• Coaches
• Men's Roster
• Women's Roster
• Schedule/Results
• Honors - Men
• Honors - Women
• Records
• Archives
• Give

Track and Field Coaches/Staff

Randy Heath Head Coach randy.heath@oc.edu

Randy Heath serves as head coach for the OC men’s and women’s track and field teams.

Heath was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in May 2003 in recognition of his career accomplishments and contributions to NAIA cross country and track and field.

Heath has developed one of the top track and field programs in the NAIA. His teams have won two men’s and four women’s NAIA District IX titles and earned one men’s and four women’s runnerup finishes in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

Heath also had a 38-year tenure as men’s cross country head coach (21 with the women’s cross country program) before turning over the reins in February 2007. Heath’s cross country programs won 12 men’s and five women’s titles in NAIA District IX.

Heath has received 10 Coach of the Year awards from NAIA District IX and the Sooner Athletic Conference. In his coaching career, he has coached 57 different athletes to NAIA All-America honors 121 times and, in 1997, was inducted into the Oklahoma Christian Athletic Hall of Fame.

Heath has been very active at every level in the NAIA track area and served as president of the NAIA Track Coaches Association for 1990-92. In 2002, he served as meet referee for the NAIA Indoor and Outdoor National Track Championships.

In 1989, he served as head coach of an NAIA team of athletes who competed in the French National University Championships in Montpellier, France. He also has served as a member of the Committee for NAIA Regional Enhancement in 1997-98 and as cross country regional rater from 1999-2001.

The Oklahoma City native is a 1969 Oklahoma Christian graduate and received a master's degree from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1972. He taught in the Oklahoma City Public Schools from 1969 to 1977 and joined Oklahoma Christian in September 1977.

A professor in the physical education department, Heath is married to the former Barbara Epley of Amarillo, Texas. He and his wife Barbara (OC ’72) have two children: Brent (OC ’98) and Lisa (OC ’99).

Jeff Bennett Assistant Coach

Jeff Bennett, perhaps Oklahoma Christian’s most acclaimed athlete, serves as the associate dean of students. In 2002, after a 28-year career in public education, he returned to OC as the field events coach.

A native of Vinita, Okla., Bennett was a member of 1972 U.S. Olympic team, placing fourth in the decathlon with 7,974 points at the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. He set a personal record of 8,121 points when he won the American Amateur Union’s national decathlon championship in 1973.

Bennett won NAIA national championships in the decathlon in both 1969 and 1970. In 1968, he was the NAIA national champion in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles and was runnerup in the pole vault in 1970.

The four-time NAIA All-American still holds Oklahoma Christian records in the 400 hurdles (51.44) and the decathlon (8,071 points). He was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1976 and was a charter honoree of the OC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991.

A 1970 Oklahoma Christian graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Education degree in Biology, Bennett also served as the school’s assistant track and field coach from 1974 to 1985. He and his wife Lisa have two daughters, Lauren and Raley.

Mark Thompson Assistant Coach

Mark Thompson, one of Oklahoma’s most accomplished track and cross country athletes, was named OC’s head cross country coach in December 2008.

Thompson has served as an assistant coach for OC’s cross country and track and field programs for the past two seasons. He was instrumental in helping the Eagles win the 2008 Sooner Athletic Conference cross country championship.

Thompson worked with three OC runners who earned NAIA All-America honors in cross country. Jordan Powell was a two-time All-American and Silas Kisorio and Sylvia Chirchir were each one-time winners under former head coach Wayne Strohman and Thompson.

In addition to his cross country coaching responsibilities, Thompson assists Randy Heath with the men’s and women’s track and field programs, working specifically with the distance runners.

Thompson was a six-time state champion in track and a three-time state champion in cross country at Edmond Memorial High School. He went on to run for two national championship teams at the University of Arkansas.

Thompson is an active runner. Over the last year, he set personal bests in distances ranging from the 800 meters through the half-marathon, including victories at the Tulsa Run 15k, and in the 5,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational. He earned runnerup honors at the prestigious Drake Relays Special Invitational Mile.

Thompson also is a physics instructor at Oklahoma Christian. He joined the OC faculty in 2005 after teaching three years at Fayetteville High School in Fayetteville, Ark. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from Arkansas.

Thompson is married to the former Darci Grisso, who serves as OC’s Director of Admissions.

Sam Dech Assistant Coach

Sam Dech, a five-time NAIA All-American in track and cross country at Southern Nazarene University (Okla.), joined the Eagle coaching staff in 2008-09. Dech won the Sooner Athletic Conference cross country championship in 2000 and 2003 and was a six-time NAIA national qualifier in track and cross country. Dech also earned Academic All-America honors four times at SNU.

Dech has worked in the information technology department at Delta Dental of Oklahoma since 2001. In 2007, he was promoted to the company’s manager of network operations.

A native of Oklahoma City, Dech was a graduate assistant at SNU in 2004 and 2005. He earned a degree in systems network managing from SNU in 2001 before completing his MBA in 2005, also at SNU. He and his wife Bethany have been married for seven years.

Katie Clark Assistant Coach

Katie Clark, a 2003 Oklahoma Christian University graduate in biology, became an assistant coach for the Eagles prior to the 2009-10 school year. Clark helped the Lady Eagle's 4x800 relay team reach the national meet multiple times and came away with an SAC championship in the 800 meters her senior year at OC. Clark also holds the outdoor school record in the 800 meters at 2:19.96 in addition to being a member of the 3200 meter relay team that holds the indoor (9:49.26) and outdoor (9:39.58) school records.

Clark spent several years coaching high school track and cross-country locally at both Edmond North High School and Edmond Memorial High school. In 2005, she spent a year as the Female Youth Ministry Associate and then returned to coaching in 2006. Clark also taught biology during her time at Edmond Memorial. She has been married to her husband, Michael, since 2005 and they have a daughter, Macy, who is 18 months old.

 

Wade Miller Assistant Coach

Wade Miller, a 2006 graduate of Oklahoma Christian University in elementary education, joins the track and field coaching staff for 2010-11.

Miller competed as a member of the cross country and track and field teams during his time at Oklahoma Christian from 2002-2006. He was a three-time national qualifier in cross country and track (steeplechase) and was a two-time NAIA Scholar-Athlete. Miller also was a three-time member of the GTE/Verizon/ESPN Academic All District team. Miller holds a personal record best of 9:28.04 in the steeplechase.

Before joining the coaching staff in 2010, Miller spent three years teaching English in the public school system in Mito, Japan. Miller, a native of Lockney, Texas, now resides in Edmond with his wife Janet (Pomeroy).

EAGLE EYE BLOG

Bobby Murcer Indoor Training Facility Walkthrough

Go on a walkthrough of the new Bobby Murcer Indoor Training Facility with head baseball coach Chuck White. Join us for OC’s first game of the season on Feb. 5 at 1 p.m. against St. Mary’s.

Kisorio, Mesta break OC 1,000-meter indoor record—Jan. 6, 2012

Hall of Fame Recap Video

Oklahoma Christian inducted its five newest Athletic Hall of Fame members on Friday, including a first for the university – a current student.

Men’s basketball star Charlie Smith, tennis coach Kris Miller, track standout Kathy (Nelson) Belcoff, softball ace Leah Carrell and current track and cross country All-American Silas Kisorio participated in the formal induction ceremony, held in OC’s Gaylord University Center.

Don Meyer, the NCAA leader in career men’s basketball coaching wins with 923, was the keynote speaker. The former coach at OC’s sister institution, Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., praised the five inductees for developing their athletic gifts and encouraged the 250 people in attendance to do the same with the gifts they’d been blessed with by God. Watch a video recapping the night’s events.