| Don Yentes is entering his third season as the head coach of
the Wyoming track and field team. In Yentes’ first year as head
coach Wyoming produced seven All Americans, seven conference champions,
nine NCAA Championships participants and 16 Conference Scholar
Athletes.
Yentes was
an assistant coach with the Wyoming program in charge of sprints, jumps
and
hurdles from 1997-2000. He was hired as Wyoming’s head track and field
coach
June, 13, 2000.
Yentes came
to UW from Eastern Michigan University. At Eastern Yentes coached the
Eagles to the 1997 Indoor and Outdoor Championship titles. He also
coached the
Eagles to their first ever Michigan Intercollegiate Championship in
1997.
He also served as an assistant cross country and track coach at Butler
County Community College (1987-'89) producing 21 All Americans. He was
the head
cross country and track coach at Neosho County Community College
(1989-'91)
coaching seven All-Americans. Yentes also helped start the track and
field
program at Neosho County.
As an
assistant track coach at Barton County Community College from 1991-'95,
he helped
the women win seven Indoor and Outdoor National Championships. Barton’s
women won the triple crown (cross county, indoor and outdoor track) in
back-to-back seasons. He coached 152 All Americans and 20 NJCAA
Individual National Champions while at Barton.
Yentes’
coaching resume at the junior college level includes nine NJCAA Women’s
National
Championship teams and 180 All Americans.
Prior to
Eastern, Yentes coached track and cross country at Jac-Cen-Del and Oak
Hill High
Schools (Ind.) for five years (1982-'87) amassing a record of
53-1
in cross country and 33-6 in track. Yentes will use his expertise to
oversee
the sprints, jumps and hurdling events for the Cowboys and Cowgirls. In
1999, Yentes coached four WAC Champions for Wyoming. During the 2000
season, he coached six Mountain West Conference Champions.
Yentes is a
USATF Level II coach in sprints and jumps and is currently working on
his Level III certification.
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Jim Sanchez is currently in his 22nd season at the
University of
Wyoming. During his tenure, Sanchez has earned the reputation as one of
the
top distance coaches in the West. Sanchez, who is in the head coach of
the
men’s and women’s cross country team, also handles all distance and
middle
distance events during the track and field season. He has excelled in
leading
the Cowboy distance crews to national prominence.
Over the
past twenty years with UW Sanchez has coached 14 NCAA All-Americans,
seven men and seven women (three in cross country, four in track and
field for both sides), four Wyoming Hall of Fame Inductees (Patricia
Miller-Davis, Jay
Novacek, Kathy Van Heule-Romsa and Joseph Nzau), three Olympians (Ryan
Bolton,
Joseph Nzau, Espen Borge), five Academic Cross Country All Americans
and
one Academic All American Women’s Cross Country Team.
Sanchez has
also earned five Western Athletic Conference Cross Country Coach of the
Year
Awards. His teams were consistently among the top finishers in the WAC
with
a combined two first place, seven second place, and eight third
place
finishes.
Sanchez’s
expertise is in altitude training and he’s been a major attraction at
coaching clinics nationally and internationally. In June of 1987 he was
invited by the Peruvian Track Federation and Olympic Committee to give
a seminar in altitude training.
Sanchez has
coached All American student athletes from small towns (John Wodny,
Cloquet, Minn.) to big cities (Nick Thiel, Chicago, Ill.) and from the
local area (Brenda Gray, Glenrock, Wyo., Ryan Bolton, Gillette, Wyo.,
and Monte Still, Cheyenne, Wyo.) to the international field (Espen
Borge, Norway and Joseph Nzau, Kenya).
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Assistant coach Paul Barrett is entering his third year with
the Wyoming Track and Field program after spending two years coaching
throws at
the University of Kentucky and most recently a year at the University
of
Colorado.
Last season
Barrett coached five All Americans and four conference champions in his
second go-around with Wyoming.
Barrett
previously coached the throwing events at the University of Wyoming
from 1991-1997. He coached five All Americans while at UW,
including three time All American thrower Ryan Butler, who was the 1996
NCAA Champion in the 35-pound weight throw. Over the course of his
previous stint at UW, Barrett led Wyoming athletes
to the NCAA Championships in each of the five throwing events.
While at
the
University of Kentucky (1997 - 1999), he coached two All Americans
including
Matt
Kavanaugh, who placed seventh in the hammer at the 1999 NCAA Outdoor
Championships. Kavanaugh was the third best American finisher in
that event.
Barrett
competed collegiately for Washington State University, where he was a
PAC-10 finalist in the hammer throw. He also competed in the discus,
and javelin events
for the Cougars.
He
graduated
from Washington State in 1991 with a bachelors degree in sport
management.
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