Justin St. Clair

Justin St. Clair is in his fourth year as the Nebraska track and field head coach. St. Clair initially joined the Husker program as associate head coach and throws coach for the 2022 season and was elevated to head coach in 2023.

In his three seasons at the helm, the Husker men have achieved three straight top-15 finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships and two top-20 finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Nebraska's men won back-to-back Big Ten Outdoor titles in 2023 and 2024.

The Husker women have a pair of top-20 finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships and two top-10 finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships since 2023. Their eighth-place finish in 2023 was NU's best since 2006. Additionally, St. Clair had three Husker women qualify to compete in the shot put and javelin at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. 

In St. Clair's three years as head coach, the Husker track and field program has crowned six national champions, 74 All-Americans and 35 Big Ten Champions. Specializing in the throws, St. Clair's throwers have produced three national champions, 42 All-Americans, 20 Big Ten Champions and seven school records out of a possible 12 events since he joined the program as the throws coach in 2022. 

In 2025, the Huskers had 11 All-American throwers, led by Axelina Johansson's NCAA Indoor title in the shot put, the second national championship of her career. The NU men were 12th at the NCAA Indoor Championships, while the women tied for 20th. Arthur Petersen captured the Big Ten javelin gold medal, and Johansson won the indoor shot put title, while Kalynn Meyer and Maddie Harris won the discus and javelin titles, respectively. Henry Zimmerman broke the school record in the men's weight throw (75-11 1/2), and Keyshawn Strachan broke the javelin school record (265-9). On the women's side, Johannson broke the indoor shot put school record (63-4 1/4), and she captured the gold medal at the World University Games in Germany. Johansson also competed at the World Championships, finishing 13th in the shot put. 

During the 2024 season, St. Clair was the Midwest Region Men's Indoor Coach of the Year and also earned his second straight Midwest Region Men's Outdoor Coach of the Year honor after guiding the Husker men to their second straight Big Ten Outdoor team title and a tie for 13th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with the most points scored at outdoor nationals since 2014. St. Clair coached nine Husker throwers to All-America honors, highlighted by Rhema Otabor's record-breaking javelin performance to win her second straight NCAA title. She launched a 210-7 (64.19m) to break the collegiate record, NCAA meet record and Bahamian record. The NU women finished ninth overall in the team standings. Mine De Klerk won the Big Ten Indoor shot put title, while Otabor earned gold in the Big Ten javelin and Johansson won the outdoor shot put. 

Johansson, De Klerk and Otabor all competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Johansson (Sweden) finished 10th in the shot put, while De Klerk (South Africa) was 31st in the shot put. Otabor (Bahamas) finished 26th in the javelin. 

In his first indoor season as Nebraska's head coach in 2023, St. Clair led the Husker men to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships, their best indoor finish since 2009. The women tied for 14th at the NCAA Indoor Championships. NU's throwers combined for five All-America honors indoors, led by runner-up finishes in the shot put from Jonah Wilson and Johansson. Nebraska carried the success into the outdoor season with the men claiming the Big Ten title and the women finishing third. The Husker men went on to tie for 17th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with 11 All-Americans, and St. Clair was named Midwest Region Men's Outdoor Coach of the Year. The women, powered by Johansson (shot put) and Otabor (javelin) capturing NCAA titles, took eighth place at the NCAA Championships, their best finish since the 2006 season when they tied for fourth. 

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 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 NCAA field event, Johansson was crowned the Big Ten Women's Outdoor Freshman of the Year. Representing Sweden at the World Athletics Championships that July, Johansson placed 12th in the women's shot put and was the only collegiate athlete to reach the final 12.

Prior to his time at Nebraska, St. Clair was widely regarded as the nation's top throws coach while at North Dakota State for 10 years. He was named the USTFCCCA Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year nine times at NDSU - four indoors and five 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.