Abilene Christian University Women's Track & Field

On June 11, 2024, Miles Smith became the 22nd head coach of ACU's storied track and field program looking to build a culture inspired by his collegiate h...

Anthony Acklin joined the Track & Field staff at ACU in July, 2024, coaching sprints, hurdles, and the combined event athletes, as well as overseeing Graduate Assistant Wayne Northover in the jumps. Acklin came to ACU with 15 years of coaching experience, including five at the Power Four level. Acklin immediately had an impact in the 2024-2025 T&F season. ACU had two conference champions in 2025 (Ja’Dasia Sims in the indoor high jump and Canaan Fairley in the decathlon), with Canaan being coached by Acklin and Ja’Dasia being coached by graduate assistant Wayne Northover, under Acklin’s oversight. ACU also had several conference top-3 finishers coached by Acklin – Miguel Hall, 2nd place in the 60 hurdles; Canaan Fairley, 3rd place in the indoor heptathlon; Luize Velmere, 3rd in the indoor triple jump and 2nd in the outdoor triple jump; Kenan Reil, 3rd in the 400 hurdles; JaDasia Sims, 2nd in the outdoor high jump, and Natalie Poe, 3rd in the outdoor heptathlon. Both athletes who qualified for the West First Round meet in College Station – Ja’Dasia Sims and Luize Velmere - were coached by Graduate Assistant Wayne Northover, under Acklin’s oversight. Prior to ACU, Acklin was associate head coach at Western Kentucky University for three seasons. In his time at WKU, he sent multiple athletes to the Conference USA Championship, with one podium placement. One of his sprinters was also named CUSA's Newcomer of the Year. Before WKU, Acklin made his coaching mark at Ole Miss. He sent 1

Nathan Meeuwenberg arrived at Abilene Christian as the Distance T&F/Cross Country Coach in the summer of 2023, after a highly decorated stint at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, a member of the NCAA D-II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC). The 2024-25 XC/T&F seasons saw a big improvement for the distance program after a strong recruiting class. The women’s XC team placed 7th in the WAC XC Championship, with freshman Audrey Chitwood leading the way with a 31st place finish. The men’s XC team moved up three places in the WAC Championship team race to 5th place, with freshman Andruw Villa picking up a All-Conference spot by finishing 10th in the field. On the indoors oval, improvement continued as the men’s races saw several scoring places, with Cooper Goggans picking up a 3rd place finish in the 800; freshman Andruw Villa finishing 4th in the 5000 run, followed closely by Kevin Castruita in 6th place; and a 3rd place distance medley relay included freshmen Vincent Luffey and Mark Barajas, along with sophomore transfer Landon Gary and junior JP Trook. In the mile, Vincent Luffey made the finals, but finished just outside the points in 9th place. For the Wildcat women, Jess Reyes finished 4th in the 800 and a freshmen-laden distance relay, composed of freshmen Gracee Whitaker, Jalyn Childers and Audrey Chitwood, joined by senior Ja’Kaylon Record finished in 8th place. Athletes coached by Meeuwenberg also showed very well at the WAC Outdoor Championship. The women’s

Nathan Ott enters his first season as Abilene Christian's throws coach for the 2025-26 season. Immediately before joining ACU, Ott spent three years as the Assistant Coach for Throws at Penn State. During his coaching career, Ott has coached All-Americans in each of the throwing events – indoors and outdoors. In his three years at Penn State, Ott mentored a pair of First Team All-Americans (Mallory Kauffman and Tyler Merkley) and coached athletes who broke three school records. During his time at Penn State, Ott coached throwers to 17 All-Big 10 spots. Coach Ott has also had tremendous success with throwers in the post-collegiate world. These throwers include Brooke Andersen (2 nd in the U.S.A. championships hammer throw last month and the 2022 World Champion in the hammer), Nayoka Clunis (Jamaican national hammer throw champ), Beatrice Llano (Norwegian national hammer throw champ and a 2024 Olympian), and Stamatia Scarvelis (Greek national hammer throw champ and 2024 Olympian). When Clunis qualified for the 2023 World Championships 2023, she became the first Jamaican in history to go to the championships in that event. Before Penn State, Ott spent a season at former WAC foe Grand Canyon University, where he coached Israel Oloyede to the best collegiate hammer throw of the year (sixth-best of all-time) to take fifth place at the USATF Championships. Ott coached Oloyede to a second-team All-American selection and a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Champions

Wayne Northover joined ACU Track & Field prior to the 2026 indoor and outdoor seasons. As a Graduate Assistant, Wayne worked directly with the jumpers un...