University of Wisconsin, La Crosse Women's Track & Field

Julianne Merkes begins her eighth season as assistant coach for the UW-La Crosse women’s track & field team in 2025-26.  The Eagles captured their 13th consecutive Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) outdoor title in 2025 with Ella Puls winning the league championship and Gabby Johnson finishing third in the javelin throw. Jadyn Roden placed third in the discus throw.  UWL won its fifth straight WIAC indoor crown in 2025 as Madilyn Vander Sanden won the league crown in the shot put At the 2024 outdoor conference championships, UWL's Johnson was second in the javelin throw and Izzy Carroll third in the shot put.  Carroll earned National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Outdoor All-America honors in 2024 with a fifth-place finish in the hammer throw as UWL placed second overall.  Carroll captured the shot put crown at the 2024 indoor league championships. Vander Sanden was second in the shot put while Alexys Scheuerell placed third in the weight throw. The Eagles finished 12th at the 2024 NCAA III Indoor Championships.  Merkes has been a member of UWL's staff in earning the, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 WIAC Indoor and Outdoor Coaching of the Year Awards. She was also a member of the 2020 WIAC Indoor and 2021 WIAC Outdoor Coaching Staff of the Year.  UWL swept the 2023 NCAA Division III Indoor and Outdoor Championships. The team secured 18 All-America honors at the indoor championships and 20 at the outdoor championships. The Eagles placed second at the 2022 NCAA Division III Indoor and Outdoor Championships. UWL earned 16 All-America honors at each of the championships. UWL was second at the 2021 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships, its best finish since placing second in 1997. UWL earned 17 All-America accolades at the 2021 national meet. Merkes was a member of the UWL women’s track & field team from 2011-15.  She placed sixth (2014) and seventh (2015) in the hammer throw at the WIAC championships.  During the 2014-15 season, Merkes was a team captain and earned various recognitions including UWL Scholar-Athlete, WIAC All-Sportsmanship Team, and U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic Team. She served as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council for both UWL and the WIAC. Merkes graduated with honors from UWL in 2015 with bachelor’s degree in biology.  After college, she worked at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as a technical specialist for the Genomics laboratory.  She is currently working on her Master’s in Clinical Microbiology at UWL.

McKenzi Schornack is in her second year as UWL's Director of Athletic Training Services in 2025-26 after serving as the Eagles' Interim Director of Athletic Training Services during the 2023-24 season. Schornack is in her eighth year at UWL, serving as an athletic trainer I from 2018-21 and staff athletic trainer from 2021-23. She worked as head trainer for football and gymnastics this season. Along with football and gymnastics, Schornack has worked with volleyball, women's and men's outdoor track & field and baseball at UWL.   She served as a preceptor in the UWL undergraduate and master's Athletic Training Program.  Schornack has provided athletic training services for UWL camps, including soccer, gymnastics, basketball, softball and baseball.  She assisted in creating policies and procedures for athletic training services for camps and provided athletic training services for UWL's competitive sport club teams.   Prior to arriving at UWL, Schornack worked as the assistant health services supervisor/athletic trainer for UW Badger Sports Camps in summer 2019.  She worked as an athletic trainer for SSM Health/St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo, Wisconsin from 2016-18 and UW-Madison/University Health Services in 2017-18.  Schornack has been an independent contracted athletic trainer for Reedsburg (Wis.) Area Medical Center as well as events such as the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) State Track & Field Championships, World Wrestling Camp (Wisconsin Dells, Wis.), the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships and the WIAC Golf Championships.  Schornack earned her bachelor's degree in athletic training from UWL in 2016 and master's degree in Kinesiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2018.  She was a teaching assistant in UWL's Department of Exercise Sport Science and University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Kinesiology.  Schornack completed an internship with Gundersen Health System in 2015, providing athletic training services for the La Crosse Loggers Baseball Organization.  She is a member of the NATA, GLATA and Wisconsin Athletic Trainers Association (WATA).  Schornack was a member of the UWL Athletic Trainers Association (UW-LATA) from 2012-16.  She served as historian (2014-15) and president (2015-16) of the UWL Chapter of Iota Tau Alpha Honor Society. 

Ryley Freiberg is in her fifth year as a staff athletic trainer at UW-La Crosse in 2025-26.  She came to UWL after working as the primary athletic trainer at Red Wing (Minn.) High School from 2019-21. Freiberg was responsible for communication with student-athletes, coaches, and medical providers while maintaining current medical records for all student-athletes.  She earned her bachelor's degree in athletic training from UW-Eau Claire in 2019 and is currently pursuing her master's degree in rehabilitation science and sport psychology from California University of Pennsylvania.  Freiberg is BOC Certified and member of the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice.

Kelsey Galles is in her fifth year as a staff athletic trainer at UW-La Crosse in 2025-26.  She arrived at UWL after serving as the athletic trainer at Everett Community College (Wash.) from 2017-21, responsible for coverage for all home games, traveling with teams for postseason tournaments, creating rehabiltation programs for injured student-athletes, communicating with the team physician, coaches and administration as well as documenting injuries.  Galles was an athletic training intern at Western Oregon University in 2016-17, primarily working with women's soccer, women's basketball and softball. She completed clinical rotations with the Arizona State University gymnastics team, Northern Arizona University football and volleyball teams and Flagstaff (Ariz.) High School.  She earned her bachelor's degree in exercise sport science from UWL in 2013 and master's degree in athletic training from Northern Arizona University in 2016. Galles was a member of UWL's gymnastics team, helping lead the Eagles to the 2010 National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) Championship.  Galles has been a member of the National Athletic Trainers' Association since 2016.