2015 Track and Field
Coaches
Head Coach Karen Brandt
Contact Information for Coach Brandt
Office phone: 419-358-3898
Email: brandtk@bluffton.edu
Karen Brandt, who coached the Bloomsburg (Pa.) University women's cross country team to the NCAA Division II national championship meet in 2007, is in her fourth season as Bluffton University's head coach of men's and women's cross country and track and field. In just her first season at the helm, the Bluffton cross country women placed 5th out of the 10 conference teams, which marked the best conference finish the Beavers have had since they took 5th in 2005. The women were just five points shy of fourth place.
Coach Brandt has been an integral component in Bluffton's recent upswing for both cross country and track and field. In her second year as head coach, she saw both the men's and women's records fall for cross country. The men's squad put together their best Heartland Conference finish in eight years thanks to a group that now occupies three of Bluffton's top six spots all-time. Continuing the improvements in the spring, 11 school records went down, including Jeff Parker's throw of 191-4 and Terrill Webb's 11-10 in the pole vault.
Brandt, who earned a master's degree in American studies from the Pennsylvania State University Capital College, Harrisburg, in 1997, coached at Bloomsburg from 1999-2009. Her 2007 women's cross country team finished 15th in the national meet, capping a season in which the squad was champion of both the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) and the NCAA Division II East Region, and Brandt was conference and regional coach of the year. That team included the first female cross country all-American in school history.
During her decade at Bloomsburg, the Everett, Pa., resident coached three other all-Americans,
two in the women's 10,000-meter run and one, two-time honoree in men's cross country;
four national cross country championship qualifiers; eight female qualifiers for the
national track and field championship; eight PSAC track champions; and numerous all-PSAC
and all-region cross country runners, all-conference track athletes, and all-academic
individuals and teams honored by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country
Coaches Association.
After leaving Bloomsburg, Brandt coached at Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne from 2009-10 and, more recently, was an English and mathematics teacher in a residential program for girls in Warfordsburg, Pa. Her year-plus at Indiana Tech produced 35 NAIA national qualifying performances and seven all-American finishes in two indoor track seasons; 17 national qualifiers and seven all-Americans in one outdoor track season; and one male national qualifier in one cross country season.
A five-time qualifier for the Boston Marathon, Brandt has also coached track and cross country at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa., from 1998-99, and at Lower Dauphin High School in Hummelstown, Pa., from 1991-97. From 1989-98, she taught English and public speaking at Elizabethtown (Pa.) Area High School.
Assistant Coach Jim Brandt
Contact info for Coach Jim Brandt
Office phone: 419-358-3031
E-mail: brandtj@bluffton.edu
James Brandt will be coaching alongside his wife, Karen Brandt, the head cross country and track and field coach at Bluffton University. During their coaching tenure at Division II Bloomsburg University (Bloomsburg, PA), the Brandts saw much success with the distance-based program of the Huskies.
Their achievements included four All-American athletes; the first women's team to
win the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference cross country championship, the NCAA
East Region championship, and to earn a team berth at the NCAA Division II Cross Country
National Championship. Prior to their time at Bloomsburg University, the Brandts coached
at Lower Dauphin High School (Hummelstown, PA) where they rebuilt their teams to cross
country division champions and saw individuals advance to state podium positions in
both track and cross country.
The Brandts are also currently coaching two post-collegiate athletes who started running for them as 9th graders at Lower Dauphin. Both are competing at the marathon distance with one qualified for the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials. She accomplished this goal by running 2:45 in only her second marathon. As part of her training plan, she ran 57:54 in the Army Ten Miler and was named the 2011 Air Force Athlete of the Year.
Both Karen and Jim have set their sights on developing the Bluffton University cross country and track and field teams into a perennial power in the HCAC. Additionally, they will work to motivate their student-athletes toward top academic success as well.
Assistant Coach
Contact info for Coach
Office phone: 419-358-3031
E-mail:
Assistant Coach Jason Fisher
Jason Fisher enters his first season at Bluffton University as an assistant coach with the Track and Field program. Fisher brings an impressive array of honors to his position working with the University's throwers.
Fisher, a 2006 graduate of Parkway High School, was a three-sport athlete, participating
in football, basketball and track and field. He is the school record holder in the
shot put and discus at Parkway and earned OHSAA All-Ohio honors in the shot put. A
Bluffton University graduate (2011 - Sports Management), Fisher holds five of the
program's school records: Indoor shot put 50' 6.25" and weight 56' 2.5"; outdoor shot
put 53' 0.75"; discus 151' 2"; and hammer 179' 9". He was named Heartland Collegiate
Athletic Conference (HCAC) All-Conference all four years as a Bluffton track and field
athlete and was named 2nd Team All-HCAC in football during his sophomore year. In
2007, Fisher was named the HCAC Track & Field Freshman of the Year; he was the 2008
HCAC Discus conference champion; the 2009 Hammer champion; and 2010 HCAC Hammer and
Shot Put champion, earning him that year's HCAC Field Athlete of the Year award. On
the national level, Fisher was a multiple national championship provisional qualifier: 2009
indoor shot put and outdoor hammer; 2010 indoor weight as well as outdoor hammer and
shot put.
Prior to this season, Fisher coached three years (2011 to 2013) as an assistant for the throwing events at Parkway. From 2012 to 2013 he was also the high school junior varsity boys basketball coach.
Fisher resides in Rockford and is employed at the Fremont Company.
Assistant Coach Keri McCoy
Keri (Hilty) McCoy is entering her third season at Bluffton as an assistant coach with the Track and Field program. Coach McCoy works with a variety of track disciplines, including the hurdles, jumps and sprints.
McCoy, a 2003 Bluffton High School graduate, was a seven-time OHSAA All-Ohio honoree
in both individual and relay events (800 meters, high jump, 4 x 400 and 4 x 800) and
was runner-up in the 800 meters in her senior year with a time of 2:15.54. As a Cedarville
University (2008 - Exercise Science) athlete, McCoy continued to excel. In 2004 she
was the American Mideast Conference champion at 800 meters and she also qualified
for both the indoor and outdoor NAIA national championships in the high jump. In 2007,
McCoy produced her career best time at 800 meters (2:10.96) placing second in the
NAIA Outdoor National Track and Field Championships. Throughout her collegiate career,
McCoy was a seven-time All-American athlete in a combination of individual and relay
events, placing among the top eight finishers at the NAIA national championship meets: three
times indoors at 600 meters; one time outdoors at 800 meters; one time indoors in
the 4 x 800 meter relay; one time indoors in the 4 x 400; and one time outdoors in
the 4 x 400.
McCoy started her coaching career at Bluffton High school in 2008, working with the cross country program and saw immediate success with a boy's regional qualifier in both 2008 and 2009. In 2009 McCoy worked as a graduate assistant at the University of Findlay where she coached jumpers and produced an NCAA Division II national qualifier in the high jump. She joined the staff at Bluffton University in 2012.
McCoy resides in Bluffton with her husband, Aric, and is employed as a personal trainer at Bluffton Family Recreation.
Assistant Coach Clint Dillon
Clint Dillon enters his first season at Bluffton University as an assistant coach with the Track and Field program, specializing in pole vault.
A 2005 graduate of Bluffton University (Middle Childhood Education), Dillon is in
the record books for both indoor and outdoor pole vault with best clearances of 14'
3" set indoors in 2003 and 15' 11" outdoors set in 2004. He is the 2002 Heartland
Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) pole vault champion as well as a three-time
NCAA Division III National Track and Field championship qualifier. Dillon placed 4th
in the event in the 2004 national championship meet, earning him All-American status.
As a coach at Arlington High School, Dillon has coached two state qualifiers in the event, producing the 2013 Division III OHSAA girls' pole vault champion.
Dillon completed his master's degree from the University of Toledo/Bluffton University in 2010 in technology and education and currently teaches at Arlington High School as a business and technology teacher. He resides in Forest with his wife, Brittany, and their son.