Head coach Shantel Twiggs wrapped up her 21st season as head coach for the Nevada Wolf Pack in 2025. She also oversees the sprinters in the program.
The 2024/25 outdoor season featured several standout performances for the Wolf Pack. Thrower Lilly Urban broke the school javelin record four times, culminating in a 56.89 m throw to win gold in the javelin at the Mountain West Championships and later placing 11th at the NCAA Championships—earning second-team All-American honors. Sprinter Magdalene George claimed silver in both the 100 m and 200 m and added another medal as a member of Nevada’s bronze medal winning 4×100m relay team. The 4x400m team consisting of Kylee Parsons, Annalies Kalma, Vivian Groppe and Halyn Senegal also won bronze. Meekness Dogonyaro secured silver in the triple jump, while Annalies Kalma earned bronze in the 400m. Johanna Haas added a further medal in the heptathlon. The Pack finished sixth as a team at the Mountain West Outdoor Championships, extending their streak of NCAA qualifiers to six of the last eight outdoor seasons.
The 2024/25 indoor season was an eventful one for the Wolf Pack, opening competition in their new home facility, the Reno-Tahoe Indoor Track at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. Sprinter Magdalene George broke school records in both the 60m and 200m, while also claiming two medals at the Mountain West Indoor Championships. The Pack placed ninth at the Mountain West Indoor Championships, highlighted by two medals for Magdalene George in the 60m and 200m.
The 2024 outdoor season was one of the best in recent years with multiple school records falling throughout the season. Twiggs saw Rayven Nealey set the school record in the triple jump as the first Wolf Pack athlete to reach 43 feet. On top of that feat, Magdalene George broke a 29-year-old school record in the 200m, running a 23:08 at the NCAA West Preliminaries. In addition to these records, the Pack also tallied three MW Outdoor All-Conference Honors.
The 2023/24 indoor season was also eventful for the Pack, Twiggs coaching the Pack to a 4x400m MW title, a MW title in the 800m from Halyn Senegal and a third place finish from Sarah Marske in the 60m hurdles. Twiggs also coached the Pack to their highest point total in program history at the MW Indoor Championships.
The 2018-19 season saw several individual and team accomplishments, including tying the best Mountain West outdoor finish in school history. The Pack took fourth with a score of 78.5 points. At the conference championship meet, Twiggs saw Hiley Dobbs break the 10,000m school record, and the meet ended with Nevada's 4x400m relay squad breaking a 19-year-old school record.
The 2019 outdoor conference championships included three gold medals for the Wolf Pack, a single year record for Nevada since joining the Mountain West. Alex Bohlman won Nevada's first gold medal in the javelin since 2008, Nicola Ader won the high jump and Karoline Sauer successfuly defended her 400m hurdles gold medal.
Sauer would qualify for the NCAA West Prelims, where she broke her own school record in the 400m hurdles with a time of 58.42 seconds. At the same meet, Ader qualified for the NCAA Outdoor national championships in the high jump and long jump, after qualifying for the heptathlon during the regular season. No one from Nevada had ever competed in three events at nationals.
In the 2018-19 indoor season, Twiggs saw school records fall in the pole vault and high jump. Palmer broke the record with a mark of 13' 6.25" (4.12 meters), then broke it again at the conference championships with a mark of 13' 8.5" (4.18 m). Ader tied the school record in the high jump with a mark of 6' (1.83 m), which qualified her for the indoor national championships. Ader would go on to be named a Second team All-American in the event.
In 2017-18 she guided senior Brittany Graves to back-to-back top-five finishes in the triple jump, and sophomore Sauer to break a program record in the 400m hurdles with a time of 59.21 to take gold in the 2018 MW Championships.
Twiggs led the Wolf Pack to some of its best finishes in recent years in the 2016-17 campaign, taking fifth at the Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships and fourth at the outdoor meet, just a half point out of the top three. Two student-athletes in Emily Myers and Nicole Wadden earned All-American honors to cap off the 2017 season at the NCAA Championships.
Since taking over the program in 2004-05, Twiggs has seen a continuously improved level of performance by Wolf Pack student-athletes every season. During the program's second year in the Mountain West, six of Twiggs' student-athletes received all-conference selections and three went on to compete in NCAA Regionals.
Twiggs' 2014-15 indoor season saw sprinters make their mark on the school's all-time list, with Katherine Surin's second in the 400 meter dash being the highest. Six more made it onto the list in the outdoor season, as Twiggs' coaching Suring to a school record in the 400 meter dash. Two more sprinters qualified for the NCAA preliminary rounds under Twiggs' leadership.
Twiggs guided the group to a third place finish at the Mountain West Indoor Championships in the team's first year in the conference. Twiggs led the team's 4x100 relay squad to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Seven seasons ago, Twiggs led the outdoor track team to a second place finish at the WAC Outdoor Championships and was named Co-Coach of the Year. Hurdler Analisa Serrano became the second fastest 100m hurdler in school history while sprinter Polly Smith ended her career with the third best time in the 400m running 1:00.18.
Twiggs brings an enormous amount of energy into every situation. She has created a team that thrives on stepping up in big meet situations. She has established a family atmosphere where athletes have support on and off the track. The success of Nevada Track and Field isn't just on the track. In 2008-09 alone, the team earned 39 WAC All-Academic awards, qualified eight student-athletes to the NCAA West Regional meet in 10 events.
During the 2007-08 season, Twiggs coached four NCAA Regional Qualifiers and saw senior thrower Inger Appanaitis qualify for the NCAA National Championship and the Olympic Trials. Fourteen student-athletes during the season in both track and field and cross country earned a total of 26 All-WAC honors, including Appanaitis who was both the WAC Outdoor Javelin Champion and the Women's High Point winner at the Outdoor Championships.
Twiggs led her 2007 outdoor team to a second-place finish at the WAC Championships and tied the program record for highest finish at the outdoor championships. In addition, the Pack won six medals at the outdoor championships. Since 2005, Nevada has seen 30 Regional Qualifiers, five qualifiers to Nationals and two All-Americans (Kali Baker, Indoor Mile; and Caira Hane, Outdoor Hammer).
Prior to the start of the 2005-06 season, Twiggs collected an individual honor as she was named to the hall of fame at her alma mater, Northern Iowa.
Twiggs came to Nevada from Northern Illinois where she spent three seasons resurrecting the Huskies' program. When Twiggs took over the program in the winter of 2000, the team had not competed in 18 years. Since that time, her athletes broke more than 14 school records. The 2003-04 season saw the school's first NCAA Mid-East Regional qualifiers when two Huskies finished 25 and 30th, respectively, in the shot put. One of those throwers, Ashley Morrow, was named to the All-Mid American Conference second team, also a first for the program.
Before coaching at NIU, Twiggs was an assistant coach for three years at Northern Iowa. During her tenure at Northern Iowa, Twiggs coached the men's and women's sprinters to more than 10 school records and two dozen all-conference honors. In her final season, she coached five NCAA Division I qualifiers with one gaining All-America honors at the indoor track and field championships.
Twiggs can also claim two Missouri Valley Conference Championships Athletes of the Meet on her coaching resume, as Marshall Frazier took home the award at the 2000 MVC indoor meet and Devon Davis nabbed the title at the 1999 outdoor competition. She also worked heavily in recruiting for the Panthers' program and assisted with the Northern Iowa cross country teams. Twiggs was an all-conference sprinter for the Panthers from 1990-94, earning All-MVC honors six times in her career. She also won All-America honors her senior season in the 200-meters and in the 55-meter dash in 1994 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Overall, she qualified for the NCAAs eight times with two provisional qualifying marks while at Northern Iowa and is the owner and co-owner of 13 school records.
She has been a member of three U.S. National Teams (US vs. Great Britain, 1994; World Cup, 1994; and Pan Am Games, 1995) leading-off the gold medal 4x100-meter relay team at the Pan Am Games in 1995. She also won gold and bronze medals at the 1994 Olympic Festival as the anchor leg of the 4x100-meter relay team and the 200-meters, respectively.
Twiggs received her Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and marketing from Northern Iowa in 1995. After graduation, she worked as an assistant track coach and substitute teacher for the Ferguson-Florissant School District in Berkeley, Mo., before returning to her alma mater in 1997. She is a member of both the US Track Coaches Association of America (USTCA) and USA Track & Field.
