Colorado State University head coach Brian Bedard was named the United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association’s (USTFCCCA) Women’s Coach of the Year in the Mountain Region.
His team had an outstanding 2015 season. The team broke five school records during the outdoor season. This included high marks for underclassmen, a good sign that this is just the beginning of greatness the team will have under Bedard’s leadership. This was his ninth year with the program.
This was CSU’s first women’s league title since 2008. Bedard has also earned his second Mountain West Coach of the Year award. This, combined with the men’s team championship and another coach of the year nomination, was Colorado State’s first program sweep at the Mountain West in the school’s history.
With nine individual title winners in six events, a program record, the Rams compiled 14 all-conference awards at the outdoor championship.
The women were absolutely phenomenal at the Mountain West Championships. They won the shot put, discus, hammer, and javelin. This was the first time ever a school swept the throwing events at the outdoor championships.
Kiah Hicks, who is a senior, will be competing in two events later this week at the NCAA Championships. She won both the discus and hammer throws. She was the first CSU athlete to win both of those events since Loree Smith accomplished the same feat in 2005.
Bedard will be coaching Hicks and sophomore Aaliyah Pete in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The event will be starting on Wednesday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. The Rams will begin their competition at 2:30 p.m. MT with the hammer throw.
