Matt Wackerly

Matt Wackerly is an assistant coach for Nebraska's cross country and track and field distance squad, moving into that role ahead of the 2023 season.

Wackerly has been with the Nebraska track and field and cross country programs since 2016 and has more than 20 years of coaching experience. He was Nebraska's head cross country coach from 2021-22. He had also served as the Huskers' recruiting coordinator since 2016 before taking over the cross country program following the retirement of David Harris in 2021.

Wackerly and cross country head coach Megan Elliott helped Berlyn Schutz achieve a 16th-place finish at the 2025 Big Ten Cross Country Championships, the best finish by a Husker since 2021.

On the track, NU's distance and middle distance runners achieved 16 all-time top-10 marks on the women's side in 2025, including school records in the mile, 3000m and 1500m. Additionally, NU's distance medley relay squad ran the second-fastest time in school history. The NU men posted six top-10 times in 2025, including the second-fastest indoor 800m in school history. 

In 2024, the women's cross country team placed 11th at the Big Ten Championships and fifth at the NCAA Midwest Regional. Ali Bainbridge grabbed a fifth-place finish as an individual at the NCAA Midwest Regional and became the first Husker since 2021 to qualify for the NCAA Championships. She finished 76th, the highest finish by a Husker since 2008. Bainbridge earned All-Big Ten Second Team honors and NCAA All-Midwest Region honors. 

Wackerly helped Schutz to the mile school record as a freshman during the 2024 track and field season, along with six other all-time top-10 marks. Taya Skelton (3,000m steeplechase) and Schutz (mile) both earned bronze medals at the Big Ten Indoor Championships. 

In 2023, the women's cross country team won three team titles and claimed their best finish at the Big Ten Championship and NCAA Midwest Regional since 2011, placing seventh at both meets. On the track, Wackerly helped coach three distance athletes that climbed Nebraska's all-time top-10 lists in 2023. 

In his first year as the Huskers' cross country coach in 2021, Wackerly coached senior Erika Freyhof to an 86th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Freyhof was also an All-Big Ten runner for the second year in a row after finishing sixth at the conference meet.

In his first track season, Wackerly coached Dais Malebana to become the second Husker ever to run a sub-4:00 mile on a standard 200-meter track (3:59.88). Additionally, eight Husker distance runners cracked the all-time top-10 charts at NU in 2022. Freyhof highlighted the performances with the No. 2 10,000 meters time of 33:50.38. 

Before coming to Nebraska, Wackerly was the head cross country coach at NCAA Division III Ohio Wesleyan. He coached eight All-Americans and two NCAA Division III all-time top-10 performers, in addition to the first men's and women's NCAA qualifying teams at Ohio Wesleyan in 25 years. Wackerly coached his athletes to 29 school records and 12 conference records in cross country and distance events.

Before Ohio Wesleyan, Wackerly was at Stonehill College, where he was an assistant coach for the men's and women's cross country and track and field teams. During his three years at Stonehill, he helped the Skyhawks win a pair of conference championships, the school's first ever in men's cross country. He coached five NCAA Division II All-Americans and three NCAA qualifiers in cross country.

Wackerly is a 1998 graduate of Ashland University. During his undergraduate career, he was a three-time national qualifier in cross country and a three-time conference champion in track for the Eagles. He majored in English and earned a master's degree in sports management from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2003.

Wackerly is a native of Lexington, Ohio. He is married to Angela Palmer-Wackerly, who is an assistant professor of communications at Nebraska. They have one son, Luke.