MONROE, La. – Jake Poyner, who has coached four national championship cross country teams and assisted on three national championship track & field teams, was named ULM head cross country coach and assistant track & field coach Wednesday morning, as announced by track & field head coach
J.D. Malone.
"I am very excited to be adding Jake to our staff," Malone said. "He has proven to be a rising young star in the coaching profession and I look forward to seeing what he brings to the bayou."
Poyner comes to ULM after spending the last four seasons as the head cross country coach and assistant track & field coach at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana, where he was the 2021 and 2022 NCCAA Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year after leading both Lancer squads to NCCAA national championships.
"I would like to thank Director of Athletics John Hartwell, Head Coach JD Malone, Assistant Coach Brody Honeycutt, and Assistant Coach Nate Baker for this incredible opportunity," Poyner said. "From the moment I set foot on campus, it was evident to me that ULM and the Warhawk athletics department mean it when they say "the best is on the Bayou" — their strong pursuit of academic and athletic excellence with unwavering and high integrity aligned wonderfully with my own vocational goals. I am thankful for Coach Malone's belief in my ability to be a team player within this program, and I am extremely excited to start working together with our student-athletes towards continued growth and competitive merit within the Sun Belt Conference, the NCAA, and the great state of Louisiana."
Poyner led both Grace cross country teams to appearances in the NAIA National Championships in 2021 and 2022, marking the first time for both the men and women's teams to qualify together. Poyner recruited and coached Kylie Sauder to become Grace's first NAIA All-American runner in women's cross country during the 2021 season. Both Lancer teams finished 2022 ranked in the NAIA Top 10, with the men finishing No. 8 and the women No. 10, following up on the 2021 season where Grace's women ranked No. 15 and the men No. 22.
Poyner has been an assistant coach for three NCCAA track & field national championship teams, with Grace clinching titles in men's track & field in 2021 and 2022 and women's track & field in 2023. He coached the men's and women's 4x800-meter relay teams to national championships at the 2023 NAIA Indoor National Championships, giving the Lancers their first indoor NAIA crowns.
He was named the 2023 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Regional Assistant Coach of the Year for indoor track after earning the honor for the 2022 outdoor season as well. In the 2023 indoor season, Grace's distance medley relay team clocked the third-fastest time in the history of the NAIA in 9:49.19 at Notre Dame's Meyo Invitational. The Lancer men set three new indoor school records and five new distance records for the women in the 2023 indoor season. Grace had five men's events ranked in the top 10 of the USTFCCA, doing so in the 800 (first), mile (second), 1000 (fifth), 3000 (fifth) and 5000 (ninth). The Lancer men won the indoor 4x800 NAIA championship and finished as NAIA runner-up in the DMR. In the 2022 outdoor season, he helped coach the Grace men to school records in four events during the outdoor season and the Lancers had seven national qualifying marks. Grace ranked fourth in the NAIA in the 1500 meters and fifth in the 800 in the USTFCCCA Event Squad Rankings, which accounts for the top four performers from each institution.
The USTFCCA ranked Grace eighth for the NAIA Program of the Year thanks to the program's success at the NAIA Championships in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. It was the first time Grace was ranked by the USTFCCCA Program of the Year rankings.
During the 2020-21 year, the men's cross country team entered the NAIA national rankings at No. 24, giving Grace its first NAIA ranking since 2003. Poyner's distance squads were key in assisting the Lancers to the 2021 men's NCCAA national championship and the women's NCCAA national runner-up finish. The two teams repeated their finish in 2022.
In Poyner's first season as cross country head coach in 2019, Grace's men took third at the NCCAA National Championship, matching the best finish in program history. The women claimed sixth, one spot shy of the program record.
Prior to taking over as head cross country coach, Poyner was a graduate assistant for the Grace cross country and track & field teams in 2018.
Poyner graduated from Lipscomb with a bachelor of science degree in exercise science in May 2018. He competed for the Bisons from 2015-18 after transferring from Wake Forest, where he competed from 2013-15. He was the ASUN Conference Runner of the Year and ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2017. He won the ASUN conference cross country meet as an individual while leading the Bisons to the team title, one of two during his time competing for Lipscomb. He was a First-Team Academic All-American.
Poyner is scheduled to graduate with a master's degree in athletic administration from Grace in the fall of 2023.
Poyner is a native of Winona Lake, Indiana.
