Emilie Jenson
Public Information Coordinator
Iowa Central Community College Track & Field is pleased to announce that Anne Cleary has been named the program's next head coach.
Coach Cleary starts her first season as the Head Track and Field Coach at Iowa Central working primarily with jumpers and the combined events athletes. Prior to taking the helm of the Tritons' Track and Field program, she served as the head track and field coach/director of cross country operations for Edinboro University in Pennsylvania for the past 10 years.
A Vermillion, South Dakota native, Cleary began her coaching career as a volunteer assistant coach with the University of Central Missouri Track and Field Team during the 2010-11 season, primarily working with heptathletes and decathletes, following an outstanding collegiate track and field career at Central Missouri. Cleary enjoyed a career that ultimately led to her induction into the Central Missouri Athletic Hall of Fame.
Cleary competed at Central Missouri from 2006-10, enjoying an outstanding career in track & field. Her career was highlighted by an individual national championship and three All-American honors. In 2009 she become the first ever D2 national champion in the women's pentathlon, setting a then-school record, and earned All-American honors in the heptathlon in 2007 and 2008. She was an NCAA Division II national qualifier in the heptathlon in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and in the pentathlon in 2009 and 2010. Cleary still ranks on UCM's Top 10 in multiple events and scored in seven different events at the MIAA Championships. As a senior, she was named the Dr. Peggy Martin Award winner as UCM's Top Female Senior Student-Athlete.
Coach Cleary earned her bachelor's degree in 2009 from Central Missouri in public relations with a minor in corporate communications, and received her Master's Degree in mass communication in May 2011.
She will be the sixth head coach for the Tritons in their 20-year history.
"We are very fortunate to have Coach Cleary join our program after her tenure at NCAA Division II Edinboro University," said Dee Brown, Director of Track and Field at Iowa Central. "For the past 10 years she has served as the Head Track and Field Coach and Director of Cross Country Operations and brings a wealth of knowledge to hit the ground running with our programs. I am thrilled with the energy she brings and her experience as a national-caliber athlete and coach of the jumps and combined events."