University of Nebraska at Kearney Women's Track

Bonsall was named the head cross country coach in June 2007. Upon his hiring, he was also named an assistant track coach, mainly working with the long distance runners. Before the start of the 2008 season, he was promoted to be then head coach Andy Meyers co-head coach. Following Meyers retiring in 2010, Bonsall head track & field coach. In cross country, Bonsall has seen success on both the mens and womens sides. During his tenure, five individuals (four men and one woman) have qualified for the NCAA's, two earning All-American honors.   A year later, UNK was again ranked nationally throughout the season and finished as MIAA runners up. The Lopers then returned to the NCAA's in 2015, finishing 15th. This was after the squad had won the MIAA title, helping Bonsall be named the league Coach of the Year.  Five years earlier, Al Sanabria became the first Loper man to earn Division II All-American honors in 15 years. He has gone on to run in international competitions for Costa Rica.  The 2008 season saw the mens team record their highest finish at the NCAA Central Regional in eight years. Since then, the Loper men have finished in the top 10 seven straight years. A year later, Tanner Fruit became the first Loper to qualify for the NCAA's since 2004. The following season, Fruit again qualified, along with Sanabria. The Ogallala native has continued to run, taking part in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2016.  During Bonsalls first season in 2007, the womens cross team earned their first national ranking at the Division II level. They also finished runner-up at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota, which is UNKs biggest regular-season meet. More recently, UNK was runner up at the 2013 MIAA Championships, the highest finish ever for a Loper women's cross team in a league meet at the D2 level. Individually, junior Morgan Benesch became UNK's first-ever Division II cross country All-American when she placed 27th at the 2015 meet in Missouri.  On the track, Bonsall has seen even greater success coaching the distance runners and long sprinters. Including all the event areas, he has coached 11 All-Americans, 11 MIAA individual champions and 20 school records have fallen in his tenure. A four-time RMAC (Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) Mens Track & Field Coach of the Year, Bonsall has also been named the Womens C.O.Y. twice. As co-head coach in 2010, Bonsall helped lead the UNK men to their first outdoor RMAC title. The team repeated as they placed first at the 2011 RMAC indoor meet. In 2014, the Loper men were at it again, finishing runner up at the MIAA indoor meet and placing third in the spring. Including the cross country team's strong fall, UNK ranked 10th nationally in total program standing. Indiviudally, Michelle (Dill) May became the first Loper woman to earn NCAA All-American status in a distance running event as she was seventh in both the mile (indoors) and 1,500 (outdoors) at the 2008 NCAA meets. Off the track, she was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American. Named the 2010 Central Region Men's Indoor C.O.Y, Bonsall saw Fruit win the 5,000 meter race at the '10 Kansas Relays and place first in the 10,000 at the Drake Relays the following week. Two years later, Bonsall coached two 800 meter All-Americans in Paul Pape (fourth) and Matt Shipp (fifth). Pape went on to earn All-American honors in the spring with Sanabria just outside the top eight by finishing 10th in the 10,000. Most recently, he saw Marissa Bongers earn All-American status in the 800. Breaking school records in several distance events four straight weeks in January 2013, she placed third in the 800 at both the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships. Bongers was again among the nation's elite in 2014, earning her third All-American honor during the indoor season. Her career wrapped up in 2015 with a USTFCCA second-team All-American honor. In the winter of 2015, Cole Wellnitz earned his first All-American honor, placing eighth in the mile. He joined Bongers as Lopers to break school distance records in 2015. That included the DMR team that broke a 53-year old mark.  Finally, at the '13 NCAA outdoor meet, Fruit capped off a great career by finishing 14th in the 5,000 meter run with Pape (800), Nick Knudson (steeple) and Sanabria (5,000) each making the 2014 NCAA indoor or outdoor meets. Off the track, Bonsall's teams have had equal success as 33 cross country members have been named USTFCCCA Academic Scholars. The womens team has been ranked in the top 10 in the nation five times, including the 2010 squad, which tied for the nation's top GPA. In track & field, 68 Lopers have been named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic team with 2011 women ranking second nationally in GPA. Four Lopers, including an unprecedented three in 2014, have been named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans. Two, Dill and Kevin Carder, were coached directly by Bonsall. Prior to UNK, Bonsall spent six years working with the cross country and track & field programs at Ogallala High. In 2006 he helped Ogallala win the Nebraska Class B state championship as co-head coach with Shane Fruit, who is the father of Tanner. Bonsall also spent time teaching in the Ogallala, Broomfield (Colo.), and Lincoln school systems. He also taught courses at Mid-Plains C.C. in Ogallala. After starring at Burwell High, Bonsall graduated from Nebraska-Lincoln in 1995 where he was a two-time NCAA qualifier in both cross country and track, as well as being a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American. He then competed in the steeplechase at the 1996 and 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials and the 1997 World University games. Bonsall and his wife, Sherri, who also ran cross country and track at UNL, have a son, Nathan, and four daughters: Grace, Emma, Haley, and Sara. Alma Mater:  Graduating Year: Experience: Coaching Career Cross Country Track & Field The 2013 Loper men, making the program's first national appearance in 14 years, finished 17th in a meet held in Spokane, Wash.

Polacek enters his sixth year as an assistant coach with the Nebraska-Kearney track & field team.  He works with the Loper pole vaulters & mens multi-event athletes.    The UNK pole vault crew has shown steady progress under Polaceks guidance. In 2013, Mark Seeba qualified for both the NCAA indoor and outdoor national meets. On the womens side, Courtney Fegter set a new school record during the outdoor season. The 2014 season brought even more success. Seeba again qualified for both the NCAA indoor and outdoor meets and was joined at the indoor championships by Jay Kilpatrick and David Krumland. Next, true freshman Brooke Frederick set new indoor and outdoor schools records while falling just short of making it to nationals. Last year, five Loper vaulters were NCAA provisional qualifiers with the men and women combining for eight new marks in the UNK top 10. Entering 2015-16, the majority of the UNK top 10 in both men's and women's pole vault have been coached by Polacek.   Polacek retired from public education in 2012 after a career as an administrator, teacher, and coach. He has also served as a committee member for the Nebraska School Activities Association.   As a track & field coach at Newcastle High School, he coached athletes to 20 state titles and 12 state runner-up finishes. On four occasions, his team came home with the state runner-up trophy.   Polacek went on to be the Activities Director at Holdrege High School before wrapping up his career in education as a teacher and coach at Horizon Middle School in Kearney.   Polaceks wife, Shawn, also works in education. Their son, Nate, was an All-American pole vaulter for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln track team along with being a CoSIDA Academic All-American.

Alma Mater: University of Nebraska-Kearney (B.A. 2010) Experience: 14th Year at UNK Coaching Career 2012-Present: Nebraska-Kearney (throws)   Coaching Highlights Coached 21 All-Americans Coached 1 D2 National Champion Coached D2 Top 10 Performance Coached 52 national qualifiers Coached 7 conference champions Coached 32 conference medalists Coached 8 school-record holders Coached 2 event squads that were ranked #1 in D2 nationally (2019 shot put, 2024 javelin) Coached 44 USTFCCCA All-Academic award winners   Throwing Career Highlights Won D2 national title (shot put) Earned 8 individual All-American awards (most in UNK history, all Top-4 finishes) Named D2 field event athlete-of-the-year Competed in USATF Outdoor Championships (2010, shot put) Established 3 UNK school records USTFCCCA All-Academic award winner Led UNK to programs first RMAC outdoor championships by scoring in all 4 throwing events   Personal Married to Jessi (Vasquez) Tobey Coaches his children, Traxton, Blakely, Cooper, Landri and Ripken in a variety of youth sports Coached the Kearney Little League baseball team to 3 consecutive state championships Graduated from Utica-Centennial H.S. in Nebraska