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Fayetteville, Ark. ? On Tuesday, June 9 at the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s banquet, Nebraska Head Coach Gary Pepin and Assistant Coach Billy Maxwell were each honored by the USTFCCCA for their 2009 outdoor season accomplishments. Pepin was selected at the Midwest Regional Men’s Coach of the Year, while Maxwell was named the Midwest Regional Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year. The Husker coaching staff has now won three awards in 2009 from the USTFCCCA, as Assistant Coach Kris Grimes was named Midwest Regional Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year during the indoor season.
The all-time winningest track and field coach in the history of the Big 12 and the former Big Eight Conference, Pepin is in his 29th season at NU and his 26th as head coach of the men’s team. This year’s honor marks the fourth time that Pepin has been named Midwest Regional Coach of the Year.
Of the 14 men competing at the NCAA Outdoor Championships this week, Pepin personally coaches four of them in the jumps. Along with Paul Hamilton in the high jump, Pepin has three long jumpers in the competition, including LeRon Williams, Chris Phipps and 2009 indoor national champion Nicholas Gordon. Phipps will be pulling double duty as he will jump in the long and triple jumps.
Pepin also coaches two of the six Husker women set to compete at the national meet, including three-time All-American high jumper Epley Bullock. Junior Leandra McGruder also makes her return to the national meet after qualifying in 2007 as a freshman, she will jump in the long and triple jumps.
A nationally renowned sprints and hurdles coach, Maxwell is in his 14th season at Nebraska. This week, Maxwell has three hurdlers at the national meet, including Kirkland Thornton, who enters the meet ranked third in the 110 hurdles and fifth in the 400 hurdles. Thornton will be joined in the 110 hurdles by two-time NCAA participant Tyrell Ross and 2009 Big 12 400-hurdle champion, Adam Dailey. Regionally, Maxwell coached four 110 meter hurdle qualifiers and an unheard-of seven qualifiers in the 400 meter hurdles.
The USTFCCCA honors the top track and field athletes along with the top head coaches and assistant coaches in nine Division I regions. A total of 73 men’s and women’s student-athletes and coaches were recognized this year.