Entering his 25th year at The Citadel, head cross country and track and field coach Jody Huddleston continues to lead one of the most successful programs at The Citadel and in the Southern Conference.

Huddleston’s tenure has witnessed 55 conference champions, over 230 All-Southern Conference honors bestowed, the first woman to compete in athletics at The Citadel, the first woman to win a conference championship at The Citadel and the first woman to compete in an NCAA Championship event in school history. In addition, The Citadel has set six NCAA Regional qualifying marks under Huddleston’s tenure since the implementation of the regional championship system in 2003.

During the 2010 cross country season, the veteran coach guided freshman Danielle McKee to a first-place finish at the Royal Cross Country Challenge in Charlotte, N.C. with a time of 19 minutes, just one second behind the school record.  The following spring, Huddleston coached Brunson Miller to his fifth and sixth SoCon titles in the indoor and outdoor track seasons, including a school-record breaking run in the 400 at the 2011 SoCon Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

In 2009, Huddleston was named the 2009 SoCon Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year award after much success during the indoor season and at the conference championships. Brian Baize clinched the school record in the heptathlon. Kevin Hardy took the title in the long jump at the SoCon Championships, while Jamel Brown earned All-Conference honors in the 60 hurdles. Brown joined Christopher Graham and Zach Johnson in earning All-Conference honors for the 4x400 relay. Hardy and Graham also made the SoCon’s inaugural All-Freshman team.

During the 2009 outdoor season, Brillyance Gilchrist-Poteat broke the school record in the 100 hurdles while Brown earned an automatic bid to the NCAA East Regional. At the SoCon Outdoor Championships, Huddleston led Brown to his second SoCon title in the 110 hurdles, while Hardy won his second title as a freshman in the long jump. Christopher, Johnson, Baize and Aaron Overton joined Brown in earning All-Conference honors for the 4x400m relay. For the women, Gilchrist-Poteat and Theresa Johansen made the All-Freshman team joining Hardy and Overton for the men.

The 2008 season witnessed Brown winning the school’s first SoCon Championship at The Citadel since 2004 as he brought home the 400 hurdles title from the outdoor championships. That victory was one of Brown’s four All-Conference accolades on the season. Huddleston also guided Tasha Sanders to three All-Conference honors and a pair of runner-up finishes at the SoCon Championships in the pentathlon and heptathlon.

In 2007, Huddleston led the Bulldogs to four Southern Conference Championships, while the women’s team recorded their best finish in school history. Senior Stephanie McNeill brought home three individual titles (20-pound weight throw, hammer, shot put), while junior Tasha Sanders won her first SoCon crown (heptathlon). The Citadel women placed a school record fifth place at the SoCon Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Boone, N.C., scoring a program-best 56 points. The men’s team showcased a stellar hurdles squad, placing two finalists in the 110 and three in the 400 hurdles at the SoCon Outdoor Championships.

Huddleston led the Bulldogs through the historic 2006 track and field seasons, which included Stephanie McNeill entering the history books on several separate occasions. McNeill became the first female at The Citadel to qualify for an NCAA Championship event, throwing a mark of 47’ 9” in the shot put. McNeill won her flight in the shot put at the NCAA Regional Championships with a throw of 46’ 10.25”, finishing 15th overall. The team finished sixth at the conference outdoor championships with a school record 48 team points.

Huddleston, along with assistant coach Kris Kut, guided McNeill as she won the 2006 conference discus title with a throw of 141’ 2”, making her the first female Cadet to win a SoCon Championship. Those accomplishments, along with regional and national media exposure, came in a 2006 track and field season which saw 22 school records broken, 19 athletes receive All-Conference honors, three SoCon Athlete of the Week honors, two conference champions and two conference superlative honors. Moreover, McNeill was named the SoCon’s Outstanding Field Performer and Shaquill Smith was tabbed as Freshman of the Year after he won the high jump and placed fifth in the triple jump, setting a new freshman school record with a mark of 47’ 4.25”.

In 1997, Huddleston coached the first female runner at The Citadel as Mandy Garcia was a member of the cross country and track teams. Two years later, Peaches Hudson took second in the heptathlon and captured the institution’s first female All-Southern Conference honor.

Huddleston came to The Citadel from Oklahoma Baptist in Shawnee, Okla., where he served as head coach for seven years. In 1984, he earned NAIA District IX Coach of the Year honors. Earlier that year, the Bison finished second at the league championships, the best track performance for the school in over a decade.

An All-American decathlete at Florida Community College, Huddleston set a new national junior college decathlon long jump record in 1975. He transferred to South Alabama and went on to establish two school records. Huddleston graduated from South Alabama in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education. He earned a Master’s degree in education two years later at the same institution.

Huddleston has three children, Ryan and Callie, while he and his wife, Mary Ellen, have one daughter, Mary Kathryn.

Kris Kut enters his 12th year as an assistant coach at The Citadel and his fifth as the recruiting coordinator. Along with Jody Huddleston, Kut has been on staff with the cross country and track and field programs through the past several years and has watched from the sidelines as school records have fallen over and over again.

Kut is responsible for the recruiting of junior Brunson Miller, who has racked up six SoCon titles in the indoor and outdoor seasons, including a school-record breaking run in the 400m dash at the 2011 SoCon Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Kut, who focuses mainly on the field events, has helped coach 16 conference champions during his tenure at The Citadel, including the school’s first female to win a conference championship, Stephanie McNeill. Kut guided McNeill to a total of four SoCon titles as she also became the first female from The Citadel to qualify and compete in an NCAA Championship event. Under his tutelage, The Citadel’s cadet-student-athletes have won 136 All-Conference honors and numerous school records have fallen, including 23 during the 2007 season and 45 over the past two seasons.

In 2007, Kut guided McNeill to three league titles while coaching cadet-student-athletes to 27 All-Southern Conference honors. The women’s team posted a record fifth-place finish at the SoCon Outdoor Championships, while the men’s team placed fourth for the seventh time in eight years, maintaining their presence in the top-half of the conference.

Kut, a 2000 graduate from The Citadel, was a four-year letterwinner at The Military College of South Carolina as he pursued his bachelor’s degree in political science. He remained at the school as he earned his master’s degree in health, exercise and sport science in 2003.

A three-time Southern Conference Champion as a cadet-student-athlete, Kut also received four All-Conference honors. He remains the school record holder in the javelin and was a junior national qualifier, competing in the 1997 Junior National Track and Field meet in St. Louis, Mo. As a senior, Kut finished seventh in the javelin at the prestigious Penn Relays, as well as first at several other key meets.

Kut is married to the former Holly Jones of Mechanicsville, Va., in 2003. They currently reside in Mount Pleasant, S.C., with their sons Andre Jackson and Preston and daughter, Ella Charlotte.

Gary Wilson enters his sixth year working with The Citadel cross country program, following an incredibly successful first year. In his first season, Wilson helped lead the women’s cross country team to their most successful Southern Conference finish ever at eighth while the men placed sixth, their highest finish in 10 years.

Wilson has a long history of success with track and field, qualifying three athletes for the NCAA Championships when he was a volunteer coach for Valdosta State in 1976. As a co-coach at the University of Tennessee, he helped lead the Lady Vols in the program’s first year. Prior to his helping start what has become one of the most competitive and successful women’s programs in the Southeastern Conference, Wilson was the head men’s track and cross country coach at West Georgia College from 1966-1968.

Wilson currently resides in Charleston.

Matthew Evans is in his first year as a graduate assistant coach of The Citadel track and field team, working primarily with the jumpers and decathletes. Evans, a 2010 graduate of Western Carolina University, was part of three Southern Conference championship teams while in a Catamount uniform. 

While at Western Carolina, Evans earned four All-Southern Conference accolades and was named the SoCon Field Athlete of the Month for March and the SoCon Indoor Track and Field Most Outstanding Field Performer.  Evans also garnered SoCon Field Athlete of the Week and Student Athlete of the Week honors. 

Evans produced school records in high jump (7’1), javelin (219’6), and heptathlon (5,034) and was a national qualifier in high jump and regional qualifier in high jump and javelin.

While working at The Citadel, Evans coached Bulldog field athlete, Jimmy Harris, to a 2^nd place finish in both the 2011 Indoor and Outdoor SoCon Track Championships. In addition, Evans coached Nicole Levermann to a mark of 5’5” and Andi Love over 5 feet in the high jump. 

Evans hails from Old Fort, North Carolina and is pursuing a master's degree in sports management from The Citadel Graduate College. Evans currently resides on James Island.

Joseph O’Rourke enters his first year as a graduate assistant coach, working with the multi-event participants.

O’Rourke joined The Citadel in 2009 as a graduate student performing in multi-events. While in a Bulldog uniform, O’Rourke’s best performance came at the UNF Osprey Challenge (4/17) when he earned a first-place finish in the pole vault, second place in the 400m hurdles and fifth in the javelin.

Prior to The Citadel, O’Rourke graduated from Clemson University in 2009 with a degree in graphic communications and a minor in business administration. While at Clemson he performed in the heptathlon, pole vault and decathlon on the Tiger Track and Field team from 2005-2009.

O’Rourke is a native of Mount Pleasant, S.C., where he attended Wando High School. O’Rourke is currently pursuing a master’s degree in health, exercise, sport science with an emphasis in sports management in The Citadel Graduate College.

Natalie Wolin enters her first season as the Graduate Assistant coach of the cross country and track teams.

Wolin is a 2010 graduate of The Citadel, where she earned her bachelors degree in business administration. While at The Citadel, Wolin competed on both the cross country and track teams.

A native of Toledo, Ohio, Wolin currently resides in downtown Charleston and is pursuing a master's degree in counselor education from The Citadel Graduate College.