Don Yentes is entering his
fourth season as the head coach of the Wyoming track and field team.
Wyoming’s track and field program has experienced a tremendous amount
of success in Yentes’ three seasons as head coach. During Yentes’ three
seasons at the helm of the Wyoming program, UW has produced ten
All-Americans, 18 conference champions, 21 NCAA Championships
participants, and earned 110 Academic All-Conference awards. Wyoming
athletes have broken or tied 57 school records under Yentes’ leadership.
Yentes was an assistant coach with the Wyoming program in charge of
sprints, jumps and hurdles from 1997-2000. As an assistant, Yentes
coached athletes won six conference titles and earned 18 All-Conference
honors. He was hired as Wyoming’s head track and field coach June 30,
2000.
Yentes came to Wyoming from Eastern Michigan University. At Eastern
Michigan, 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.
Yentes 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 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 country,
indoor and outdoor) in back-to-back seasons. He coached 152
All-Americans and 20 NJCAA National Championships while at Barton.
Yentes’ coaching resume at the junior college level includes nine NJCAA
Women’s National Championship teams and 180 All-Americans.
Yentes will use his experience to oversee the sprints, jumps and
hurdling events for Wyoming. In 1999, Yentes coached four WAC Champions
for Wyoming. During the 2000 season, he coached six Mountain West
Champions.
Yentes is a USATF Level II coach in sprints and jumps and is currently
working on his Level III certification.
Don and his wife, Sandee, have two children; Morgan, 21 and Dlyan 19.
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Jim Sanchez was fired has
assistant coach just prior to completing his 23rd 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 tenth year with the University of Wyoming track and field
program. The 2003-04 campaign marks Barrett’s fourth year back at UW
after spending two years coaching throws at the University of Kentucky
and one year at the University of Colorado. Barrett previously coached
at Wyoming from 1991-1997.
Barrett has coached 11 All-Americans and 11 Conference champions while
at Wyoming. He has also had 28 conference runner-ups and a total of 61
All-Conference awards. Top athletes coached by Barrett at Wyoming
include three-time All-American thrower Ryan Butler, who was the 1996
NCAA Champion in the 35 pound weight throw (71’1 1/2”), All-American
thrower Andrea Batt with current marks of 168’ 8” for the javelin, 52’
10” for the shot put, 60’3 1/2” for the 20 pound weight throw, and 167’
8” for the discus, two-time All-American thrower Matt Spears with a
personal best of 61’5 1/2” in the shot put, three-time All-American
Jason Hammond with marks of 221’ 1” for the hammer, 69’1 1/2” for the
35 pound weight throw, and 61’ 10 1/4” for the shot put, All-American
thrower Julie Thomas with marks of 64’ 2 1/4” for the 20 pound weight
throw and 187’ 7” in the hammer, Conference champion and NCAA qualifier
Kamber Backman in the javelin (170’ 6”).
While at the University of Kentucky (1997-1999), he coached two-time
All-American Matt Kavanaugh, who placed seventh in the hammer (221’ 4”)
at the 1999 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Kavanaugh was the third best
American finisher in that event.
Barrett competed at the college level 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. Barrett stays
competitive by competing in Masters track and field competitions. In a
competition in April, 2003 he set an American record in the weight
pentathlon for the 35-39 age group. The weight pentathlon consisted of
five events; hammer throw, shot put, discus, javelin, and 35 pound
weight throw. Barrett’s score of 3,783 points eclipsed the mark of
3,762 by Dean Crouser of Oregon in 1998. Barrett also won the 2003
National Weight Pentathlon Championships held in Fort Collins, Colo.
this past August.
Barrett graduated from Washington State in 1991 with a bachelors degree
in sport management.
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Randy Cole enters his first season
with the Wyoming track and field program. Cole was hired as Wyoming
head cross country coach on January 2, 2004. He will handle all
coaching duties of the UW cross country program and will direct the
Cowboy and Cowgirl distance runners during the spring seasons.
Before accepting his current position at Wyoming, Cole guided the
Kansas State cross country teams from 1997-2003. He led the Wildcats
women’s cross country program to three straight regional championships
(1998, 1999, 2000) and a Big 12 Conference championship in 1998, the
first ever in program history. He was named Big 12 Conference Women’s
Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1998 and was named the Midwest
Region Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year three of his last four
seasons at K-State. In Coles’ six years with the Kansas State cross
country program he coached 11 All-Americans, 23 All-Midwest Region
honorees and 17 Big 12 All-Conference performers.
On the track, Cole guided ten distance runners to All-America honors,
six to indoor Big 12 individual titles and five toward outdoor Big 12
individual titles. Also, eight distance school records were established
during his time at KSU.
Before his tenure at Kansas State, he served as the head cross country
coach at Barton County Community College in Barton, Kan. from
1985-1997. While at Barton County he took control of the track and
field program in 1991 and held that position till 1997. He was named
National Junior College Athletic Association national cross country
Coach of the Year ten times and the Region VI Coach of the Year 12
times. In March of 2002, he was inducted into the NJCAA Track and Field
Hall of Fame.
Cole's leadership took the Barton County cross country and track and
field programs to national dominance. The women’s team captured four
national titles in cross country, eight titles in outdoor track and
field and seven indoor track and field titles. His men’s program had 23
top-five national finishes under his direction.
Cole’s resume speaks volumes for his knowledge of track and field, and
he knows what it takes to build a dominant distance program. The
foundation of his success can be seen when looking at his
accomplishments as a student-athlete. He was an intricate part of a Cal
Poly program that won NCAA Division II national championships in cross
country in 1978 and 1979, and track and field titles in 1979 and 1980.
Cole is USATF Level II certified in endurance events.
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Assistant coach Kristen Thomas enters her
fourth year coaching the vaulters and her third season working with the
cross country teams, and this season Thomas will work with multi-event
athletes.
Thomas began her coaching
career at the high school level as an assistant volleyball and track
and field coach at River Valley High School in Marion, Ohio from August
‘97 to June ‘98.
In the spring of 1999,
Thomas served as interim assistant coach for the women’s track and
field team from February to June. She returned to the track program in
the fall of 2000 to work with the vaulters
She graduated from Ball
State University in 1996 with a double degree in exercise/sport science
and ancient Greek. While at Ball State, she competed on the cross
country and track and field teams for four years.
Thomas earned her masters
degree in public health education at the University of Wyoming in 2001.
She is a Level I certified track and field coach as well as an ACSM
Health Fitness Instructor.
Kristen and her husband,
Jason, welcomed their first child, James Donald, on Aug. 19th of 2003.
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