Associate head coach Helen Lehman-Winters (far right) coached the UO women's cross country team to a third-place finish at the 2018 NCAA Championships.
While bulldozers convened on Hayward Field, Oregon’s track and field program was also undergoing construction.
In June 2018, husband and wife duo Andy and Maurica Powell, associate head coach and assistant coach respectively, departed Eugene for the University of Washington. Head coach Robert Johnson wasted little time searching for new faces, and one month later hired Ben Thomas and Helen Lehman-Winters to replace them on the coaching staff.
Previously, Thomas coached cross country and distance at Virginia Tech for 17 seasons; during his tenure, the Hokies won 12 Atlantic Coast Conference championships and had 74 distance runners named All-Americans, while he was named national men’s assistant coach of the year in 2017.
"I am excited to get started in helping the men and women of Oregon reach their considerable potential,” said Thomas in a university release after his hiring. “I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to help launch a new era at Hayward Field and add to the championship legacy of Oregon track and field and cross country."
Lehman-Winters was the head track and field and cross country coach at the University of San Francisco for the last 15 seasons. She is an eight-time West Coast Conference cross-country coach of the year, and despite a limited budget and small staff, made great strides with San Francisco’s program. Under her guidance, the Lady Dons won six WCC women’s cross-country titles, and last year they were runners-up at the NCAA meet.
“I want to be as respectful as possible, but [San Francisco is] not a traditional distance or track place,” Johnson told the Register-Guard. “So, for her to accomplish what she accomplished there, it makes you take a step back and wonder what could she do at a place like Oregon?”
Johnson called the 2018 indoor season "unacceptable," and the outdoor season yielded equally disappointing results. It was an unhappy end to the Powell era of track and field, and became unhappier still when Katie Rainsberger and Lilli Burdon followed the Powells to Washington.
Despite the loss of Rainsberger and Burdon, Thomas and Lehman-Winters inherited a talented roster, which includes Jessica Hull, Makenzie Dunmore, and Briyahna DesRosiers on the women's team; and Cravon Gillespie, Ben Milligan, and Cooper Teare on the men's. Hull, a two-time NCAA champion, was named a Honda Sport Award finalist in January, and is on the preseason watch list for the Bowerman Award.
Thomas, who once shared an office with Johnson when they both coached at Appalachian State, is optimistic.
“The physical side, to me it’s like Christmas,” he told the Register-Guard. “We’re a little short on numbers but the talent is unquestionable. Compared to the best guys I ever got coming in the door at Virginia Tech, that’s the slowest guy [at Oregon], just in terms of what they’ve done on paper.”
- Abby Keep, writing and editing associate
- Photos from goducks.com