Jacky Mendes

Biography

Jacky Mendes joined the Big Red track and field staff as an assistant coach in 2021. Mendes has spent the past decade coaching at various levels of college track and field, bringing varied experiences to the Big Red staff and having specialized in working with the jumps and multi-events over the course of her career. She comes to Cornell from Bucknell (2021), where she coached the jumps and multi-events and served as the program's academic coordinator and community service liaison. Prior to Bucknell, Mendes served in similar roles at Duke (2020-21) and her alma mater, New Hampshire (2018-20), where her student-athletes set five individual school records and won IC4A and America East titles. At Duke, she helped the Blue Devils to the ACC outdoor title with four athletes posting top four all-time marks and qualifying for the NCAA East Preliminary Round. She spent three seasons as head coach at Merrimack College (2014-17), overseeing all aspects of the program and assisting in the development of a six-time national champion, 12-time All-American and Olympic Trials runner. As a student-athlete at the University of New Hampshire, Mendes was a four-year letter winner and team captain as a senior, setting a school record of 3,485 points in the pentathlon in 2011 that still stands.