The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Track & Field / Cross Country
- Title:
- Assistant Coach (Vertical Jumps, Combined Events)
Jim Garnham entered his first season as an assistant coach at The University of Texas during the 2020-21 season, coaching the vertical jumps and combined events. Prior to his arrival in Austin, Garnham spent two seasons with Purdue after a decade of success at Notre Dame.
In his fifth season on the Forty Acres, Coach Garnham led Osawese Agbonkonkon to his first NCAA Championships appearance in the high jump. Agbonkonkon was the Texas Relays Champion with a personal best clearance of 2.17m (7-1.50). His freshman pole vaulter Sam Abati reached the NCAA West First Round and finished 15th with a make of 5.17m (16-11.50) but set a personal best at 5.32m (17-5.50) in his first collegiate season. Sophomore Brock Lewis was a two-time SEC scorer in the multis highlighted by two fifth-place finishes. He scored 7,259 points in the decathlon for an overall PB with four personal bests along the way and set a heptathlon personal best at 5,439 points. The women's side was led by freshman Meagan Humphries who was also fifth in the heptathlon at the SEC Championships with 5,452 points and moved to No. 4 on UT's All-Time Performer list.
The 2023-24 season saw Garnham and Leo Neugebauer make Texas history when Neugebauer became the first male in Texas history to win the Bowerman Award - the highest honor in collegiate track and field. Neugebauer swept the NCAA Championships, winning his first-ever heptathlon and defended his decathlon title in record-breaking fashion. Neugebauer finished his collegiate career as a nine-time All-American, became the seventh man in world history to surpass 8,900 points winning the dec with 8,961, broke the decathlon world record in discus with a heave of 57.70m and had the highest day one score of 4,685 points. Neugebauer holds four of the top-five scores in the decathlon in NCAA history. He posted the fourth-best score in NCAA history in the heptathlon with 6,347 points. He also swept the long jump titles at the Big 12 Championships in his final collegiate season.
Garnham also coached freshman Brock Lewis to score at both Big 12 Championships, finishing eighth in the heptathlon with 5,269 points and seventh in the decathlon with 7,067 points. Sam Hurley reached the NCAA West First Round in pole vault and posted a season high clearance of 5.30m (17-4.50) and cleared 2.21m (7-3) for a personal best in high jump.
On the women's side, Kristine Blazevica posted two third-place finishes at both NCAA Championships, scoring 4,427 points in the pentathlon and 6,126 points in the heptathlon. Blazevica broke her own program record in the pentathlon with 4,430 points at the Big 12 Championships and is the No. 2 performer in UT history in the heptathlon with 6,146 points.
In his first three seasons on the Forty, Garnham has coached his Longhorns to 12 First Team All-America honors. His time with Leo Neugebauer has only improved each season with Neugebauer winning the 2023 NCAA Decathlon title with 8,836 points - the Germany national record, NCAA record, NCAA Championships record, Texas record and the No. 8 performance in world history. Neugebauer has finished in the top-5 in five of his six NCAA appearances. Neugebauer capped his remarkable season off with a fifth-place finish at the World Athletics Championships led by coach Garnham. Garnham also coached Sam Hurley to reach the NCAA Outdoor Championships in '23 for the first time in his career.
On the women's side, Kristine Blazevica has led the Longhorns in the multis with three-straight Big 12 heptathlon titles (the first in Big 12 history) and has been a five-time First Team All-American. Blazevica owns the Texas program record in the pentathlon and has a pair of bronze medal performances - first at the NCAA 2021 Indoor Championships and the 2023 Outdoor Championships. Garnham also coached Tyra Gittens in the 2022 season where she was the runner-up during the NCAA Indoor Championships clearing 1.89m (6-2.25). During that season, Gittens also matched her PB clearing 1.95m (6-4.75).
During his two seasons at Purdue, Garnham, the 2019 USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year, coached a pair of All-Americans in Isaiah Martin (men’s heptathlon/decathlon) and Janae Moffitt (women’s high jump). Moffitt cleared a season-best 1.82m/5-11.5 en route to winning the Big Ten high jump title and finishing with the sixth-best mark nationally in 2020. Martin scored 5,631 points in the heptathlon, finished third at the Big Ten Championships and ranked No. 15 nationally to earn All-America honors indoors. He also was an All-American in the decathlon at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
While at Notre Dame, Garnham mentored 14 All-Americans, 18. NCAA qualifiers, 61 NCAA Regional qualifiers, 17 conference champions, nine school-record performers and one Capital One Academic All-America honoree. He was also named the 2019 USTFCCCA Great Lakes Men's Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
His standout pupils in South Bend include Nate Richartz, Matthew Birzer and Carly Loefell, who all earned All-America status under his tutelage. Richartz was a five-time All-America and three-time conference champion in the men’s pole vault, setting the Fighting Irish’s school record and tying the ACC record with a clearance of 5.70m/18-8.5 at the outdoor conference meet in 2018. Birzer earned a pair of All-America honors in the men’s high jump, including a second-team honor outdoors in 2018, while Loefell posted the highest women’s heptathlon score in Notre Dame History (5,594) and earned All-America honors at the 2013 NCAA Championships
Prior to his time at Notre Dame, Garnham spent three seasons at the University of Tulsa, where he mentored an NCAA qualifier in the shot put, a USATF indoor shot put qualifier, 17 NCAA Regional qualifiers, four Conference USA championships and 20 All-C-USA student-athletes. In just three seasons at TU, his student-athletes produced a combined 18 program records for the Golden Hurricane.
Garnham’s coaching career began as an assistant at the University of Buffalo, where he spent five seasons supervising multi-event athletes, javelin throwers and hurdlers. He coached a USATF indoor heptathlon qualifier, a Canadian Olympic trials qualifier in the women’s heptathlon, two NCAA qualifiers, four NCAA East Regional qualifiers and five Mid-American Conference champions.
Garnham earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Kent State in 1998 and will be joined in Austin by his wife, Kelly and two kids, Bryleigh Anne and Layton.
