Gustavus Adolphus College Women's Track & Field

Aaron Lund is in his seventh season as the head men's and women's track & field coach after taking the program over prior to the 2019-20 academic year. Lund has since coached the Gustavus women's track & field team to its first, second, and third MIAC Championships in 2022, 2023, and 2025 and coached a number of athletes to impressive performances. Lund came to Gustavus after serving as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Whittier College (Calif.) for three years. Lund coached the Gustavus women to back-to-back MIAC Outdoor Conference Championships in 2022 and 2023, and earned MIAC Women's Coach of the Year honors each year. During the 2025 season, Lund's team captured the MIAC Outdoor Conference Championship again, including five first-place finishes individually. Since 2019, Lund has coached 138 All-Conference performances and 22 All-America honors earned by eight athletes, including four national championships earned by Birgen Nelson (60-hurdles, 100-hurdles 2x) and Taylor Rooney (110-hurdles). Lund helped the Gustie women to their highest-ever finish in the DIII National Championships, placing fifth in 2022. A three-year captain and four-year student-athlete for the MSU-Moorhead track & field team from 2008-12, Lund was a two-time All-American as a part of the 4×400 relay team at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships. Lund also set the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) record in the 600-meters.

Billy Visto is in his eighth season working with the Gustavus track & field coaching staff in the 2024-25 academic year. Visto works primarily with the Gustie horizontal jumpers and serves as the girls long and triple jump coach at Mankato East High School. He joined the Gustavus track & field coaching staff in 2018 and has helped the Gustie women to their first two MIAC team championships in the outdoor season in 2022 and 2023. Visto has worked with numerous successful athletes, most recently All-American long jumper Megan Geraets, who became only the second-ever long jump All-American in Gustavus women's track & field history. A native of Oakes, N.D., Visto was a four-sport athlete at Oakes High School competing in soccer, football, basketball, and track and field. He attended the University of Minnesota-Morris where he majored in computer science and competed on the Cougar track and field team as a two-year captain. Visto provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the triple jump his senior season and still holds the school record in triple jump for both indoor and outdoor seasons. He was announced to the UMAC All-Decade Team in 2019 for his contributions with back-to-back UMAC Outdoor Championship team titles in 2010 and 2011. After graduating in 2011, Visto worked in Gustavus Technology Services as Lead Software Engineer and DevOps Engineer before joining the coaching staff. Billy currently lives in Mankato with his wife, Joy, their three kids, and their dog.

Brenden Huber is in his eighth season as the head men's and women's cross country coach after taking the program over prior to the 2017-18 season. Huber spent 10 years as an assistant for both the cross country and track & field programs, and also serves as the lead assistant for the track & field teams. Working with the track & field team in distance and mid-distance, Huber helped coach the women's team to its first and second MIAC Championships in 2022 and 2023. Last season, both the Gustavus men's and women's cross country teams took sixth. The season was highlighted by first-year Nick Brauer, who claimed MIAC Rookie of the Year honors, the first ever for the program. Huber has coached a number of successful athletes in both cross country and track & field. As the head coach of the cross country program, Huber has coached nine All-Conference performances and seven All-Region honors earned by eight athletes. Huber has coached a number of athletes to national competition, including Tierney Winter, a 2019 All-American and 2020 Gustavus graduate, who took 18th at the national meet. Winter was a six-time MIAC champion on the track, a 2019 All-Conference and All-Region selection in cross country, as was named the 2019-20 Gustavus Athletics Female Athlete of the Year. The Huron, S.D. native has specialized in coaching distance and mid-distance since graduating from the University of South Dakota in 2005. Huber was a cross country and distance runner for the Coyotes, helping the c

Dean Aurich is in his fourth season with the Gustavus track & field coaching staff in the 2024-25 academic year, serving as the pole vault coach since fall 2021. Prior to joining Gustavus, Aurich held the same position at the University of St. Thomas for 11 seasons. In 2014 alone, he coached athletes who won three All-America honors and three MIAC championships. With Aurich on staff, the Gustie women won their first two ever MIAC Outdoor Championships in 2022 and 2023. Aurich has 30 years of head track and field coaching experience at the high school level in Minnesota. His track and field teams at Mayer Lutheran High School won 23 conference team championships and three state championships. He was honored in 1997 as the Minnesota State Track and Field Coach of the Year in Class A and the True Team Track and Field Coach of the Year in 2000. In 2024, Aurich announced his retirement from Mayer Lutheran after serving as head football and track & field coach for 36 years. His specialty is coaching pole vault to athletes ranging from middle-school age to elite college vaulters, with dozens of his high school vaulters competing at the Minnesota State High School Track and Field Championships, including two state champions.

Hailey Hill is in her second year as an Assistant for the Gustavus Men's and Women's Cross Country and Track & Field Teams in the 2024-25 academic year. Hill, who specializes in mid-distance and distance, helped the Gustie women to a second place finish at the MIAC Outdoor Championships, as well as numerous school records in her first season. Prior to Gustavus, Hill served as a Camp Co-Director for the Central College Cross Country camps. Hill, a 2023 graduate of Central College in Pella, Iowa, was a four-year letter winner for the Dutch in both cross country and track. Hill earned both USTFCCCA All-Region and American Rivers All-Conference Awards in 2022, was named the winner of the Dutch Spirit Award three years in a row, and served as a team captain in her junior and senior seasons. Her 10k outdoor time ranks fifth on the school leaderboard, while her indoor 5k and cross country 6k both rank eighth in Central College's history. Hill additionally served on the Dutch's Student-Athletic Advisory Council (SAAC) and Athletic Leadership Team. Hill, a native of Las Vegas, Nev., currently resides in Saint Peter.

Jacqi Rae is in her first year on the track & field staff at Gustavus as an assistant coach, specializing in coaching hurdles, high jump, and multi-events. Prior to Gustavus, Rae was an assistant coach at Concordia University, St. Paul, where she coaches hurdles, high jump, long jump, javelin, and sprints along with working with heptathlon and decathlon athletes. In her time, she helped coach multiple NSIC podium finishers, nationally-ranked multi-event athletes, and brought one athlete to NCAA Division II Outdoor Nationals in the decathlon. In addition to coaching at Concordia University, St. Paul, Rae coaches at TRIA GameFace as a sports performance coach. In this role, she coaches athletes ranging from youth to professional levels on speed, strength, and conditioning including work with professional NFL athletes, professional Nordic skiers, St. Louis Park High School athletes, and Edina High School athletes. As an athlete, Rae competed at University of Minnesota Duluth for five years. In her time as a Bulldog, Rae walked onto the track & field team after playing soccer and became a star for the Bulldogs. This included being an NSIC conference contender in 60m hurdles, Long Jump, Shot Put, and Heptathlon in indoor events and 200m, 100m Hurdles, 4x100 relay, Javelin, and Heptathlon on the outdoor track. Rae was a pentathlon, heptathlon, and shot put and holds the UMD school record in Shot Put. Rae was named the 2024 UMD Female Breakthrough Athlete, the 2024 UMD Indoor Athlet

Lexi LeFever is in her first year as an assistant for the Gustavus Men's and Women's Track & Field Teams in the 2024-25 academic year. LeFever joins the Gustie staff after a decorated career as a member of the UW-River Falls Track & Field team. LeFever graduated from UWRF in May of 2024 with a major in exercise sport science and a minor in coaching. While at River Falls, LeFever collected seven Falcon school records, was a six-time All-American, five-time WIAC Champion, and earned USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week twice in her career. LeFever was a threat in several events, earning her first All-America honor in the long jump in the 2021 outdoor season after finishing as the national runner-up. LeFever went on to earn two additional long jump All-America honors in the 2021-22 season. LeFever transitioned to multi-events in the 2022-23 season, where she took fifth nationally in the heptathlon in the outdoor season and seventh in the pentathlon in the indoor season for the fourth and fifth All-America honors of her career. In her senior season, she served as a team captain as well as a Campus Captain for The Hidden Opponent, an organization that prioritizes the mental health and well-being of collegiate athletes. She finished her career with an All-American finish in the heptathlon, taking sixth in the event.

Former head track and field coach Tom Thorkelson currently serves as an assistant coach in charge of the throwing events. Thorkelson is in his 41st year as a member of the Gustavus track & field coaching staff. Beginning his Gustavus coaching career in 1984, Thorkelson mentored the program's first All-American in C.J. Foster to a sixth-place finish in the shot put at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Thorkelson developed 22 more All-Americans before being named head coach of the Gustie men's and women's track & field programs in 1999. Men's indoor teams made four appearances at the NCAA Championships in Thorkelson's 11 years as the head coach, highlighted by a fourth-place finish in 2003, while the women's indoor teams made six appearances at the national meet. During the outdoor season in Thorkelson's tenure as head coach, the Gustie men made seven appearances at the NCAA Championships, while the women made nine appearances. In Thorkelson's final season at the helm, the women took sixth place at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Thorkelson's most decorated athlete, Lisa Brown, came to the program in 2006 and won the national championship in the javelin in 2006, 2008, and 2009. Thorkelson stepped down as the head coach in 2009 and returned to his throws coach position, a position he still holds today as the second-longest tenured coach in Gustavus Athletics history. Thorkelson was inducted into the Gustavus Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021, and is one of 16 coaches to receive