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. Mendes comes to Cornell from Bucknell (2021), where she coached the jumps and multi-events. She was the program's academic coordinator and the community service liaison. Prior to her stint at Bucknell, Mendes served in similar roles at Duke (2020-21) and her alma mater, New Hampshire (2018-20). At Duke, she helped the Blue Devils to the ACC outdoor title. Coaching the jumps, she had four athletes post top four all-time marks in school history and qualify for the NCAA East Preliminary Round. During her time at New Hampshire, her student-athletes set five individual school records and won IC4A and America East titles. Track athletes also won an NCAA title in the women's mile and were All-Americans in three other events. Mendes spent three seasons as head coach at Merrimack College (2014-17), overseeing all aspects of the program. She assisted in the development of a six-time national champion, 12-time All-American and Olympic Trials runner. Her time there also resulted in All-Americans in the 4x400 relay in two straight seasons, as well as in the heptathlon and decathlon. As a student-athlete at the University of New Hampshire, Mendes was a four-year letter winner