Brondyke Promoted to Associate Head Coach

AMES, Iowa – Jeremy Sudbury has announced the promotion of Assistant Coach Kurtis Brondyke to Associate Head Coach. This comes after tremendous year-to-year growth in Brondyke's group since coming to Iowa State in 2022.

"Coach Brondyke has done a phenomenal job the past three years working alongside myself in a major role as we continue to build our program," Sudbury said. "The past three years have had some historic moments and he's been instrumental in that success.

His leadership and coaching style has not only led to many athletes in his event group excelling at the conference and national level but has also become infectious throughout the whole program seeing many athletes from every event group achieve. I look forward to working with Coach Brondyke as we continue to grow as coaches and find new ways to be competitive at the highest level in the Big 12 and the NCAA."

Brondyke along with his wife Assistant Coach Alex Gochenour-Brondyke are responsible for coaching sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers and multi-event student-athletes and took the group to new heights last season. In Brondyke's three seasons, his student-athletes have earned NCAA and Big 12 titles, five All-America honors and 27 individual All-Big 12 placements. In his first year, Brondyke built the multi-event program from scratch after Iowa State did not have multis 2018-21.

One of those foundational pieces from 2022 was eventual national champ Sydney Willits who came in with no multi-event experience and under Brondyke's guidance developed into one of the best Iowa State has seen. Willits has earned seven All-Big 12 honors throughout multi-events and the long jump while taking down the indoor long jump and pentathlon school records. She totals six top 10 program performances with four ranked at No. 1 or No. 2.

The long jump specialist kept progressing on her way to the 2024 NCAA indoor long jump title, Iowa State's first national title in the event. Three-time All-American Willits was honored as the 2024 USTFCCCA Women's Field Region Indoor Athlete of the Year and the Iowa State Female Athlete of the Year and qualified for Olympic Trials.

Joining Willits in making history was Rachel Joseph who broke the 400m record in her first race as a Cyclone in the 2023 indoor season. In two seasons Joseph has taken down five school records with three of them being individual, including setting or resetting the indoor and outdoor 400m records five times each. As a sophomore, Joseph became the first Cyclone woman to earn indoor 400m All-America honors and continued on to punch her ticket for outdoor nationals with a time that qualified the sprinter for Olympic Trials. At Trials, Joseph hit the Olympic Standard twice and came one spot short of making the nine-person final.

Brondyke's coaching career began at Central Missouri where he coached his student-athletes to 25 All-America honors including three national titles. As an athlete himself, Brondyke solidified four top 10 finishes through USATF National Championships. Brondyke competed collegiately at Central College and took the 2011 DIII national title in the pentathlon and earned four All-America honors.

"Iowa State is a special place," Brondyke said. "After three full seasons here I have been fortunate to be a part of amazing team and individual performances and experiences. It is clear to me that what makes this place spectacular is the people involved at every level. I am honored and blessed to be able to take the next step in my coaching journey as we continue to share the Iowa State story with current and future Cyclones.

The Brondyke's era at Iowa State is just getting started. We are here to redefine everything people assume about this program. Thank you for this opportunity and trusting me with carrying this torch."