NCAA Division II Program of the Year honors, awarded to the school with the best combined finish at the national championships in cross country, as well as indoor and outdoor track & field.

Jumps

Lou Andreadis, Grand Valley State

Lou Andreadis is in his 10th season at Grand Valley as associate head coach for both men’s and women’s track and field. Lou’s main responsibilities are to work with the Laker pole vaulters and handle all multi-event scheduling for the combined events.

At Grand Valley State, Andreadis has developed a solid vault program which has seen 40 All-American honors and six NCAA Division II National Champion pole vault performances in nine years and set both men’s and women’s school records.

Andreadis was named the 2012 USTFCCCA Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year after Kristen Hixson won both the indoor and outdoor pole vault national championship and Jocelyn Kuksa finished second (outdoor) and third (indoor) at the NCAA Division II National Championships.

Kevin Brown, South Carolina

Kevin Brown entered the fourth year of his second stint with the Gamecocks in the 2013 season. His primary responsibility is working with the pole vaulters in addition to working with South Carolina’s well-respected relay teams and sprinters.

While in his first stint at Carolina, Brown was named to the Team USA coaching staff for the 2003 Junior Pan American Games and served as an assistant coach during the competition in Barbados. In December 2002, he was voted to the Team USA staff by the USATF Coaches Championship Selection Committee, a group that selects national coaching staffs for International competition including the Pan American Games and Goodwill Games. Brown became the second USC assistant coach to serve as a part of a Team USA staff.

Bryan Compton, Arkansas

Joining the Razorbacks in the fall of 1998, Bryan Compton has proven to Arkansas that he was an invaluable addition for its coaching staff. In 14 years of working with the Razorback throwers and vaulters, Compton’s student-athletes have set 14 school records a total of 71 times, not including numerous heptathlon marks.

Arkansas’ resident vault expert was recognized for his contributions during the spring of 2005 when Compton was named the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association’s (USTFCCCA) Mideast Region Assistant Coach of the Year. That season his athletes earned two All-America honors, broke a pair of school records and each of the student-athletes he coached earned a spot at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships, including four pole vaulters.

In the past 13 years, he has coached nine student-athletes to 26 All-America honors, 11 Southeastern Conference championships and a five of SEC championship records. One of his most recent protégés, Jodi Unger, earned four All-America honors during the 2006 and 2007 seasons and was the NCAA runner-up in the pole vault outdoors as a senior.

Lucky Huber, South Dakota

Lucky Huber is in his 19th year as the women’s track and field coach at South Dakota during 2012-13. He has directed the Coyotes to 16 conference championships (10 indoor, six outdoor). He was named both the women’s indoor and outdoor NCC Coach of the Year in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2005 and 2007. He was the NCC Women’s Outdoor Coach of the Year in 2005. He also was selected the North Central Region Coach of the Year in 1997 and 1998, 2006 and 2007.

In 1998, Huber directed the Coyotes to second-place team finish at the NCAA Indoor Nationals, which is the highest finish by a USD indoor or outdoor squad in track and field history. Also in 1998, he coached his team to a fifth-place team finish at the NCAA Outdoor Nationals. In 2008, he coached the Coyotes to sixth place finishes at both the NCAA Division II Indoor Championship and the NCAA Division II Outdoor meet.

In total, he has led USD to 18 top-10 finishes at either national indoor or outdoor meets.

Todd Lane, LSU

The LSU jumps program boasts one of the proudest traditions in the history of collegiate track and field in the United States, and assistant coach Todd Lane has continued that tradition as he enters his sixth season as a member of LSU’s coaching staff in 2013.

The Tigers and Lady Tigers have flourished under Lane’s direction as he has coached nine NCAA scorers to 29 All-America honors in four different jumping events since joining the LSU coaching staff prior to the 2008 season. His student-athletes have also captured five SEC championships and 29 All-SEC honors over the last five seasons.

That was certainly evident during the 2012 season as the LSU jumpers accounted for 30 points with their performance at the NCAA Championships while earning six All-America honors in such events as the long jump, triple jump and pole vault.

Damion McLean, Appalachian State

In the past nine years, McLean has produced 32 SoCon Champions, 82 All-Conference performances, five SoCon MVP’s, 20 Regional standard performances, 13 NCAA qualifiers (five competitors), nine USATF Championship/Olympic Trial Qualifiers, App State record holders in the indoor long jump; Vonteena Knotts, (20’10.50") and triple jump Ronda White, (44’2") and SoCon Indoor and Outdoor record holders, White (43’7") and Danielle Thorpe, (43’2.25"). 

In just these years, McLean’s athletes own 29 of 80 men’s and women’s Top 10 Indoor and Outdoor marks in App State history. The strength program for the sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers has been under the tutelage of McLean as well.

Nic Petersen, Florida

Petersen has spent the last three years on the coaching staff at TCU, serving as the jumps and multi-events coach for the Horned Frogs. Petersen came to TCU from the University of Nebraska, where he served the 2008-09 season as an assistant coach for the Huskers. In Lincoln, Petersen worked in the jumps area learning under legendary head coach Gary Pepin.

Petersen made his mark on the TCU program since stepping onto campus prior to the 2010 season, leading his athletes to earn six All-America honors and snapping the school records for both the long jump and triple jump on the women’s side. Overall, his coaching career boasts 20 All-Americans, eight Mountain West Conference champions, four Big 12 champions, three NCAA Champions, two World Championship team members and an Olympian.

Jim Van Hootegem, Texas A&M

In 2009 VanHootegem earned the NCAA Division I Men’s National Assistant Coach of the Year honor, awarded by USTFCCCA, and in 2010 he was named South Central Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year. VanHootegem also garnered the 2006 Mondo Regional Assistant Coach of the Year honor.

During his 23 years of collegiate coaching, VanHootegem has been successful at every stop. He has been a member of coaching staffs that have won 11 NCAA Championship team titles and 30 conference crowns.

In his eight seasons with the Aggies, the A&M program has achieved six NCAA Outdoor Championships along with claiming 14 Big 12 team titles, four for the men and 10 for the women. A&M athletes competing in VanHootegem’s event areas have achieved 54 All-America honors and have established 13 school records, eight indoors and five outdoors.

Sprints, Hurdles and Relays

Dennis Shaver, LSU

When Dennis Shaver ascended to the rank of head coach of the LSU track and field program in July 2004, he was given the reigns of a national power recognized worldwide for its dominance at the collegiate level while racking up a total of 30 NCAA team championships in its history.

Expectations were high, but Shaver had experienced LSU’s success first-hand as he helped coach the Tigers and Lady Tigers to a combined 12 national championships while serving as an assistant coach for nine seasons from 1996-2004. It came as no surprise when he was asked to continue LSU’s championship tradition when the position opened in the wake of the 2004 season.

In eight seasons under Shaver’s coaching, LSU has now captured 21 top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships between the indoor and outdoor seasons.

The Tigers and Lady Tigers were impressive once again at the NCAA Championships while joining for four NCAA event titles and 43 All-America honors during the 2012 campaign. The program also brought home a pair of NCAA team trophies a year ago as the Tigers finished as the national runner-up at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and the Lady Tigers claimed a third-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the third year in a row.

Throws

Lynden Reder, Minnesota

Lynden Reder enters his fifth season as an assistant coach for the Minnesota men’s track & field team. Reder is charged with coaching the Golden Gopher throwers. Reder has established Minnesota as a top program on the Big Ten and NCAA level. Last season marked a continuation of the success Reder has produced each year since he joined the staff in 2008. One of the deepest and most accomplished throwing event groups in the country, Gopher throwers ranked second statistically in all NCAA throws programs last season.

In 2012 alone Reder coached three All-Americans, two Big Ten Champions and two new school record holders.Micah Hegerle added to his long resume by adding two First Team All-America awards and another Big Ten title. Under Reder’s guidance, Hegerle has become one of the most decorated Gopher throwers of all time. Last season, the four-time NCAA All-American and three-time Big Ten Champion won the Big Ten weight throw and was an All-American in that event. He went on to become an All-American in the hammer throw at the NCAA outdoor championships. Minnesota was the only program in the country to have two hammer throwers earn First Team All-America honors in 2012.

Mohamad Saatara, Michigan

Mohamad Saatara is in his third season as an assistant coach for the University of Michigan men’s track and field team, where he oversees all field events, specializing in the throwing events.

Saatara spent the previous eight seasons at Northern Arizona University. During that span, he helped guide the Lumberjacks to 12 Big Sky Conference men’s and women’s team championships. He has coached more than 20 Big Sky individual champions and guided more than 30 student-athletes to the NCAA Regional Championships. In his final season at NAU Saatara coached four Big Sky champions — Shelby McCray (women’s discus), Javier Villarreal (men’s shot put), Curtis Durocher (men’s hammer) and Andres Rossini (men’s discus).

In the summer of 2008, three of Saatara’s athletes competed at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Amin Nikfar, a volunteer assistant at Northern Arizona who trained under Saatara for two years, set the Iranian national outdoor record and qualified for the shot put. Former student-athlete Georgina Toth qualified in the hammer throw, and Zara Northover (Jamaica) made it to Beijing to compete in the shot put.

Mike Sergent, South Carolina

Mike Sergent enters his 16th season with the Gamecock track and field program. His primary responsibilities are coaching the throwers and coordinating the strength and conditioning program. Sergent has coached 25 All-Americans, 40 NCAA qualifiers, 14 SEC champions and five NCAA champions at South Carolina.

Sergent has also seen success in coaching his student-athletes on the international stage. In 2003, former Gamecock and NCAA champion Dawn Ellerbe reached the World Championships in Paris under Sergent’s tutelage. He also worked with Ellerbe in 2002 to help her become the USATF national runner-up in both the weight and hammer throws. She finished the year ranked seventh in the world in the hammer, set the American record in the hammer, and finished ranked eighth nationally in the discus throw.

In 2001, two of Sergent’s former student-athletes, Brad Snyder and Lisa Misipeka, along with Ellerbe, traveled to Edmonton, Canada, for the 2001 World Championships. In his third year at South Carolina, Sergent coached Candy Mitchell, Bert Sorin and Ryan Harrison through the U.S. Olympic trials. At the 2000 Olympic Games, Snyder, Misipeka and Michelle Fournier all competed.

April Smith, Appalachian State

April Smith is in her eleventh year as the throws coach at Appalachian State University and is primarily responsible for the throws programs, along with the strength training of the track and field athletes.

Since starting at Appalachian, Smith has coached 23 regional qualifiers, four national qualifiers in the shot put, one national qualifier in the hammer and one athlete that met the Olympic trial standard of 63-1 in the shot put in June of 2007. She has also coached 50 conference champions and 92 all-SoCon athletes in the shot put, discus, hammer, javelin and weight throw events. While at ASU, she has also been a part of the Mountaineers tradition of winning the Southern Conference title in both men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor championships, with the last title coming with the men’s team at the 2010 Southern Conference Outdoor Championships to cap off the 2009-10 Triple Crown.

Assistant Coach Seminars

Pat Henry, Texas A&M

Pat Henry, now in his ninth season as head coach of the Texas A&M track and field program, became the first coach to lead a school to three consecutive men’s and women’s NCAA Championships when the Aggies accomplished the feat during the 2009-2010-2011 seasons.

Twice the Aggie men have placed second the NCAA Indoor (2010 & 2011) while the A&M women have finished fifth three times indoors (2010, 2011 & 2012) after placing second at the NCAA Indoor in 2009.

With six NCAA Championships in his time at Aggieland, Henry’s total number of national titles has reached 33 on the Division I level. In addition, Henry also claimed a pair of national titles on the NJCAA level while coaching at Blinn College in Brenham.

While Henry is currently third among all-time national team titles as a NCAA head coach. he has achieved the most championships for indoor and outdoor track and field national titles.

In the past seven years, Texas A&M has had an individual or relay claim a NCAA title each season.

After serving as head coach of the U.S. men’s national during the 2006 World Cup in Athens in Athens, Greece, Henry embarked on a larger role as an international coach when he served as head coach of the U.S. men’s national team during the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan.

Overwhelming success from the U.S. men’s team led to a record 10 gold medals, bettering the previous best of nine set during World Championships in 1991 and 2005. In addition the U.S. men’s team totaled 19 medals, the best tally by the United States since the 1991 World Championships.