Ursinus College Men's Track & Field

Derek Nelson took over as the Head Coach of men’s and women’s track and field in July 2025. Prior to Ursinus College, Nelson spent 7 seasons in Atlanta, Ga. coaching at Emory University.  In his first year at Emory University, he served as the interim head coach, where he won the 2019 USTFCCCA South/Southeast Region outdoor head coach of the year award for women’s track and field. His women’s program finished 7th at the outdoor NCAA championship, had the national champion in the 400m hurdles, runner up in the 100m, and 5 other All-Americans.  In the following six seasons Coach Nelson coached one National Champion, 16 All-Americans, 31 UAA event champions, 9 UAA Performer of the Year Awards. In his final season at Emory the men’s team won the outdoor UAA championship.  Nelson was named the USTFCCCA women’s outdoor assistant coach of the year three consecutive times from 2023-2025. From 2016-2018, Nelson served as a volunteer assistant at the University of Illinois where we worked with the sprinters, jumpers, and hurdlers.  He helped mentor five All-America performers, 12 NCAA Regional qualifiers, three Big Ten champions and a dozen All-Big Ten honorees. Prior to his stint at Illinois, Nelson spent one season on the coaching staff at North Central College, where he oversaw the instruction of sprinters, hurdlers, javelin and multis across the men's and women's programs.  In 2016 he played a key role in guiding four individual athletes and two relays to the NCAA D-III Championships.  From that group came the National Champion in the women's indoor 60-meter hurdles, the runner-up in the 100 hurdles, and a total of five All-America awards.    Nelson was born in Davis, California and started his collegiate career at Ripon College (WI) where he played football and was a national qualifier in the 400m hurdles. After transferring to North Central College (IL) he qualified for six NCAA championship meets and was a three time All-American.  In 2014 Nelson earned his bachelor's degree in Sports Managment, and in 2016 earned his master's degree in leadership of Higher Education Administration. Nelson holds the USTFCCCA jumps specialist and strength and conditioning certifications.  

Nickie Annelli joined the Ursinus College track and field staff in 2024 where she coaches the pole vault, high jump, and combined events.  In her first season on staff, Coach Annelli found immediate success mentoring first year Mitchell Davis to All-America accolades indoors and outdoors. Nickie came to Ursinus after several years of coaching between Methacton High School  Philly Jumps Club. At PJC she worked with a broad range of athletes competing at the middle school, high school, collegiate and professional level.  She is also a certified strength and conditioning coach. As a collegiate athlete at East Stroudsburg University, Annelli competed in the pole vault where she was a 7-time All-PSAC performer. She still holds the indoor and outdoor pole vault records.  

Doug Mason joined the Ursinus College coaching staff in September 2024 working with men’s and women’s jumpers and hurdlers.  In his first season he saw athletes in his event area garner two All-America awards, set three school records and coached the Centennial Conference outdoor championship women’s most outstanding performer of the meet.   Before joining the Bears in Collegeville, Coach Mason spent 21 years coaching at Haverford College. He was with men’s sprints, jumps, hurdles from 1988-1995 then took over the same duties for the women’s team from 1995-2019.  Coach Mason was apart of nine Centennial Conference Championship teams during his time at Haverford. He mentored athletes to 8 All-America awards, 23 individual indoor conference champions, 24 Indvidual outdoor champions, and twice was the recipient of the USTFCCCA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year award. Following his career with Haverford College, he joined the coaching staff at Villa Maria Academy High School for five seasons and coached a championship finalist in the long jump.  As an athlete, Coach Mason competed at Haverford College where he was team captain and holds records in the 55m and 110m hurdle events. He graduated with a degree in Economics.  Coach Mason is USATF Level 2 certified coach in the sprints & hurdles.