Purdue University Men's Cross Country

Elliott on staff." Elliott came to Purdue most recently from Campbell University where he was the head track and field and cross country coach last season. Prior to his stint with the Camels, he was an assistant track coach at the University of Tennessee for seven years. He also served as the head track and field and cross country coach at Murray State University for two years, assistant track coach at the University of Georgia for nine years, and an assistant track coach at the University of Texas at El Paso for three years. While with Tennessee, Elliott was the recruiting coordinator for Caribbean student-athletes. He also helped coach his student-athletes to 29 All-America certificates, two NCAA Championships, eight SEC individual championships, and five school records. His excellence with the sprints led Elliott to be named the 2007 Mideast Assistant Sprints Coach of the Year. In 2001, Elliott was selected the head men's team coach of the Bahamas at the World Championships in Canada. There, he coached the men's 400m World Champion, the women's 200m World Champion and bronze medalist, and the men's 4x400m silver medal team. Elliott's international experience doesn't stop with the World Championships. In 2000, he coached the 4x100m relay Olympic Gold Medal team in Sydney, Australia. Elliott also coached finalists in the 100m and 200m dashes in those Olympics. Elliott has also coached the World Junior Champions Team for jumps for the Bahamas in 2000 and the Bahamian World Championships women's finalists in the 100m and 200m in 1999. He has also coached numerous World Championships medalists from the Bahamas and Iceland including in 1995 when he was the Head Coach of the Bahamas National Team at the Central America and Caribbean Meet in Guatemala. Elliott's coaching techniques have been used at clinics and camps across the country. In 1998, he presented his triple jump techniques and analyses at the MF-Athletics All-Star Clinic as well as at the USA Track Coaches Convention. Elliott's coaching techniques and recruiting are renowned throughout many of the nation's best conferences including the SEC and the Ohio Valley Conference.

Kent began as the assistant cross country and track and field coach on Aug. 14, 2014. He joined the Purdue staff after spending five years at the University of Arkansas as director of operations for the women's track and field program. In just his second year with the Boilermakers, Kent helped coach the women's team to their first USTFCCCA national ranking in program history, as the women were ranked 30th in the Oct. 20, 2015, poll. The men's team also received votes in the poll for the first time in more than 15 years. Kent coached Purdue senior Matthew McClintock to the program's first men's individual Big Ten champion in 72 years - since 1943 - as McClintock broke the all-time Big Ten 8,000-meter record to win the conference championship. McClintock was named the Big Ten's Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year, Purdue's first since the honor began in 1987. McClintock also earned All-Big Ten honors, the third of his career. He is one of just four Purdue men to earn the honors. Kent helped lead the women's team to a sixth-place finish at the 2015 Big Ten Championships, the program's best since 2001. Hope Schmelzle finished fifth and became the Purdue women's first All-Big Ten honoree since 2001, and just the third in program history. With Kent and Greene's direction, Schmelzle shattered Purdue's all-time Big Ten Championships 6k record. She and Katie Hoevet became Purdue's third and fourth runners in program history to break the 21-minute mark at the conference championships. Kent and Greene's Boilermakers did so with a team that has four scorers with remaining eligibility. At the Great Lakes Regional meet, Kent helped coach McClintock to a runner-up finish and Schmelzle to seventh place. Both were All-Region and qualified for the NCAA Championships. Schmelzle was just the fourth woman in program history to qualify for NCAAs. Hoevet took 18th place at Regionals and was one spot outside of qualifying for the national championships. The women's team took fifth in the region, a five-spot improvement from 2014, while the men took ninth, a four-place bump from the previous season. The 2015 Boilermakers won the Crusader Opener on the mens and womens sides and had a pair of top-four finishes at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown against several of the nations best teams. The Boilermakers also defeated ranked teams on both sides at the Notre Dame Invitational, with the men finishing fifth and the women sixth. In his first year with the Boilermakers in 2014, Kent coached McClintock to his second consecutive All-America honor and a 19th-place finish at the NCAA Championships - 18 spots higher than the previous season. Under Greene and Kent's direction, McClintock finished third at the Big Ten Championships, as well as at the Great Lakes Regional. McClintock became Purdue's first two-time All-American since 1949-50, and just the third in program history. In Kent's first year as the assistant coach of the Boilermakers, the women finished eighth at Big Tens and ninth on the men's side. All 10 scorers, five men and five women, have remaining eligibility, including a combined five underclassmen. Eighteen of the 20 runners across both genders that started at Big Tens and Regionals will return to the Boilermakers next season. Kent improved the women's squad to have eight runners finish under 22 minutes at the Big Ten Championships for the first time in Purdue history. On the women's side, Kent helped coach a very young team, as the Boilermakers lost three of their five scorers from the 2013 Big Ten Championships and Regionals, that matched its eighth-place Big Ten finish, despite the conference adding two teams, and jumped three spots at the Great Lakes Regional to 10th. The team's scoring at Big Tens was a testament to coaching, as the top five finishers comprised two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior, all who will return next season. At the regional, the women started six individuals with remaining eligibility, including all five scores. The top three scorers were underclassmen. Kent also helped lead the Purdue women to eight times under 22 minutes at the Big Ten 6k, something Purdue had never before accomplished. The women also posted five of the school's fastest 10 6k times ever run at the Great Lakes Regionals. All five of those individuals return in 2015. Under Kent's direction, the women also finished second at the Indiana Intercollegiates, while the men won the Belmont Opener. Kent has helped the Boilermaker distance crew on the track as well. In 2016, his group broke the women's mile program record with Katie Hoevet running a 4:36.53 at the Meyo Invitational. She qualified for the NCAA Championships and was a second team All-American with an 11th place finish in the event. Hoevet was also the Big Ten mile runner-up. Kendall Hacker had the fifth-fastest 5k in program history with a time of 16:28.22. With Kent's help, the women's DMR team broke the school record with a time of 11:06.40 at Meyo. That group finished second at Big Tens. Outdoors in 2016, Kent coached women to program top-10s in the 1,500m, 800m, and 5k, including a fifth-place finish at Big Tens by Kiara McIntosh in the 800m. Hoevet was fourth at Big Tens in the 1500m and eighth in the 5k. On the men's side Tate Schienbein broke the the school mile record with a time of 4:03.64 at Meyo. Kent helped lead the men's DMR team to a seventh place finish at Big Tens. Outdoors, his group added program top 10s in the 5k and 10k, including Schienbein placeing eighth at Big Tens in the 5k and McClintock finishing runner-up in the 5k and 10k. Kent's group qualified four to the NCAA East Preliminary Round, with McClintock in the 10k, Schiebein in the 5k, Hoevet in the women's 1,500 and McIntosh in the 800m. After the 2015-16 academic year, Hoevet was named Purdue's woman Big Ten Medal of Honor recipient, while McClintock earned the men's honor. It is the highest honor bestowed by the Big Ten conference. Prior to Purdue, Kent and Purdue head coach Lonnie Greene had worked together in the past, as Greene was an assistant coach for the Arkansas women's program until 2012 when he was hired as Purdue's head coach. Kent also is familiar with the Big Ten Conference, as he graduated from the University of Iowa in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in heath and sports studies. During Kent's time at Arkansas, the Razorbacks were one of the top track & field and cross country programs in the country. The women's team had six top-10 finishes at NCAA Track and Field Championship meets. The Razorback harriers advanced individuals to the NCAA Cross Country Championships each year he was there, including qualifying the team each of the last three years after winning regional championships. Arkansas finished in the top 20 all three of those years. A native of Valparaiso, Indiana, Kent ran collegiately at Ball State and Iowa on the cross country and track teams. The new Purdue distance coach specialized in the 3,000-meter run and 5,000-meter run, and finished 10th in the 5k at the Big Ten Indoor Championships during his senior year. After earning his undergraduate degree from Iowa, Kent attended Delta State University (Cleveland, Mississippi), where he earned a master's degree in health, physical education and recreation.

McBride has helped six different individuals qualify for a combined 21 NCAA Championship events. He has coached his athletes to six of the eight biggest awards handed out after each Big Ten track and field championship. McBride has coached Purdue throwers to the women's Big Ten Athlete of the Year (top female athlete in the Big Ten in any sport), the men's outdoor Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year, the men's outdoor Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championships, the women's outdoor Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year, the women's outdoor Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championships, the women's indoor Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year and the women's indoor Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championships. McBride's throwers have broken six different school records numerous times in the last four seasons. His student-athletes have won six Big Ten titles and 19 Big Ten Field Athlete of the Week honors. In his four years, McBride has led Boilermaker throwers to 22 NCAA East Regionals qualifying marks during the outdoor seasons. McBride has had at least one Big Ten champion in his group every year since he joined the staff, including one in 2015, two in 2014, one in 2013 and two in 2012. : Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (weight throw, third place). : Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (hammer throw, sixth place; shot put, 22nd place), Micaela Hazlewood (discus, 22nd). : Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (weight throw, third place; shot put, 13th place), Dani Bunch (weight throw, third place; shot put, fifth place). : Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (hammer throw, 11th place), Dani Bunch (shot put, fifth place), Caleb Fricke (discus, 21st place). : Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (weight throw, third place), Dani Bunch (weight throw, 13th place), Jakob Engel (shot put, eighth place). : Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (hammer throw, 14th place; shot put, 14th place), Coy Blair (shot put, 19th place), Dani Bunch (shot put, eighth place). : Dani Bunch (weight throw, 14th place; shot put, 16th place). : Dani Bunch (shot put, 15th place). Last season, McBride coached Enekwechi, a junior, to the second-best weight throw mark in NCAA Division 1 history. Enekwechi threw 24.39m (80-0.25), which ranked second in the country for the season and is the school record. At the NCAA Championships, Enekwechi broke the all-time NCAA Championships weight throw record, when he threw 24.18m (79-4.00) on his final attempt. That mark gave him the lead in the final round, before he ended up finishing third. McBride also coached Enekwechi to be one of the best all around throwers in the Big Ten. Enekwechi repeated as the Big Ten hammer throw champion, after throwing a school-record 72.77m (238-9). He also finished sixth in the conference at the outdoor Big Ten meet in the shot put. Enekwechi won the silver medal in the shot put and weight throw at the Big Ten Indoor Championships last season, giving him a total of 29 points scored at the meets combined. McBride also coached Enekwechi to the break the Nigerian national hammer throw record. McBride coached three individuals to NCAA East Regionals qualifying marks in a total of four events last season, after advancing five individuals to regionals in seven events in 2014. In 2013, six throwers qualified for regionals in seven events, a year after four Boilermakers qualified in McBride's first year on staff. During his time at Purdue, McBride has coached the throws group to a total of 209 points and 20 medals (top three finish) at Big Ten Championships. While at Marshall, McBride coached three women's school records. Those records came in the indoor and outdoor shot put as well as the javelin. Along with those records, McBride led his student-athletes to numerous top three marks in multiple events. Prior to his coaching career, McBride was a standout for Purdue from 2001 to 2004. As a sophomore in 2002, he finished runner-up in the hammer throw at the Big Ten Championships and fifth in the discus, earning him second team All-Big Ten honors. He was also named the team's most improved. In 2003, McBride achieved first team All-American status after placing 12th at the NCAA Championships in the hammer throw. In 2004, McBride was an indoor All-American after finishing runner-up at the NCAA Championships in the 35-pound weight throw. He also achieved first team All-Big Ten status during outdoor season after winning the Big Ten Championship in the hammer throw and was again named the team's most improved. McBride was the team captain that season. McBride graduated from Purdue in 2004 with a degree in selling and sales management. He also minored in organization and leadership supervision. He is now married to his wife, Cheyenne. They have three children, sons Brogan (8) and Maxius (1), and a daughter, Eleanora (5).