The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Assistant Coach Mario Sategna
01.03.2005 | Track & Field / Cross Country m, Track & Field / Cross Country
Full Name: Mario Sategna
Hometown: Bloomfield, New Mexico
High School: Bloomfield High School (Bloomfield, New Mexico)
College: LSU '96 (Bachelor of Science, Kinesiology), Minnesota '02 (Master of Education, Applied Kinesiology)
In his fifth season with the Texas men's track and field program, assistant coach Mario Sategna has been instrumental in bringing the Longhorns' program to the national level.
Since joining the staff in 2004, Sategna has coached three NCAA national champions and helped UT to six top-10 NCAA team finishes. He was on staff for two of UT's all-time best NCAA Indoor team finishes (2006-fourth place; 2007 - third place) and the program's third-place outdoor team performance in 2006. His athletes helped UT sweep the 2006 Big 12 Conference indoor and outdoor crowns, and a share of the 2007 indoor league title.
The 2006 USTFCCCA National Assistant Coach of the Year for men's jumps and combined events was instrumental in the individual careers of NCAA collegiate record holder Trey Hardee, the only three-time NCAA Heptathlon Champion ever in Donovan Kilmartin and two-time NCAA champion and UT high jump school record holder Andra Manson.
Under Sategna's tutelage, Hardee set a new collegiate decathlon record at the Texas Relays. Hardee totaled 8,465 points to top the seven-year-old record previously held by Tennessee's Tom Pappas. The score was the highest in the world up to that point in 2006 as he ended the season with the second highest decathlon score in the world that season. After Hardee broke his hand in December of 2006 and ended his combined events college career, Sategna helped Hardee to an NCAA runner-up finish in the open long jump.
Sategna, who is becoming one of the top combined events coaches in the NCAA, also guided Kilmartin to a historic feat. With his third NCAA Indoor Heptathlon Championship in March of 2007, Kilmartin became the only male, multi-time heptathlon champion in NCAA history. The 2007 NCAA Division I Co-Indoor Field Athlete of the Year is also a standout student in the classroom. In addition to six All-American honors and four Big 12 crowns, Kilmartin is a two-time ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-American.
In the high jump, Sategna worked with one of the best high jumpers in UT history in Manson. Manson ended his four-year career under Sategna with an NCAA Indoor runner-up finish in the high jump, clearing seven feet, six inches at the 2007 national meet. While competing in burnt orange, he earned seven All-American honors, including two NCAA titles in 2004, tied UT's indoor record in the high jump, and registered the second highest outdoor high jump mark ever for a Longhorn. He shares the NCAA Midwest Region record in the high jump after winning in 2006. The America junior record-holder was crowned world junior and U.S. junior champion in 2002. Manson won his fourth consecutive indoor conference title in helping UT to the team co-championship.
Showing his coaching expertise in the throws, Sategna worked with All-American Brian Robison and two-time NCAA Midwest Region Champion Derek Randall.
Sategna was named the 2006 USTFCCCA Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year for men's throws after the duo's performances that year.
After working his way toward a Big 12 outdoor shot put title in 2005, Robison placed sixth in the shot put at the 2006 NCAA Indoor Championships before sweeping the shot put (with a school-record toss of 68-3.25) and discus (195-10) at the 2006 Big 12 Outdoor Championships. Robison became a two-time All-American by taking second in the shot put at the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Championships with a toss of 66-5.25.
Randall also thrived with Sategna, becoming only the fourth Longhorn to throw 200 feet in the discus. Randall won back-to-back NCAA Midwest Region Discus crowns and qualified for two NCAA Outdoor Championships (2006, 2007). He became Texas' first discus All-American since 1986, when Doug Lowell collected All-America honors.
In 2007, Sategna guided three individuals to indoor All-American honors in Manson, Hardee and Kilmartin, and helped six student-athletes qualify for the outdoor national championship. Four student-athletes in the group were first-time NCAA outdoor qualifiers with Texas.
Included in the group of NCAA Outdoor competitors were two automatic qualifiers in Manson and Randall, two at-large qualifiers - junior Joseph Laine and senior Samyr Laine, and two freshmen provisional qualifiers - Andrew Webb and Shawn Schmidt.
Randall earned an automatic spot after winning the discus while Manson placed in the top five high jumpers at the 2007 NCAA Midwest Region Championship. Davis and Laine earned at-large bids in the triple jump and over the course of the season, moved in the UT all-time top 10 record book. Sategna continued the UT's representation in the combined events at NCAA's with freshmen Andrew Webb and Shawn Schmidt.
Prior to the 2007 season, Sategna's work with the Longhorns paid dividends during the 2006 indoor season, as Hardee set a new NCAA heptathlon record at the New Mexico Multi-Events Meet with a score of 6,208 points and Kilmartin captured the NCAA heptathlon title with a score of 6,048. Hardee also added a seventh-place showing in the long jump (25-5.25) at the NCAA meet, while Ronald Hill placed eighth (25-0).
Year two in Austin was a fruitful season for Sategna, as Hardee captured the decathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in his first season as a Longhorn with a score of 7,881. Kilmartin added a fourth-place All-America finish. Kilmartin and Hardee earned All-America honors in the heptathlon at the NCAA Indoors, as well, placing second and third, respectively. Manson added a third-place finish in the high jump after winning the Big 12 indoor title for a second consecutive season with a leap of 7-5. Also at the Big 12 Indoor Championships, Kilmartin topped the seven-year-old conference record, as well as the facility record at the University of Nebraska, when he tallied 5,791 points in the heptathlon. Kilmartin also took 11th in the decathlon at the U.S. Championships.
Sategna's student-athletes were equally productive at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, as Robison became the first Texas track/football athlete since Eric Metcalf in 1987 to win a conference title, claiming the shot put with a personal best toss of 64-7.75. Robison also became the first track/football athlete to win a Big 12 championship in the nine-year history of the conference. Robison added a 13th-place finish at the U.S. Championships with a toss of 63-2.
Sategna's pupils also excelled in international competition. Kilmartin scored a personal-best total of 7,794 points to earn a third-place finish at the USA versus Germany dual competition in the summer of 2005, making him the second-highest American scorer at the event.
In his first year with the Longhorns, Sategna produced two NCAA indoor champions (Manson and Kilmartin), one NCAA outdoor champion (Manson) and two Big 12 champions (Manson and Tom Engwall [javelin]), while four of his UT athletes qualified for the Olympic trials. Sategna was instrumental in helping many of his athletes gain recognition on both the national and international level. First, his work helped Manson clear a personal best of 7-7 1/4 in the high jump at the NCAA Championships in 2004, a jump that ranked Manson number 10 in the world. Second, he played a key role in helping Kilmartin reach number six in the world after his performance at the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships with a score of 6,136, a new collegiate record.
Sategna came to Texas from the University of Minnesota where he was the men's associate head coach for four years (1999-02). In that position, he was in charge of the Gophers' throws, multi-events, pole vault and high hurdler events. He coached student-athletes to four Big 10 individual crowns, two All-America honors and eight school records. Sategna also helped guide Minnesota to the Big 10 Conference Outdoor title, a first-place finish in the USTCA Indoor Team Power Rankings and top-10 showings at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships during the 2003 campaign.
Before his tenure at Minnesota, Sategna served as an assistant coach in charge of throws at Wichita State from 1998-99. Prior to his stint with the Shockers, Sategna was a physical education teacher and track and field coach at Albuquerque (N.M.) Academy in 1997-98 and a volunteer assistant track and field coach at LSU in 1996-97.
A standout decathlete, Sategna was a three-time All-American at LSU in the 1990s. He won the 1994 Southeastern Conference title and the 1995 NCAA crown in the decathlon, and his personal-best point total of 8,172 still stands as the LSU record and ranks among the NCAA top 10 all-time point totals. He also finished sixth in the World University Games, was a 1996 United States Olympic Trials qualifier and won the 1997 U.S. versus Germany Decathlon Dual meet (8,107).
A native of Bloomfield, N.M., Sategna earned a bachelor of science degree in kinesiology from LSU in 1996 and a master of education degree in applied kinesiology from Minnesota in 2002. Sategna is USTAF Level II certified in sprints, hurdles, throws and multi-events.
Mario and his wife, Dahlia, reside in Austin with their two children.
