Jill Lancaster - Cross Country Coach - Troy University Athletics

Jill Lancaster

Title:
Director of Track & Field/Cross Country
Email:
jllancaster@troy.edu
Phone:
5651

Jill Lancaster begins her ninth season overall at Troy University, and seventh as the Director of Track and Field/Cross Country, after spending a pair of seasons as the assistant coach on the Trojans staff. Lancaster, who took over the reins prior to the 2007-2008 season, oversees the direction of both the men’s and women’s programs, while concentrating her efforts with the Trojan sprints, hurdles, jumps, relays and combined event athletes.

She has coached two Olympic Trials qualifiers in the 100, 200 and long jump and one USA team representative who medaled at the NACA Championships in the 100 and the 4x 100 relay. In addition she has had numerous USA Junior/Senior National Qualifiers. She has coached seven individuals who have qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Nicola Bolla advanced to the 2013 NCAA Championships and earned All-America honors after finishing 15th in the hammer throw.

In 2012, The Trojans sent seven athletes to the NCAA First Round, led by Martins Pildavs. Pildavs placed second at the Sun Belt Championships and seventh at the NCAA First Round, on his way to second team All-America honors at the NCAA Championships. Larry Henry won the high jump at the Sun Belt Championships and represented the Trojans well at the NCAA First Round. The men finished fourth overall at the Sun Belt Championships, their second highest finish since joining the conference.

In 2011, she produced two All-Americans for track and field, Leander McKenzie in the 110 High Hurdles and Lamontrey Stamper in the Long Jump. Three different student-athletes have met the NCAA Indoor qualifying marks under her guidance.

The list of accomplishments is long for Lancaster and the Trojans, and continues to grow each day. Over the last six years, the Trojans have participated in 61 events at the NCAA Regional meet. Basketball standout, O’Darien Bassett was the first athlete in school history to win a NCAA First Round Championship and went undefeated in the 2008 season until he reached the NCAA National Championships. The Trojans have claimed 17 Sun Belt conference championships titles in the past four seasons. Lancaster has seen the list of record holders at the university grow under her watch, as 46 different school records have fallen since she has been at the helm.

In 2010 Lancaster coached nine student-athletes to the NCAA First Round and NCAA National Qualifiers. Lamontrey Stamper and Leander McKenzie were named All-Americans. After a stellar season, sprinter Ja-Courtney Alexander was named Freshman of the Year in both the indoor and outdoor Sun Belt Championships. Tiphanie Baker was named Athlete of the Meet at the outdoor championships. The Trojan men were well represented in the 100-meters at the NCAA First Round, with the most competitors in that event in a regional meet behind only Texas Christian University in the west. The high hurdles continued to be a dominant event for the Trojans as Naquita Rowe, Latoya Ragland and Leander McKenzie repeated their NCAA First Round qualifying performances. The women’s program tied its best finish at both indoor and outdoor conference meets in 2010, with individual titles in the high jump, discus, hammer and 4x400 relay. The men added championship titles in the 4x100 relay and 110 meter hurdles.

Under the guidance of Lancaster, the team has enjoyed tremendous success in the classroom. The women’s cross country team is consistently near the top in the conference and region in GPA, most recently earning Academic All-America status in 2012. The men’s cross country team earned its first NCAA Division I Academic All-America team honor in 2010, while the women’s track and field team won its first in 2009. Lancaster has seen the first track and field student-athlete earn scholar-athlete status at the Division I level, in Burke Leonce, who received his first honor in 2009 and repeated the following season. He was not alone, as freshman javelin school record holder Lizzie Clough joined him in receiving the prestigious honor for academic and athletic performance at the NCAA Championship level. The last Trojan runner to receive an individual NCAA Academic All-American honor was cross country runner Michael Green, who is now a professor at Troy.

The Trojans earned two additional academic recognitions during the senior banquet for maintaining the highest GPA of any student athlete at the university. Burke Leonce received the Clements Award and Kelly Harrington was presented the Sorrell Award. In addition, the men’s team GPA was recognized as carrying the highest GPA of any Troy athletic team and received the Fred B. Davis Award.

The 2009 season was a success for the Trojans as three Sun Belt Conference records were broken and four individual conference championships were won. Tiphanie Baker was named Athlete of the Meet at the Outdoor Sun Belt Conference Championship. Leander McKenzie, Tiphanie Baker and Agata Cichoszewska went to the NCAA National Championships, where they performed well. Baker had the eighth best throw at the meet in discus.

In 2008, 13 Trojans qualified for the NCAA First Round and two went on to the NCAA National meet. O’Darian Basset continued his success from the year before as he went on to win the long jump at the First Round and competed at the NCAA Nationals. Tawanna Meadows had another good year, as she was named Athlete of the Meet at both indoor and outdoor conference championships. Meadows would go on represent the Trojans at the NACAC Championships on Team USA, where she won a gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay and a silver medal in the 100-meters, a first for a USA athlete.

Lancaster’s first season as head coach, 2007, was a building block for the following year’s success, as Bassett went to the NCAA National Championship and was named Athlete of the Meet at the Sun Belt Championship. Tawanna Meadows would also go to the NCAA National meet to represent the Trojans in the 100-meters.

Before coming to Troy, Lancaster was the co-head track and field coach at her alma mater, the University of Oklahoma, for eight years. At Oklahoma, Lancaster worked mainly with the horizontal jumps and combined events, and played a key role in recruiting. During her tenure as co-head coach, the program produced 69 NCAA Division I-A All-Americans. In 2004, she and co-head coach Rodney Price led the Sooner women’s team to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Region, an all-time best for the women’s program.
Lancaster coached the NCAA Oklahoma Woman of the Year in long jump, All-American Janel Hayes, in 2001, while also coaching NCAA All-American Decathlete Justin Conkling.

Before joining the coaching staff at Oklahoma, Lancaster was at Kansas State University as an assistant coach for four years. While at Kansas State, she worked with the sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers. Lancaster was also in charge of recruiting and helped bring one of the largest recruiting classes in school history on to campus in Manhattan.

Prior to coaching at Kansas State, Lancaster made three other stops in her career. She began her coaching career at the University of Oklahoma in 1983, and stayed with the Sooners for four years before moving on to Big 12 rival Kansas in 1986. After coaching at Kansas until 1987, Lancaster spent the next six seasons as the head women’s coach at the University of Toledo, her first experience as a head coach at the NCAA Division I level.

During her stay at Toledo, Lancaster coached another Olympic Trials Qualifier in Candy Campbell in the long jump. Lancaster was twice named as the Mid-American Coach of the Year during her tenure at Toledo, and coached United States team member Shantel Ransom - who was named NCAA Ohio Woman of the Year.

Before her coaching career began, Lancaster was a collegiate athlete at the University of Oklahoma. As a student-athlete, Lancaster was a three-time AIAW Division I-A All-American selection in the 600-meter dash, mile and two-mile relays. She was a member of the 1980 indoor mile relay team that held the Oklahoma school record (3:45.2). To this day she shares the school’s all-time outdoor record in the 400-meter hurdles (59.03). After her collegiate career ended, Lancaster was a member of four national combined event teams and placed 14th at the 1988 United States Olympic Trials in the Heptathlon. Most recently the Drake Relays named Lancaster as one of the Top 10 Female Athletes of the Century in 2009.

Lancaster’s name can be found on the All-Century plaques on the newly renovated Drake Relays Stadium. Prior to that honor she was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 1988. She earned her first Drake Relays win in 1980 as a member of the Oklahoma Sooner 4x800-meter relay team, which took the victory in 8:40.93. She won five heptathlon titles at the Drake Relays, 1983-1985, 1988-1989. In 1985 she set the Drake Relays heptathlon record with a point total of 5,393.