Beathea Names Coaching Staff for 2023-24
7/21/2023 4:00:00 PM | Cross Country, Track and Field
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Ed Beathea named his coaching staff for the 2023-24 season, his first season in charge of the program.
Jake Wiseman, Mike Erb, Andrew Poore and Warren Bye will remain on the staff while Eric Heins, Valerie Brown and Megan Tomei join the program in Bloomington.
"I am pleased to be working with all of these outstanding individuals," Beathea said. "All of them bring an abundance of knowledge and experience to the program. We all share a similar vision of what the program can be and how to achieve it. We are excited to start developing our students both on and off the track."
All staff members will begin their positions immediately ahead of the new school year.
Eric Heins
Head Cross Country Coach/Associate Head Coach – Distance
As announced previously in May, 27-time conference coach of the year and 2016 NCAA DI Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year, Eric Heins will take over as head coach for the Indiana Cross Country teams and serve as Associate Head Coach for Distance in Track and Field.
Most recently the Cross Country coach at the University of Louisville, Heins led Northern Arizona to the 2016 NCAA Men's Cross Country title while helping to build the Lumberjacks into a national powerhouse.
Heins, a Cross Country National Champion himself, has coached 64 conference champions, 14 All-Americans, two national champions and one Olympian. David McNeill did the indoor/outdoor double at 5000 meters in 2010 to give Heins his first individual NCAA champion.
Jake Wiseman
Associate Head Coach – Pole Vault, Multis
The longest-tenured member of IU's coaching staff, Wiseman will begin his 19th-consecutive season as a coach for the Hoosiers in 2023. He will be one of two Associate Head Coaches for the Hoosiers in 2023.
After a successful career as a decathlete for the Hoosiers, Wiseman joined the program's coaching staff. He will continue to oversee the development of IU's pole vaulters and multi-athletes.
He has seen nine different athletes qualify for the national meet and has coached 15 Big Ten Champions, 18 All-Big Ten honorees, one Big Ten Freshman of the Year and one Great Lakes Region Athlete of the Year.
IU has won four of the past five Big Ten indoor titles in the men's pole vault and have won three Big Ten outdoor titles on the women's side since 2016.
Andrew Poore
Assistant Coach – Distance/Recruiting Coordinator – Distance
A seven-time All-American and two-time Big Ten Champion as an athlete for the Hoosiers, Poore will continue his role on the coaching staff under Beathea.
He will serve as the recruiting coordinator on the distance side while assistant Eric Heins with IU's Cross Country teams and Track and Field distance runners.
The 2023 campaign saw a handful of breakout runners under the guidance of Poore including first-year athlete Claire Overfelt. The Whiteland, Ind. native, who started as IU as a club runner, ran 34:00.24 in the 10,000 meters, moving into ninth in program history.
Alyssa Skorge ran 10:24.04 in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the Penn Relays to move up to eighth in the program's all-time list. Freshman Katelyn Winton finished fifth for IU in Cross Country at the conference meet in 2022 before making the Big Ten final indoors in the mile.
Poore will enter his 10th year with the program as a coach this season.
Mike Erb
Assistant Coach – Jumps
Erb, entering his 10th season with the Hoosiers, will continue his role as jumps coach in 2023.
Last year, he helped guide Paola Fernandez-Sola (outdoor long jump) and Hope Purcell (indoor pentathlon) to Big Ten titles while overseeing the development of a deep group of jumpers.
Leah Moran, coached by Erb, holds the program's indoor and outdoor triple jump records while Fernandez-Sola has the school's outdoor record.
Fernandez-Sola became the first woman in program history to earn All-American honors in the long jump both indoors and outdoors in the same season in 2023.
Erb has led seven different athletes to conference titles since 2017.
Valerie Brown
Assistant Coach – Sprints, Hurdles and Relays
Brown joins the Hoosiers after serving on the staff at Austin Peay since 2011. She was an associate head coach from 2014-19 before being named the program's head coach.
In four years at the helm of Austin Peay's program, Brown was named Coach of the Year in 2020 after leading the team to the 2020 ASUN conference championship.
Her role in Bloomington will see her assist Beathea with the team's sprinters, hurdlers and relays.
Since arriving to Clarksville, Austin Peay's sprinters have broken school records in the 60 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters and 4x400 relay (indoors) and 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 100 hurdles and 4x100 relay (outdoors).
She helped oversee the development of Kenisha Phillips, a five-time ASUN champion in the 400 meters. Phillips ran personal bests of 11.58 (100m), 23.28 (200m) and 52.44 (400m) while splitting 52.2 on anchor leg for Austin Peay's ASUN-title winning 4x400 relay team this past February.
Brown coached Breigh jones (PB: 52.65) to the 2014 OVC Outdoor Championship in the 400 meters and a bid to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene.
An outstanding sprinter in her own right, Brown finished third in the 400 meters at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships. She swept the Sun Belt titles in the 200 meters and 400 meters indoors in 2009 and won back-to-back conference titles in the 4x400 relay outdoors in 2007 and 2008.
Megan Tomei
Assistant Coach – Throws
After six seasons as the throws coach at Youngstown State, Tomei will move to Bloomington to join Beathea's staff.
While at Youngstown State, Tomei coached 26 Horizon League Champions in the throws including six in 2023. The Penguins won the conference's javelin title on both the men's and women's side at all four conference meets contested under Tomei.
Back-to-back Horizon League discus champion Zach Gehm advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas where he finished 17th, narrowly missing out on All-American honors.
The program's men's and women's discus records and men's javelin records at Youngstown State have all fallen under the guidance of Tomei.
Tomei competed collegiately at Ashland where she was a 15-time All-American and eight-time DII national qualifier while competing in the shot put, weight throw and hammer throw.
Warren Bye
Director of Operations/Recruiting Coordinator – Track
Bye will take over the role as Director of Operations for the Hoosiers while serving as a recruiting coordinator on the track side.
He served as a head coach at South Florida where he spent 13 years before a three-year stint at Louisville. Bye returned to his alma mater in 2022 and worked directly in coordinating team travel, team meals, gear orders and other day-to-day operations.
2023-24 Track and Field Staff
Ed Beathea: Director of Track and Field
Eric Heins: Head Cross Country Coach/Associate Head Coach - Distance
Jake Wiseman: Associate Head Coach – Pole Vault, Multis
Andrew Poore: Assistant Coach - Distance/Recruiting Coordinator - Distance
Mike Erb: Assistant Coach – Jumps
Valerie Brown: Assistant Coach – Sprints, Hurdles and Relays
Megan Tomei: Assistant Coach – Throws
Warren Bye: Director of Operations/Recruiting Coordinator – Track
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