Illinois State University Women's Cross Country

Jeff Bovee enters his twelfth year as the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Illinois State. Bovee brings tremendous experience to the director position with over 20 years of collegiate coaching experience, including 19 years at the helm of the Redbird's cross country program. During his time at Illinois State, Bovee has built a name for himself, coaching the distance event groups to 177 All-Valley performances and 49 Missouri Valley Conference championships between track and field and cross country. He has also led 44 distance student-athletes to the NCAA West Preliminary Round. A four-time USTFCCCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year and an eleven-time MVC Coach of the Year in track & field, Bovee has coached 24 individual distance event student-athletes to MVC championships since being named Director of Track & Field/Cross Country. Prior to joining Illinois State in 2006, Bovee spent three seasons as the head coach at Central College in Pella, Iowa, and served as the head coach at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, from 1996-2000. A native of Glendale, Arizona, Bovee received a bachelor's degree in physical education from Arizona in 1993, where he was a member of the cross country and track & field teams and a Pac-10 conference place-winner in the 800 meter run. He received his Master's degree in physical education from Eastern Illinois in 1996.

Jake Gillum enters his second season as an assistant coach for the Illinois State Track & Field/XC programs. Gillum joined the full-time staff in January 2024 after