Dec. 23, 2013
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - WKU head track and field coach Erik Jenkins has been named the 2013 Kentucky Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Women's Track and Field Coach of the Year for the fourth consecutive season while former Lady Topper Gayle Harris-Watkins will be inducted to the KTCCCA Hall of Fame at the 9th Annual KTCCCA banquet in January.
Jenkins secures his fourth Women's Coach of the Year honor from the KTCCCA and sixth overall from the organization, as he also received Men's Coach of the Year honors in 2009 and 2012. In 2013, Jenkins coached the Lady Toppers to five program records, two NCAA Championship qualifiers and was instrumental in Sharika Smith's First-Team All-American performance in the triple jump at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
"I am happy to be presented with this award," said Jenkins. "I have a great staff and administration at WKU, which allows us to succeed at the highest levels of the sport."
Under Jenkins' guidance, Smith set indoor and outdoor records in the triple jump and finished seventh at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last June. Junior thrower Jessica Ramsey shattered school record marks in the indoor and outdoor shot put and advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the discus throw while pole vaulter Karleigh Parker became the first Lady Topper in over a decade to advance to the NCAA Southeast Regional in the pole vault.
Harris-Watkins, a former national champion long jumper and All-American hurdler for the Lady Toppers, will be inducted into the KTCCCA Hall of Fame at the banquet on Jan. 4 in Lexington, Ky.
Harris-Watkins won the AIAW national title in the long jump and finished second in the 60-meter hurdles in 1979 to garner her All-American accolades. She owns the two longest-standing records in Lady Topper history - the indoor 55-meter hurdles record of 7.82 seconds in which she set in 1979 and the outdoor 100-meter hurdles record of 13.21 seconds that she set in 1978.
A 2003 WKU Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, Harris-Watkins remained a prominent figure on the world track scene following her graduation from the Hill in 1979, competing around the globe and earning berths at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1980, 1984 (where she was a finalist) and 1988. Watkins was ranked as high as No.2 in the world in the indoor 50-meter hurdles in 1983 and she was ranked number No.1 in the nation in the long jump (with a leap of 20-10.75) for a period of time in 1979. She was a charter member of the WKU Track Hall of Fame and currently serves as the men's and women's head track and field and cross country coach at Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier, Calif.
"We want to congratulate Coach Watkins-Harris on her Hall of Fame induction," said Jenkins. "She represented WKU as an outstanding student-athlete and is well respected ambassador of the sport today."
