Ashcroft Joins Michigan Track and Field Coaching Staff
9/12/2017 2:03:00 PM | Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan track and field co-head coaches Jerry Clayton and James Henry announced Tuesday (Sept. 12) the hiring of Jenni Ashcroft as the final addition to the staff of the recently combined men's and women's program.
After successful tenures at Cal Poly, Oregon and Wichita State, Ashcroft will serve at Michigan as an assistant coach overseeing the jumping events and combined events for both genders. During her career, she has coached three individual NCAA champions and more than 40 All-Americans and has been part of coaching staffs that won a combined four NCAA team titles and 14 conference team titles.
"I'd like to thank sport administrator Bob Lopez, Jerry Clayton and James Henry for this great opportunity," Ashcroft said. "It is an exciting time to join the program with the new facilities and the combining of the programs, and it is an honor to be joining such a prestigious academic institution and one of the premier athletic departments in the country."
"We are pleased to welcome an individual of Jenni's caliber to the coaching staff at the University of Michigan," co-head coach Henry said. "She has shown throughout her career that she has the ability, expertise and experience to bring out the best-of-the-best in her student-athletes across a range of different event areas, and we are eager to see what she can do with the great talent we already have here in Ann Arbor."
Most recently serving as an assistant coach at Cal Poly (2013-17) for pole vaulters, high jumpers, throwers and combined-event athletes, Ashcroft has helped her athletes excel at both the conference and national levels. She guided one of the deepest corps of decathletes in the nation, led by 2017 Big West Conference champion Teddy Scranton, and under her tutelage pole vaulter John Prader cleared the third-highest height in the nation for 2013.
Ashcroft previously served on the staff at Oregon (2007-12), led by USTFCCCA Hall of Famer and future USATF president Vin Lananna. There she mentored Melissa Gergel to the NCAA Outdoor Championships pole vault title with a then-meet record-tying 4.45m (14-7.25) clearance to rank her No. 7 in collegiate history at the time. That same year, Ashcroft's distance-running charges also racked up three national titles.
She began her coaching career at Wichita State (2003-06), where her student-athletes claimed six Missouri Valley Conference titles and 26 all-conference honors, including a 1-2 finish in the 2005 MVC Outdoor Championships long jump; broke 11 school and seven MVC records; and four times appeared at the NCAA Championships.
Ashcroft's success as a coach flowed directly from her career as a Nevada Athletics Hall of Fame pole vaulter at Nevada from 1999 through 2002. She was a three-time conference champion, an All-American and a U.S. Olympic Trials competitor.
Off the runway, she was a three-time academic all-conference selection, an Academic All-American and the state of Nevada winner for the 2002 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
