New Leadership
Head coach Wayne Phipps brought in four new assistant coaches with Division I coaching experience during the offseason.  Assistant track and field coaches Lauren Harmon and Emma Wren each excelled as collegiate distance runners in the Pac-12 and Big 12, respectively.  Associate Track & Field Head Coach Derick Hinch and Assistant Coach Gabriel Mvumvure each came to Pullman after holding Division I assistant positions in the Ivy League at Cornell and Brown, respectively.  Hinch also competed collegiately in the Pac-12 for Arizona State while Mvumvure was a former NCAA Champion in the 4X100m relay at LSU before going on to represent Zimbabwe at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Throws Preview 

Coach Julie Taylor has held down the throws coach position in Pullman for almost a decade. Last year's team reached new heights under the tutelage of coach Taylor, producing multiple top-10 marks and one outdoor All-American performance (Valentina Barrios Bornacelli).  Last year's freshman class helped to rewrite the Cougar record books as sophomore Nana Gyedu notched a new freshman shot record of 15.34m and was just over one meter from the program record.  The women's hammer throws team was the second-highest ranked Pac-12 team at 14th in the NCAA, finishing behind California which finished as the top team in the nation.  Alex Payne jumped into the top-10 in two events, the weight and hammer. She threw the seventh-best mark all-time of 18.03 meters in the weight and is also just over one meter from the all-time record.

On the men's side Ronald Grueso Mosqquera was a mid-semester addition from Columbia who made an immediate splash by qualifying for the NCAA West Regionals in both the shot put and discus. Sophomore Ben Chappell wrapped up his freshman season with an electric 63.32m throw in the Pac-12 Championship, landing him just outside of the top-10 all-time while also booking a trip to the NCAA West Regionals as a true freshman.

 
Jumps Preview

Pac-12 alum and former all-American, Derick Hinch, will head into his first season as associate head coach with a slew returning talent and newcomers making up his squad of jumpers, vaulters and multi-event athletes. The bar is high as last year's team featured the a men's Pac-12 Championship in the pole vault (Jacob Englar).  The '22-'23 high jump squad is headlined by Suzy Pace, a former USTFCCCA honorable mention, and Daylon Hicks who like Pace, finished last season inside of the top-18 in the country. 

Pace collected a total of four top-fives during the indoor season and placed eighth at the Pac-12 Championships with a jump of 1.71m.  Hicks tallied six top-10's during his junior year and saved his personal-best 2.05m for a seventh at the outdoor conference championships.  Anna Rogers jumped into the record books last year as she is tied the eighth-longest jump in program history at 6.13m.
 
Sprints/Hurdles Preview
Former SEC champion and Olympian Gabriel Mvumvure will assist with sprints and hurdles and joins a team that is loaded with talent in that discipline.  The 2022 Brazilian National Champion, Micaela De Mello Champion claimed a freshman season for the ages.  De Mello was named 2021-22 Pac-12 Outdoor Track & Field Freshman of the Year and was later named honorable mention USTFCCCA Outdoor All-American.  She was not the only sprinter who ran into the record books for the Cougar women as Skyler Walton produced the second-fastest 100m dash time in history at 11.54. 

But this year's freshman class brought in some serious talent as the four-time Idaho state champion Mason Lawyer is gearing up for his first Cougar season. Lawyer took first in 100m dash, 200m dash, 4 x 200m relay and 4x 400m relay last year.