Lindsey Kunkel joined the Hamilton men’s and women’s cross country and track and field coaching staff as an assistant coach in August 2022.
Kunkel most recently was an assistant track and field coach at Shadle Park High School in Spokane, Washington, during the 2022 season. She worked with the sprinters, and the girls’ team became the Class 2A district champions for the Greater Spokane League.
Kunkel was also an assistant track and field coach at Spokane Community College (2018-21), a graduate assistant track and field coach at Division II Western Oregon University (2016-18), and a volunteer assistant track and field coach at Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri (2015).
Kunkel worked with the sprinters, horizontal jump athletes and the relays at Spokane Community College. In 2021 six women and 18 men earned all-America honors at the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) Championships. She coached one athlete who broke a 19-year-old team record in the women’s indoor triple jump in 2020. The men’s and women’s teams finished second in the 2019 NWAC Championships and 10 athletes were all-Americans. Kunkel coached an event winner in the 100- and 200-meter dash and one track athlete of the meet.
Kunkel worked with the sprinters, jumpers and middle-distance athletes at Western Oregon. The men’s cross country and track and field teams finished fifth in the 2017-18 U.S. Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association Program of the Year standings. The men tied for sixth place at the NCAA Division II indoor championships and had a repeat distance medley relay champion. Four athletes collected indoor all-America honors between the men's and women's teams. The men went on to finish in 13th place at the outdoor championships, and eight male and female athletes garnered outdoor all-America honors. In 2017 the men’s distance medley relay won a national title and broke the Division II record at the indoor championships, and Kunkel coached six national qualifiers who picked up nine all-America honors. She coached seven national qualifiers and three all-Americans during the 2017 outdoor season.
The Fayette, Missouri, native was a track and field athlete at Division II Emporia State University in Kansas. Kunkel was an all-American for the 4x400-meter relay as she was part of a foursome that finished in sixth place with a school-record time of 3:42.80 at the 2013 NCAA outdoor championships, and that record still stands. She qualified for the NCAA meet in the 4x400-meter relay three times.
Kunkel received a bachelor’s degree in health promotion and graduated magna cum laude from Emporia State. She went on to earn her master’s degree in education at Western Oregon University.
