University of Nevada - Reno Women's Track

Twiggs is entering her 12th season as head coach for the Nevada Wolf Pack. She also oversees the sprinters in the program. Since taking over the program in 2004-05, Twiggs has seen a continuously improved level of performance by Wolf Pack student-athletes every season. During the program's second year in the Mountain West, six of Twiggs' student-athletes received all-conference selections and three went on to compete in NCAA Regionals. Twiggs' 2014-15 indoor season saw sprinters make their mark on the school's all-time list, with Katherine Surin's second in the 400 meter dash being the highest. Six more made it onto the list in the outdoor season, as Twiggs' coaching Suring to a school record in the 400 meter dash. Two more sprinters qualified for the NCAA preliminary rounds under Twiggs' leadership. Twiggs guided the group to a third place finish at the Mountain West Indoor Championships in the team's first year in the conference. Twiggs led the team's 4x100 relay squad to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Seven seasons ago, Twiggs led the outdoor track team to a second place finish at the WAC Outdoor Championships and was named Co-Coach of the Year. Hurdler Analisa Serrano became the second fastest 100m hurdler in school history while sprinter Polly Smith ended her career with the third best time in the 400m running 1:00.18. Twiggs brings an enormous amount of energy into every situation. She has created a team that thrives on stepping up in big meet situations. She has established a family atmosphere where athletes have support on and off the track. The success of Nevada Track and Field isn't just on the track. In 2008-09 alone, the team earned 39 WAC All-Academic awards, qualified eight student-athletes to the NCAA West Regional meet in 10 events. During the 2007-08 season, Twiggs coached four NCAA Regional Qualifiers and saw senior thrower Inger Appanaitis qualify for the NCAA National Championship and the Olympic Trials. Fourteen student-athletes during the season in both track and field and cross country earned a total of 26 All-WAC honors, including Appanaitis who was both the WAC Outdoor Javelin Champion and the Women's High Point winner at the Outdoor Championships. Twiggs led her 2007 outdoor team to a second-place finish at the WAC Championships and tied the program record for highest finish at the outdoor championships. In addition, the Pack won six medals at the outdoor championships. Since 2005, Nevada has seen 30 Regional Qualifiers, five qualifiers to Nationals and two All-Americans (Kali Baker, Indoor Mile; and Caira Hane, Outdoor Hammer). Prior to the start of the 2005-06 season, Twiggs collected an individual honor as she was named to the hall of fame at her alma mater, Northern Iowa. Twiggs came to Nevada from Northern Illinois where she spent three seasons resurrecting the Huskies' program. When Twiggs took over the program in the winter of 2000, the team had not competed in 18 years. Since that time, her athletes broke more than 14 school records. The 2003-04 season saw the school's first NCAA Mid-East Regional qualifiers when two Huskies finished 25 and 30th, respectively, in the shot put. One of those throwers, Ashley Morrow, was named to the All-Mid American Conference second team, also a first for the program. Before coaching at NIU, Twiggs was an assistant coach for three years at Northern Iowa. During her tenure at Northern Iowa, Twiggs coached the men's and women's sprinters to more than 10 school records and two dozen all-conference honors. In her final season, she coached five NCAA Division I qualifiers with one gaining All-America honors at the indoor track and field championships. Twiggs can also claim two Missouri Valley Conference Championships Athletes of the Meet on her coaching resume, as Marshall Frazier took home the award at the 2000 MVC indoor meet and Devon Davis nabbed the title at the 1999 outdoor competition. She also worked heavily in recruiting for the Panthers' program and assisted with the Northern Iowa cross country teams. Twiggs was an all-conference sprinter for the Panthers from 1990-94, earning All-MVC honors six times in her career. She also won All-America honors her senior season in the 200-meters and in the 55-meter dash in 1994 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Overall, she qualified for the NCAAs eight times with two provisional qualifying marks while at Northern Iowa and is the owner and co-owner of 13 school records. She has been a member of three U.S. National Teams (US vs. Great Britain, 1994; World Cup, 1994; and Pan Am Games, 1995) leading-off the gold medal 4x100-meter relay team at the Pan Am Games in 1995. She also won gold and bronze medals at the 1994 Olympic Festival as the anchor leg of the 4x100-meter relay team and the 200-meters, respectively. Twiggs received her Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and marketing from Northern Iowa in 1995. After graduation, she worked as an assistant track coach and substitute teacher for the Ferguson-Florissant School District in Berkeley, Mo., before returning to her alma mater in 1997. She is a member of both the US Track Coaches Association of America (USTCA) and USA Track & Field.

Elias brings more than 35 years of experience as he enters his 11th season as the head cross country coach and his 12th season as the assistant track coach for Nevada. Under his direction, the Wolf Pack cross country team saw significant improvement in the 2015-16 season and the track & field team's distance runners have been record-setting fast. Elias' Division-I coaching experience is extensive, and includes stints at Minnesota, Texas Tech, Arkansas-Little Rock and Nevada. Since arriving at Nevada, Elias has coached 13 All-WAC cross country selections, including eight first-team selections, and two WAC Cross Country Freshman of the Year honorees. Since moving to the Mountain West, the cross country team has seen four all-conference team honors, including a first team, as well as a freshman of the year. The Wolf Pack cross country team posted four consecutive top-three finishes at the WAC Cross Country Championships under Elias' direction, and the track team's distance corps has routinely turned in impressive performances, logging several top-five performances at the conference level since entering the Mountain West. The 2008-09 squad recorded first place finishes in the 1,500-meter, 3,000-meter steeplechase, 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter races at the outdoor championships. Elias entered the Division-I coaching scene in 1985 as an assistant at Minnesota, where he coached All-America and All-Big 10 selection, Gretchen Otto. In eight seasons with the Golden Gophers, Elias coached sprints, hurdles, jumps and multi-events. He also founded a club team for post-collegiate distance runners, where he coached Leslie Seymour who went on to make five World Championships for the USA. As an assistant at Texas Tech, Elias coached the cross country team to its then-highest finish ever at the NCAA District Championships. He is credited with recruiting and coaching two individual national qualifiers in the 1996-97 season, the university's first women to reach nationals since 1984 in cross country and 1985 in track. Elias' student-athletes set 12 school records during his four seasons with the Red Raiders. At Arkansas-Little Rock, Elias led the Trojans to four conference cross country titles in 2001 and 2002 - two women's and two men's - the first in the school's history. He also earned four Sunbelt Conference Cross Country Coach of the Year awards during his tenure. Elias' track athletes at UALR were equally accomplished. He coached All-America selections from the men's and women's teams, and saw his 2002-03 and 2003-04 squads earn national All-Academic honors. Elias is one of just a handful of coaches to lead a team at the high school, NAIA, Division-III, Division-II, Division-I and international levels. Equally important is his wide-range of experience coaching across the sprint, hurdle, jump, multi-events, middle and long distance events. Elias earned a Bachelors of Science in secondary education with an emphasis in speech and a minor in English from the University of Minnesota in 1978.

Williamson also directs all non-distance recruiting efforts. Williamson's group saw an incredibly and nationally recognized performance in the indoor and outdoor seasons of 2015-16. Following a phenomenal performance at the 2016 Mountain West Indoor Championships, Williamson's high jump group sky rocketed to 10th in the country among all Division I schools. Included in that group was a third place performance by junior Leah Carter. The biggest performance of the indoor season came when senior Nicole Wadden snagged gold in the pentathlon, setting new personal records in several of the events and a school record for the pent. In the outdoor season, Williamson saw two javelin throwers in Raffaela Wiesbeck and Katia Coquis Lossio move up the all-time list, a major feat considering the level of throws on the list. Williamson's shot putter also steadily moved up the list in both the indoor and outdoor season to cement their legacy in Nevada history. The strong season for Williamson's group was capped off by sending five to the NCAA West Region preliminary round. Williamson coached several athletes to success during the 2014-15 season, including new school records, all-time list debuts and NCAA qualifying athletes. Under his coaching, Alison Powers tied the indoor pole vault record and broke the outdoor record by two inches. Nicole Wadden (High jump, pentathelon), Kinsey Minter (High Jump) and Anna Dubois (Shot put) all made appearances on the indoor top-10, with Wadden making the biggest mark at fourth in the pentathelon. Williamson also coached Wadden, Minter, Dubois and discus-thrower Tara Park to spots on the outdoor all-time list. Powers, Minter, and javelin-tossers Ali Zunino and Katia Coquis all qualified for NCAAs in the season all well. Perhaps Williamson's most impressive accomplishment, however, was when Coquis received first in the javelin toss at the Spanish Junior National Championships. Williamson coached three student-athletes to all-conference honors during the 2013-14 indoor and outdoor track & field seasons. In 2013, Williamson's student-athletes would go on to break two school records and win two Mountain West Outdoor Titles with marks among the best in the history of the conference. La Tijera Avery would follow up her senior indoor season by winning the outdoor crown in the high jump, finishing with a Top-15 West Region Ranking, setting a school record, and earning a berth to the NCAA Preliminary Round. Kerri Simmons finished her junior season with a conference championship, a school record, and a berth to the NCAA First Round. Williamson also developed two freshmen, Nicole Wadden and Shannon Forman, into Nevada All-Time Top-Ten performers in the pentathlon, and also coached Kennedy Hall onto the Nevada All-Time Top-Ten list for the shot put. He made an immediate impact as a member of the coaching staff in his first season, coaching La Tijera Avery to All-American status after she won a WAC indoor high jump title. Under Williamson's tutelage she would go on to compete at the NCAA Indoor National Championships and receive 2nd Team All-American recognition after finishing in the top 16 in the Nation. Coach Williamson also coached two athletes, April Pate and Alexa Anderson, to All-Conference performances. He saw an additional three athletes improve their performances to advance to the NCAA Preliminary Round as Nicole Williams went on to compete in high jump, and Danielle Stallworth and Sarah Nichols advanced to compete in the javelin. Prior to Nevada, Williamson spent six years as the head cross country and track and field coach at Nicholls State University. During his time at Nicholls State he led the 2010 cross country team to its first ever regional ranking, and coached the 2011 indoor and outdoor track and field teams to their highest conference finishes in school history. He recruited and coached 62 school record holders, two NCAA Championship qualifiers, 11 Southland Conference Champions, and 23 All-Southland Conference performers. In addition to his teams' athletic success, the academic performance record rate jumped from 843 to 967 during his tenure. Williamson began his coaching career as a volunteer coach for sprints and hurdles at the University of Iowa before being hired to take over sprints and hurdles at Emporia State University. He earned a double-major bachelor's degree in health, leisure, and physical studies and psychology in May of 2002 from the University of Iowa, and earned his master's in education from Emporia State in May of 2005. "We are very lucky to have Scott as a member of our staff," Head Coach Shantel Twiggs said, "He brings a wealth of knowledge and a passion for track and field to the Wolf Pack. He is amazing at developing talent, and when you look at his teams, everyone he has worked with has seen improvement."