CHENEY, Wash. — Eastern Washington track and field assistant coach,
Eric Allison, will be retiring at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season. Allison is in his 23rd season at Eastern and has built a long legacy of success in pole vault.
"We hate to see EA go, but time waits for no one. All good things do not have to end, as he built an amazing legacy of Pole Vaulters at EWU," Director of Track and Field Erin Tucker said. "He made Eastern a destination place for the vault and we hope to continue his legacy. We plan to announce his replacement in June and we are working diligently to find someone that understands the legacy and will continue that tradition at Eastern."
Eastern has qualified 28 athletes for the NCAA first round and three for the finals in pole vault during Allison's coaching career.
Allison has coached two NCAA All-Americans, with Keisa Monterola earning indoor first team All-American in 2012. Monterola is the program record holder in both indoor (4.37m) and outdoor vault (4.27m). She still holds the conference overall and meet record as well.
Morgan Fossen earned outdoor second team All-American in the 2021 with a vault of 4.20m.
In the Big Sky, Allison has helped 21 athletes earn conference champions, along with 57 total all-conference performers.
Allison has literally rewritten the EWU record books, with athletes he coached accounting for 93% of the program's top 10 performances list spots. The athletes he coached hold all 10 spots on the women's indoor and outdoor lists. On the men's side, Allison has coached eight of 10 indoor and nine of 10 outdoor top performers.
In addition, the Eastern top performers account for six of 10 on the women's Big Sky all-time list, with one athlete on the men's side.
This past indoor season, Zach Klobutcher set the program record with a 5.24m mark. Larry Still set the outdoor record in 2019, after a 5.35m mark.
EWU has three regular season meets remaining on the schedule before the Big Sky Outdoor Conference Championships in Bozeman, Mont. held from May 8-11. The NCAA championships first round will be held May 22-25, with the championships on June 5-8.
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ABOUT EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
Eastern Washington University Athletics sponsors 14 intercollegiate sports, six for men and eight for women, both as learning opportunities for its most athletically talented students and as an enhancement to student and community life. Eastern is affiliated with Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is a member of the Big Sky Conference, an association of 10 regional schools with comparable enrollments and academic goals.
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