Auburn University Men's Track

Spry is not resting on his laurels. The 2006 Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year has moved both the Auburn men's and women's programs into the upper echelon of the SEC and the nation, with no end to the Tigers' successes in sight. The 2012 season included four SEC individual titles, and a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the men's team. The women's team also secured its spot in the top 25 for the 12th-straight year. Additionally, working directly with Spry, Auburn men's sprinters posted the top mark in the nation in the 4x100-meter relay and Harry Adams recorded the fastest wind-legal 100 and 200 meter times in the nation. Adams' 9.96 in the 100 meters at the NCAA Championships established a new school record and Auburn's 38.30 second time in the 4x100-meter relay at the Texas Relays broke a 35-year-old program record and was the top collegiate mark in 2012. Auburn boasted five All-Americans during the 2011 indoor and outdoor seasons. Spry led the Tigers to a fifth-place SEC finish on the men's side and a sixth-place finish for the women. Auburn individuals claimed six event titles during the SEC Championships. Thrower Stephen Saenz earned SEC Freshman Field Athlete of the Year for both the indoor and outdoor seasons. The 2010 Tigers posted three top-12 finishes at NCAA meets, including a sixth-place finish by the women at the NCAA indoor meet. 2010 capped a string of 12 straight years that Auburn had at least one individual national champion. In 2009, Spry guided young and largely inexperienced teams, but still helped the Auburn men finish 12th and the women 25th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Spry led the Auburn men to a second-place finish at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor National Championships, marking the sixth time Auburn has finished in the top three in the nation under Spry. His athletes earned 10 All-American honors and two individual national championships while marking the fourth straight year that at least one of his teams earned a top-five national finish. In 2007, Spry led Auburn's men to a third-place finish at the NCAA outdoor meet, and a fifth-place performance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, while the women also finished fifth at the indoor meet. Auburn produced national champions in six events and earned 15 All-American honors. The season was capped by Kerron Stewart - a two-time Olympic medalist in 2008 - earning the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top female collegiate track and field athlete. In 2006, he earned his first national championship when the Auburn women's team took home the NCAA outdoor title. The Tigers scored 57 points to easily outdistance USC, which placed second with 38.5 points. Auburn had All-American performances in nine events, including two individual national champions and three second-place finishers, and broke two school records during the four-day event. In addition to a fourth place men's indoor finish in 2005, Spry came close to a pair of national titles in 2003, as the men finished second at both the indoor and outdoor meets. His men's team was third at the 2000 NCAA Indoor Championships and fourth at the 1999 outdoor meet. While on The Plains, Spry has also coached and developed such Auburn greats as Ty Akins, Marc Burns, Coby Miller and Avard Moncur. He has also led 19 NCAA Outdoor Champions, 10 Indoor Champions, 13 Olympic performers and six World Champion performers, including 2001 400m champion Avard Moncur, 2007 high jump champion Donald Thomas and 2009 4x100m relay champion Kerron Stewart. Spry was hired to be the fourth track and field coach in Auburn history in late 1997. Prior to his appointment at Auburn, Spry had spent the previous two years at the University of South Carolina as an assistant coach. A native of Aberdeen, Md., Spry came to the Plains with five years of experience. He served as an assistant coach at three different Southeastern Conference schools before accepting the head coaching position at Auburn. Spry was one of the top graduates in his class at the University of Mississippi where he earned a degree in Physical Education in 1984. He served as a graduate assistant at his alma mater under the tutelage of Joe Walker for one year. On September 13, 2003, Spry was honored by the University of Mississippi athletic department by being inducted into their Hall of Fame. Spry, who had been active in the R.O.T.C at Mississippi, accepted a commission in the U.S. Army after his graduation. While he served his country, Spry also competed for the All-Army track and field team. As an officer in the U.S. Army, he was a member, and an assistant coach on the All-Army track team that won the Armed Forces Championship during his time with the team. He won five Interservice long jump championships, and in 1986 was the World Military long jump champion. He was eventually invited to participate in the Army's World Class Athletic Training Program. As a member of the program, he was allowed to choose with whom he would train. Spry chose to go to the University of Florida to train with his former coach, Joe Walker. While at Florida, Spry served as a volunteer coach for the Gator track team as he trained for the Olympic Trials in which he competed in 1988. After attending the Army's Ranger school in 1989, Spry served as Company Commander in the 9th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. It was during this time that Spry realized that he would soon be ending his Army career. After leaving active duty, Spry was hired as an assistant at the University of Florida in 1992, and within the next two years he coached seven Florida athletes to 10 All-American honors and eight to All-SEC awards. Included in those were three freshmen, most notably Dominick Millner. Millner finished fourth at the 1995 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the long jump and had the longest collegiate long jump by a freshman indoors that year. He was also the Junior National Champion in the long jump in 1995. Another athlete at Florida to excel under the leadership of Spry was Dion Bentley. Bentley achieved a sixth-place ranking in the U.S. and a ninth-place ranking worldwide in 1993. In 1995, Spry moved to the University of South Carolina as an assistant coach and continued to build championship caliber athletes as a Gamecock. In his first season at USC, Gamecock athletes training under Spry broke 19 school records. Spry's athletes garnered eight more All-Americans honors and Marvin Watts won two SEC titles in the 800m. Watts was the first conference champion in track in South Carolina history. Spry has had success taking the athletes he coaches to the next level of their ability. He understands that this is quite possibly his most important job as a coach. Spry thinks that his background as an army officer has, and will continue to help him motivate the young people who choose to participate in the Auburn track program. Another quality that has helped Spry build champions is the fact that he has been a champion himself. After winning two state championships in the long jump and triple jump in Maryland, Spry attended Anne Arundel Community College. While in junior college, he was four-time NJCAA champion, winning three triple jump crowns and one long jump title. He was an eight-time JUCO All-American and is now a member of the NJCAA Track and Field Hall of Fame. Spry transferred to the University of Mississippi, where he became the first Ole Miss track and field athlete to receive All-American and national champion status. He was a two-time NCAA All-American, a three-time All-SEC performer, 1983 NCAA Long Jump Champion and the 1983 SEC Long Jump Champion. In 1983, he was ranked fifth in the United States and seventh in the world in the long jump by Track and Field News. Spry and his wife Sylvia have two children, Tiffany and Ralph Jr.

Carroll as both the head cross country coach and assistant track and field/distance coach. During his tenure on The Plains, Carroll has coached three All-Americans, two NCAA Region Champions, seven SEC Champions, and 12 All-SEC honorees. With Carroll presiding, Auburn distance runners have set three school records, including two in 2011. During the Fall of 2011, Carroll guided freshman Kane Grimster and senior Joby Peake to All-Region honors and the Auburn men's team to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA South Regional. Additionally, Grimster was named an All-SEC performer and a member of the league's All-Freshman team. In the spring of 2011, Ben Cheruiyot won the SEC Indoor 5000m championship and placed second in the 3000 meters under the tutelage of Carroll. 2010 featured three of Carroll's runners earning first team All-SEC honors after solid performances at the conference championships - highlighted by second place finishes from Cheruiyot and Holly Knight. Additionally, both Cheruiyot and Knight advanced to the 2010 NCAA Championships. In his first season with Tigers in 2009, Carroll tutored Felix Kiboiywo and Cheruioyt to All-American accolades as the men's team placed 25th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. The Auburn men also brought home two third-place finishes from the NCAA South Regional and SEC Championships, and Kiboiywo took medalist honors for the third time of his career at the NCAA South Regional. With Carroll at the helm, the Auburn women finished in the Top 10 at five of their six meets for the 2009 season. Carroll led the Lady Tigers to a sixth-place finish at the NCAA South Regional and a seventh-place finish at the SEC Championships. Prior to joining the Auburn staff, Carroll was the US Athlete Manager for Athletics Ireland, where he guided Gareth Turnbull, Mark Christie and Liam Reale to becoming one of the top Irish running trios in the nation while also training several other Irish runners stateside. Before coaching Carroll was a world-class distance runner specializing in the 3,000 and 5,000-meters. As a 19-year old, the Cork, Ireland native, earned the first major title of his career, capturing the 1991 European Junior Title in the 5K in Thessalonika, Greece. In 1998 he won bronze at the European Track & Field Championships held in Budapest. In 2000, he won the European Indoor 3K title. In that same year, Carroll posted the top mile time of his career (3:50.3) in Oslo, Norway. Carroll is a four-time IAAF World Track and Field member, and holds the Irish-national record in the 3K (7:30.36), which he set in 1996, as well as the 5K (13:03.93) set in 1998. He also held the national record of 27:46.42 in the 10K that was set in 2000, a record that has since been broken. He has participated in several marathons in the later stages of his career, highlighted by a sixth-place finish in the 2002 New York Marathon. His time of 2:10.54 sits only 61 seconds off of the Irish national record of 2:09.17. Carroll was a member of the 2000 and 2004 Ireland Olympic Team. He competed in the 5K both years, and in 2000 just missed qualifying for the finals by one place. During his collegiate days at Providence College, Carroll earned six All-American honors as well as seven Big East titles (cross country; 1,000 meters; 1,500 meters; 3,000 meters (twice); distance medley relay and 4 x 800 meters). His crowning achievement as a Friar came when he won an NCAA Indoor Championship title in the 5,000-meters. Carroll holds a USTFCCCA level two coaching certificate that he acquired in 2008. He married the former Amy Rudolph in October of 2005. Rudolph, an accomplished runner in her own right, is a two-time Olympian, as well as a U.S. Indoor Champion in the 3,000-meter run.

Richardson is in his eighth season as assistant track and field coach and recruiting coordinator for the Tigers. Richardson coaches Auburn's vertical jumps, multi events and assists head coach Ralph Spry with the men's sprinters. Since his arrival at Auburn, his athletes have earned 10 All-American Honors, while two athletes were named academic All-Americans, and seven athletes have captured SEC Titles. During his career, Richardson coached athletes have won 115 individual conference championships. Under the guidance of Richardson, three high jumpers qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2012. Additionally, Monica Carney (indoor) earned her first All-America honor and Maya Pressley became an All-American for the fourth time. Joining Carney and Pressley at the NCAA championships was men's high jumper D.J. Smith. In 2008, Richardson coached Raevan Harris to All-American honors and an Auburn school record with a clearance of 6' 2- ¼". In 2010, another Richardson-coached athlete, Pressley, made history by becoming the first woman in Auburn school history to win an SEC championship as a true freshman. Pressley also successfully defended her title during the 2011 campaign. Richardson has mentored three athletes to U.S. Junior Championship titles and several of his athletes have gone on to compete at the U.S. Championships, Olympic Trials, and World Championships. During each of his years at Auburn, Richardson has also spearheaded the recruiting efforts that have brought several highly-touted newcomers to The Plains, including the 2010 recruiting class ranked in the top five nationally by Track & Field News. Richardson played an integral role in the recruiting of four sprinters (Keenan Brock, Michael Dehaven, Jeremy Hardy and Marcus Rowland) that set the Auburn record and recorded the fastest 4x100-meter relay mark in the NCAA with a time of 38.30 seconds in 2012. Prior to his move to Auburn, Richardson spent the previous seven years as associate head coach at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where his teams won 15 indoor and outdoor conference championships. He coached 24 men to 50 Patriot League individual titles and mentored 18 women to 37 conference crowns. Richardson also helped athletes responsible for establishing conference records in the men's indoor and outdoor 4x400m relay, the men's and women's 4x100m relay, the women's 60m, indoor and outdoor 200m and the indoor and outdoor long jump. On four occasions, the Army coaching staff was voted tops in the league. While at West Point, Richardson also coached one of his post-collegiate athletes, Joe Mendel, to a spot on the U.S. World Championship team in the men's 400m where he made the finals, finishing sixth in the 400m and also running a leg on the US 4x400m Relay in Budapest, Hungary. His pole vaulters at Army won 11 conference championships, and three earned All-East honors. Richardson helped lead the West Point vault crew to three- straight Patriot League titles (2003, 2004 and 2005) and three successive trips to the NCAA Preliminaries and coached 18 sprinters to All-East accolades. All totaled, his sprinters and jumpers set fifteen school records and eight conference records, many of which still stand today. All the while, his men's and women's teams averaged over a 3.0 GPA in an incredibly challenging academic environment. Richardson, who graduated from the University of Indianapolis in 1994 with a bachelor's of science in education and criminal justice/pre-law, served as an assistant coach at Indianapolis in 1994, before moving up to the Division I level when he accepted an assistant coaching position while working on his Master's degree in physical education at Eastern Kentucky University. During his two years at EKU (1995-96), Richardson assisted with four Ohio Valley Conference championship teams and coached Arnold Payne to All-American honors and a fifth-place finish at the 1995 NCAA Outdoor Championships (45.51). Later that year under Richardson's tutelage, Payne set a Zimbabwe national record and earned a spot on the Zimbabwe national team, competing in the 1995 World Championships in Gotenberg, Sweden. In 1996, at the age of 25, Richardson took over as head coach at the University of Texas-Pan American, becoming the youngest Division I head coach in the country. There, he guided the women's and men's cross country programs to unprecedented heights, garnering first and third place finishes in the Sun Belt Conference. For his efforts, Richardson was voted by his coaching colleagues as the 1997 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year. He then returned to his home state to serve as an assistant coach at Indiana University under U.S. Olympic Coach, Sam Bell, before taking his post at Army to work with another U.S. Olympic Coach, Jerry Quiller. Richardson credits his coaching successes to his coaching mentors over the years and also his leadership experiences during his seven plus years at West Point. Richardson is married to the former Carmen Mann, herself a former four-time All-American track athlete, who works in the Auburn athletics department as a liaison for international student-athletes. The couple has a four-year-old daughter, Olivia Renee, and are actively involved as foster parents in Lee County.

Rolle is in his 16th season on The Plains and works with Auburn's women's sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers. In 2012, Rolle coached a double medalist in the world junior games as well as an NCAA runner-up and nine Olympians all while serving as relays coordinator for his native Bahamas. Bahamian sprinter Anthonique Strachan placed first in both the 100 (11.20) and 200 meters (22.53) at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain, while training with Rolle. Auburn's Kai Selvon was runner up in the women's 200 meters at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field championships and four athletes coached by Rolle were named All-Americans. Additionally, Selvon along with Kerron Stewart, Leevan Sands and Sheniqua Ferguson headlined a group of nine Rolle pupils to compete at the 2012 London Olympic Games. With Rolle serving as relays coordinator in London, the Bahamas brought home its first-ever gold medal in the men's 4x400-meter relay with a national-record mark of 2:56.72. Stewart and Burns also won medals in the men's and women's 4x100-meter relay for Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, respectively, at the London Games. 2011 featured six women's sprinters qualifying for NCAA outdoor nationals and a total of three All-America selections. The season was highlighted by second-place finishes by the 4x400m relay team and by Joanna Atkins in the 400m. Joanna Atkins also earned an SEC outdoor title in the 400m. During the 2010 NCAA season, Rolle's sprinters excelled as usual, led by Sheniqua Ferguson, who won the NCAA indoor title in the 200 meters, earned five All-American honors and was named the SEC Female Runner of the Year during the outdoor season after earning the Commissioner's Trophy as the high point scorer at the meet. Rolle also coached Joanna Atkins to four All-American honors, Nivea Smith to three and four others to one each in 2010. Rolle's 2009 season was highlighted at the collegiate level with Joanna Atkins' national title in the 400 meters, while professionally, he coached Kerron Stewart, Marc Burns and Josanne Lucas to medals at the World Championships. Stewart won both a gold and a silver medal, posting the fifth-fastest time in history in the 100m of 10.75 seconds, Burns earned a silver medal and Lucas a bronze. Rolle coached four Olympic medalists at the 2008 Beijing Games, including Stewart, who took home a pair of medals. Stewart won a silver medal in the women's 100 meters and a bronze in the 200 meters, while Rolle also coached Burns to a silver medal in the men's 4x100-meter relay and Leevan Sands to a bronze in the men's triple jump. The medals won at the Olympic Games gave Rolle a special achievement, as he has now coached athletes that have won every possible medal at every major international and regional competition. Following the 2008 year, Rolle was also honored by the Bahamas Athletic Association as the winner of the Charlie Major Coach of the Year for the second time in his career. Under Rolle's guidance, Stewart emerged as one of the world's top sprinters after a stint at Auburn that included her winning the Honda Sports Award in 2007 as the nation's top female collegiate athlete. The Olympic achievements came just two months after Rolle coached two Tigers to All-American honors at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Amelia Anderson was fifth in the 400m hurdles while Danielle Gilchrist placed sixth in the same race. Also during the 2008 outdoor season, Joanna Atkins set school freshman records in the 100m and 400m, and Cache Armbrister broke the school freshman record in the 200m. In 2007, Stewart won indoor national titles in the 60m and 200m, and also won the 200m title outdoors, before earning a silver medal at the World Championships in the 4x100m relay. In addition, Rolle coached Tracy Ann Rowe to All-American honors in 2007 in the 100m, and Michelle Vaughn was an indoor and outdoor All-American in the triple jump. In 2006, his athletes were instrumental in Auburn winning its first track and field national championship scoring 53 out of the team's 57 points. Six of his athletes combined for 11 All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, including individual national champions Markita James (400m hurdles) and Jovanee Jarrett (long jump). During the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Rolle not only served as an assistant coach for the Bahamas, but also coached 10 athletes during the track and field portion of the Games. The group included Trinidad & Tobago's Darrel Brown, Fana Ashby and Ato Modibo, Bahamian's Osbourne Moxey, Leevan Sands, Timicka Clarke and Dominic DeMerritt, Jamaican's Elva Goulbourne and Dean Griffiths, and Cydonie Mothersill of the Cayman Islands. On December 27, 2002, just prior to his fifth season at Auburn, Rolle was honored by the Bahamas Association with the Henry Crawford Award for Coach of the Year. Rolle has coached two NCAA record holders as Vonette Dixon won the 2000 NCAA Indoor 60m hurdles in a record time of 7.94 and Elva Goulbourne captured the indoor long jump title with a distance of 22-8. Goulbourne also won five NCAA titles, the 2003 Honda Award (Auburn's first), a Commonwealth gold medal and was named SEC and NCAA Athlete of the Year. Rolle has coached 18 NCAA Champions and 87 All-Americans in his stint. In addition, Rolle has coached seven Commonwealth medalists, 18 CAC medalists and four NACAC medalists. One of his biggest achievements came in the summer of 2003 at the World Championships held in Paris as he coached Darrel Brown of Trinidad and Tobago to a silver medal in the 100m and a new world junior record of 10.01. Rolle guided former Tigers Reuben McCoy and Ty Akins to medals at the 2005 Pan American Junior Championships, helping McCoy win gold in the 400m hurdles and Akins earn a silver in the 110m hurdles. He has also coached two athletes into the elite group of sub- 10 second 100m dash sprinters in 2005, aiding Marc Burns (9.96) and Darrel Brown (9.99). Rolle also helped Leevan Sands to bronze in the triple jump and former Auburn All-Americans Osbourne Moxey and Vonette Dixon to the finals in the long jump and 100m hurdles respectively at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, France. He also coached Dominic Demeritte to gold in the 200m at the 2004 World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and a bronze at the 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England. Since joining the Auburn staff, many school records have been broken and additional All- Americans added to Auburn's long list of athletes coached or recruited by Rolle; including, former Auburn stand-out and 400m World Champion Avard Moncur, three Junior World medalists: Marc Burns (silver - 100m), Shamar Sands (bronze - 110m hurdles) and Lisa Miller (silver - 1600m relay), two Junior Pan-Am Champions prior to 2000: Shelly-Ann Gallimore, who won the triple jump, and Sanjay Ayre, who won the men's 400m dash. Both Gallimore and Ayre are native-Jamaican's and both earned SEC Freshman of the Year honors in 2000. Rolle previously served as the head track coach at St. John's College in the Bahamas from 1995-1997. While at St. John's, Rolle led the program to a national championship in 1997. In just his first year at St. John's his squad improved 13 places at Nationals, jumping from 16th to third. Rolle was also a successful club coach while in the Bahamas, as he coached seven Bahamian National teams, including at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, the 2004 Athens Olympics, the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the 1997 Junior-Pan-Am team and the 1998 Caribbean and Central American team in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Following his stint at St. John's, Rolle returned to the States to serve as an assistant coach at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla. While at Oral Roberts, Rolle was responsible for coaching the hurdles. A native of Freeport, Bahamas, Rolle was a five-time Bahamian National team competitor, earning two silver medals in the high jump and 1600m relay at the Caribbean and Central America Games in 1988.