Justin St. Clair was named the head coach of the Nebraska track and field program on Feb. 22, 2023, after serving six months as the interim head coach following the retirement of legendary head coach Gary Pepin. St. Clair initially joined the Husker program as associate head coach and throws coach for the 2022 season.
“I am extremely grateful and excited and look forward to the future of our Nebraska track and field program,” St. Clair said. “Having the opportunity to serve our past, current and future student-athletes is a tremendous privilege. I have been blessed with many mentors along the way who have prepared me for this opportunity. I am especially grateful for the mentorship from Coach Pepin, who brought me to the University of Nebraska. Lastly, without the support and encouragement from my wife, Keli, and our children, Carter and Eva, this journey wouldn’t be possible. The University of Nebraska is a world-class university with a rich track and field tradition, and I am excited to continue building on the momentum we’ve been creating over the last few months.”
In his first indoor season as Nebraska's head coach in 2023, St. Clair led the Husker men to an 8th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships, their best indoor finish since 2009. The women tied for 14th at the NCAA Indoor Championships, the program's best finish since 2006. The NU men had five indoor USTFCCCA first-team All-Americans - their most since 2005 - along with one second-team All-American. The Huskers finished second in the team race at the Big Ten Indoor Championships and had 14 new top-10 marks and three school records in the indoor season. Meanwhile, the NU women produced three first-team All-Americans, their most since 2009, and had two schools records and eight new top-10 marks.
Nebraska carried the success into the outdoor season with the men claiming the Big Ten title and the women finishing third. Both finishes mark the best placements since the 2016 season. The team combined for 12 event titles throughout the meet. The women, powered by Axelina Johansson (shot put) and Rhema Otabor (javelin) bringing in NCAA titles, took eighth place at the NCAA Championships. That was the best finish since the 2006 season, when the Huskers tied for fourth. The men tied for 17th, their best team finish in seven years. The men and women combined for eight First-Team All-America honors, seven school records and 32 new top-10 marks throughout the outdoor season.
“I am extremely grateful and excited and look forward to the future of our Nebraska track and field program,” St. Clair said. “Having the opportunity to serve our past, current and future student-athletes is a tremendous privilege. I have been blessed with many mentors along the way who have prepared me for this opportunity. I am especially grateful for the mentorship from Coach Pepin, who brought me to the University of Nebraska. Lastly, without the support and encouragement from my wife, Keli, and our children, Carter and Eva, this journey wouldn’t be possible. The University of Nebraska is a world-class university with a rich track and field tradition, and I am excited to continue building on the momentum we’ve been creating over the last few months.”
In his first indoor season as Nebraska's head coach in 2023, St. Clair led the Husker men to an 8th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships, their best indoor finish since 2009. The women tied for 14th at the NCAA Indoor Championships, the program's best finish since 2006. The NU men had five indoor USTFCCCA first-team All-Americans - their most since 2005 - along with one second-team All-American. The Huskers finished second in the team race at the Big Ten Indoor Championships and had 14 new top-10 marks and three school records in the indoor season. Meanwhile, the NU women produced three first-team All-Americans, their most since 2009, and had two schools records and eight new top-10 marks.
Nebraska carried the success into the outdoor season with the men claiming the Big Ten title and the women finishing third. Both finishes mark the best placements since the 2016 season. The team combined for 12 event titles throughout the meet. The women, powered by Axelina Johansson (shot put) and Rhema Otabor (javelin) bringing in NCAA titles, took eighth place at the NCAA Championships. That was the best finish since the 2006 season, when the Huskers tied for fourth. The men tied for 17th, their best team finish in seven years. The men and women combined for eight First-Team All-America honors, seven school records and 32 new top-10 marks throughout the outdoor season.
St. Clair came to Nebraska in 2021-22 as an associate head coach and coached 10 NCAA qualifiers, including a pair of NCAA medalists in his debut season on the Husker coaching staff to earn his 10th USTFCCCA Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year honor since 2016. The Nebraska throwers had a combined five first-team All-Americans and two second-team All-Americans, led by Maddie Harris finishing second in the javelin and Johansson placing third in the shot put at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Under St. Clair's tutelage, the Huskers combined to set four school records and 13 top-10 marks in program history in throwing events in 2022. Nebraska had the top-ranked men's shot put and weight throw groups throughout the indoor season, while the men's shot put was ranked No. 1 for the final seven weeks of the outdoor season.
At the Big Ten Indoor and Outdoor Championships, St. Clair's throwers garnered five Big Ten titles and totaled 11 top-three finishes. Three Husker throwers earned postseason awards in 2022, with Alex Talley and Maxwell Otterdahl named the Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championships in the indoor and outdoor seasons, respectively. After finishing as the top freshman nationally in any of the NCAA field events, Johansson was crowned the Big Ten Women's Outdoor Freshman of the Year.
Representing Sweden at the World Athletics Championships in July, Johansson placed 12th in the women's shot put after becoming the only current collegiate student-athlete to reach the final 12.
St. Clair came to Nebraska after 10 years as arguably the nation's best throws coach while at North Dakota State. He has been voted the USTFCCCA Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year 10 times since 2016 - five times indoors and five times outdoors.
In 2019, St. Clair was voted the National Assistant Coach of the Year for men's indoor track and field, and he followed that up by being one of three national finalists for the women's award in 2020. He was promoted to associate director of the Bison track and field program in August of 2020.
St. Clair coached NDSU's Payton Otterdahl to NCAA titles in the indoor shot put and weight throw in 2019, becoming only the second man ever to sweep the NCAA titles in the indoor throwing events. Otterdahl set the all-time collegiate record in the indoor shot put on his way to becoming a semifinalist for The Bowerman. During the 2021 indoor season, St. Clair was named the USTFCCCA Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year for the eighth time after guiding five NDSU throwers to first-team All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships. In the 2021 outdoor season, St. Clair was the Midwest Region Women's Assistant Coach of the Year after leading a group of five NDSU throwers to the NCAA Championships. The Bison women swept all four throwing events at the Summit League Outdoor Championships.
NDSU tied for the national lead with six entries in the men's throwing events at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships, and Alex Talley and Kristoffer Thomsen earned All-America honors for the 2020 indoor season with national top-10 performances. On the women's side in 2019, the Bison had four different throwers combine to earn five All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships -- Bailey Retzlaff (indoor shot put, hammer throw), Akealy Moton (outdoor shot put), Shelby Gunnells (indoor shot put), and Maddy Nilles (weight throw). Following the season, USA Track & Field named St. Clair the throws coach for its Team USA vs. Europe meet in Belarus in September 2019.
For the abbreviated 2020 season, St. Clair coached Moton, Gunnells and Nilles to return trips to the NCAA Championships, and the Bison women were dominant at the Summit League Indoor Championships. NDSU scored 66 of a possible 78 team points in the two throwing events, finishing 1-2-3-4-5-7 in the shot put and 1-2-3-5-7-8 in the weight throw.
In 2016, 2017 and 2018, the NDSU men and women combined to lead the nation in entries in the throwing events at the NCAA Preliminary Round. Under St. Clair, the Bison had a remarkable 25 throwing entries at the NCAA Preliminary Round in 2016, while no other school in the country had more than 14.
Statistically, the Bison throws program was declared the top squad in the nation across all divisions for three straight years from 2016-18. In 2018, the Bison were the only squad in the country with four men over 59 feet in the shot put and four men over 60 meters in the hammer.
On the women's side, NDSU scored 120 of a possible 156 points in the throwing events at the 2018 Summit League Championships. Six different Bison women finished the season ranked among the NCAA's top 50 in throwing events, and NDSU became the only team in the nation with five women over 15 meters in the shot put.
St. Clair's athletes were also highly regarded on the national scene in 2018, with Payton Otterdahl owning the nation's top collegiate shot put mark and Alyssa Olin ranking second in the NCAA in the javelin. In addition to Olin and Otterdahl, St. Clair guided Maddy Nilles (hammer), Matti Mortimore (javelin) and Alex Renner (shot put) to top-10 finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2018 and 2019.
The Bison men and women broke nine of a possible 12 school records in the throws in the 2016 season alone – and every school record on the books was re-broken since January 2016.
In 2015, St. Clair coached Mortimore to a seventh-place finish in the javelin and freshman Austin Schmidt to 16th in the javelin at the NCAA Outdoor Championships -- at the time, the two highest NCAA Outdoor finishes in NDSU's Division I era. On the women's side, he directed Sierra Rosenau to the first Division I national meet appearance by a Bison woman in a throwing event.
The 2015 season was also an extremely successful one for St. Clair's athletes on the national and international track & field scene. St. Clair coached NDSU freshman Payton Otterdahl to a USA Junior national championship and a Pan American Junior title in the discus, and he also directed NDSU alum Riley Dolezal to his second World Championships appearance in the javelin for Team USA. St. Clair was the throws coach for Team USA at the World University Games held in South Korea.
Along with directing the historic success of the NDSU student-athletes, St. Clair re-entered the international track & field scene as the coach for 2013 USATF javelin champion Riley Dolezal, a 2009 NDSU graduate. Dolezal won the national title in the javelin at the USA Outdoor Championships in June 2013 with a mark of 273-11 (83.50m) – the best throw by an American in four years and enough to rank Dolezal eighth in American history. St. Clair was also named the throws coach of the Team USA Under-23 squad in the summer of 2014.
St. Clair made an immediate impact for the Bison in 2012, directing his student-athletes to 17 performances that ranked among the school's all-time top 10, including two new school records.
Justin and his wife, Keli, have a son, Carter, and daughter, Eva, and a dog, Boo.