Brent Ericksen assumed the leadership of the Portland State track & field and cross country programs on Aug. 10, 2015, and enters his third year at the helm for the 2017-18 season.
The Portland State cross country teams had some of their best seasons ever in their second year under Ericksen in 2016. Ericksen helped Sarah Medved earn All-Big Sky honors with a 10th-place finish at the Big Sky meet, making her the second runner in as many seasons under Ericksen to earn All-Big Sky honors, after the Vikings had only earned four All-Big Sky honors in 19 seasons before Ericksen arrived. Additionally, Alex Cisneros tied the highest finish ever by a Viking men's runner at the Big Sky meet, and later broke the school record in the cross country 10k at the NCAA West Regional. Cisneros set the 10k record at 30:29.8, breaking a 13-year-old school record by 37 seconds.
Ericksen, meanwhile, guided Genna Settle to one of the best individual track & field seasons in program history in 2017. Settle swept the indoor 60-, indoor 200-, outdoor 100- and outdoor 200-meter Big Sky titles, making her just the second Viking to ever win four conference titles in a single year. Additionally, Settle became just the third athlete ever in the history of the Big Sky Conference to sweep the four sprint titles, joining former Viking Jernise Saunders and Eastern Washington's Joyce Rainwater, who did it previously in 2009 and 1994, respectively.
Settle won the indoor 200-meter title while breaking the school, championship and conference records with her time of 23.75 seconds. Settle beat the record former Viking and world outdoor qualifier Karene King originally set at 23.77 seconds in 2012.
Besides Settle, Ericksen led Akayla Anderson to second-place finishes in the indoor 60-meter hurdles and outdoor 100-meter hurdles in 2017, and led Donté Robinson to second-place finishes in the indoor heptathlon and outdoor decathlon. Additionally, Ben Richardson overcame an injury at the end of the indoor season to place third in the outdoor 800 meters, giving him his third all-conference honor in Ericksen's tenure.
Ericksen also led the Vikings to several individual successes in his first year at the helm in 2015-16, including multiple historic accomplishments. The Vikings won five Big Sky titles between the indoor and outdoor seasons, while the Vikings earned 19 All-Big Sky honors (1 cross country; 9 indoor; 9 outdoor), broke four school records, tied a Big Sky Championship meet record and had five athletes qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in 2015-16.
Genna Settle qualified for the NCAA West prelims in the 100 and 200 meters, becoming just the fifth athlete to qualify for both events in the same season. Additionally, Settle nearly pulled out the 100-200 title sweep at the Big Sky outdoor meet, as she won the 100 and came within a hundredth of a second of winning the 200 as well. Settle won the 100 in 11.46 seconds, tying the Big Sky Championship meet record in the event and moving her up to third all-time at Portland State. Settle then broke the school record with her second-place finish in the 200 meters, finishing in 23.42 seconds to break the record former world outdoor qualifier Karene King set at 23.46 seconds in 2011.
ChaQuinn Cook, meanwhile, became just the second Viking ever to sweep the Big Sky indoor and outdoor titles in the triple jump, as well as the first freshman ever to do so, and qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in the triple jump. Cook also hit the USATF Junior Outdoor Championship qualifying mark in the triple jump on the back of her Big Sky-winning mark of 41-02.50 (12.56m).
Amanda Boman also had a banner year in the distances, qualifying for the NCAA West prelims in the 10,000 meters, while also earning All-Big Sky honors in cross country and in the outdoor 5,000 meters. Boman’s All-Big Sky honors in cross country made her just the second Viking to earn All-Big Sky honors in cross country since 1999, joining Sarah Dean in 2013. Boman’s all-conference honors in the 5,000 meters also marked the longest distance at which any Viking had earned All-Big Sky honors, as she placed second in the event.
Additionally, Spenser Schmidt broke out on the men’s side in his first season under Ericksen, as he won the Big Sky title in the men’s indoor long jump, and then followed it up with a second-place finish in the outdoor long jump. Schmidt was also the Vikings’ one men’s qualifier for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, becoming the Vikings’ first male athlete to qualify for the regional meet since 2012.
Ericksen came to the Vikings as a two-time national championship-winning coach as well as a two-time national coach of the year.
Ericksen won his first national coach of the year honor in 2007 after leading the University of Wisconsin La Crosse men’s team to the NCAA Division III outdoor track & field national championship. Ericksen’s team won the 2007 title by a record margin of 65 points, and finished as the national indoor runners-up during the same year.
Ericksen won his second national title and national coach of the year honor at Southern Oregon in 2010, when he led the Raiders’ men’s cross country team to the NAIA national championship. Ericksen’s women’s cross country team also placed seventh nationally in 2010, giving Southern Oregon the combined team title as well.
Additionally, Ericksen served as the sprints and hurdles coach for the country of Estonia at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Ericksen has proven himself as a program builder at his various coaching stops, starting with his first head coaching job at the University of Texas A&M-Kingsville. Ericksen took over a program that had only eight men and five women in 2000 and turned it into a program that placed in the top 10 nationally in five of the next six seasons, and produced 77 NCAA Division II All-Americans and 10 NCAA Division II national champions by the time he left in 2006.
Ericksen faced a similar situation when he took over the Southern Oregon track & field and cross country programs in 2008. Given only one scholarship per gender, Ericksen grew the SOU programs from a low of 16 members in 2008 to 80 members by the time he left in 2011.
Ericksen turned the Raiders around nearly instantaneously, as he took the 2008 Southern Oregon men’s cross country team that was picked to finish fourth in its conference and led them to a fourth-place finish in the nation.
Ericksen also led the Morehead State men’s and women’s cross country teams to their highest finishes in program history, and saw his athletes set 15 new outdoor track records during his tenure from 2011-14. Ericksen led a turnaround academically at Morehead State as well, as his men’s track & field team improved from a 2.42 GPA to a 3.50 GPA in his time at the school, while his women’s team posted the fifth-highest team GPA in NCAA Division I track & field. Additionally, nine of Ericksen’s athletes at Morehead State posted a 4.0 during the 2014 spring semester.
Ericksen’s time at Morehead State was his second foray into Division I athletes, as he also served as the associate head coach of cross country and track & field at Texas A&M Corpus Christi from 2007-08. There, Ericksen coached Shadrack Songok to the NCAA outdoor 10,000-meter title, and to a seventh-place overall finish at the 2007 NCAA cross country national championships.
Most recently at Pacific for the 2014-15 season, Ericksen oversaw 16 new school records in his one season with the Boxers, and coached the first athlete in Northwest Conference history to win all three jumping events at the conference championships. Ericksen also produced Pacific’s first men’s individual conference cross country champion in 38 years in the fall.
Overall, Ericksen has coached 16 national champions and 141 All-Americans across all levels of his 16-year collegiate coaching career, and earned a total of 11 coach of the year honors.
COACH ERICKSEN’S PROFILE
Coaching experience
• Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Pacific University, 2014-15
• Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Morehead State University, 2011-14
• Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Southern Oregon University, 2008-11
• Associate Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 2007-08
• Head Men’s Track & Field Coach, University of Wisconsin La Crosse, 2006-07
• Head Men’s & Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, University of Texas A&M-Kingsville, 2000-06
• Assistant Coach, sprints and hurdles, Estonia, 2004 Athens Olympics
Coaching highlights
At PSU:
• 9 Big Sky titles between indoor and outdoor track
• 29 All-Big Sky honors (2 cross country; 13 indoor track; 14 outdoor track)
• 10 school records broken or tied
• 2 Big Sky meet record broken
• 1 Big Sky Conference record broken
• 7 NCAA West Preliminary Rounds qualifiers
Before PSU:
• Two-time national champion (2007 NCAA Division II outdoor track & field with Wisconsin La Crosse; 2010 NAIA cross country with Southern Oregon)
• Two-time national coach of the year
• 141 all-americans coached
• 16 national champions
• 11 total coach of the year honors
