Evan Gerish is entering his 17th year as a track & field coach. He joined the Spartans’ program as the sprints, hurdles, & relays coach in the winter of 2023.
In the 2024 indoor season, Gerish’s first with the program, Blake Hardison set a school record (7.94) on the way to a national runner-up finish in the 60 meter hurdles, and the men’s 4x400 meter relay team broke the indoor school record (3:13.86) en route to an eighth place finish. The outdoor season saw Jojo Frost win the DIII outdoor national championship in the 400 meter hurdles with a school record (51.04), while the men’s 4x400 meter relay (setting an outdoor school record of 3:10.26) and 4x100 meter relay teams finished fifth and 10th at nationals respectively, on the way to a ninth place overall team finish, the highest in program history. Hardison also set the outdoor school record in the 110 meter hurdles (14.05), and several other top ten program marks were set by the UD men’s sprint crew.
In 2025, the Spartans sprint crew continued their assault on the top ten record book, highlighted by the men’s school record (1:28.73) in the indoor 4x200 meter relay, set by Nolan Lentz, Kali Freeman, Jaberrius Peake, and Hardison. Lentz also set the record in the indoor 200 meter dash (21.94). At the 2025 A-R-C Indoor Track & Field Championships, Otis Patterson led Peake and Lentz in a podium sweep of the 200 meter dash. Patterson went on to score 36.5 points at the meet, winning the 400 meter dash and anchoring the winning 4x400 meter relay team (with Peake, Freeman, and Andrew Hutchinson), as well as scoring second and third in the high jump and long jump, respectively. At indoor nationals, Hardison (running in the fastest 60 meter hurdles race in Division III history) and the men’s 4x400 meter relay both earned sixth place, helping UD to secure a 10th place team finish.
The men’s program spent the 2025 outdoor season consistently ranked sixth/seventh - the highest national ranking in team history. At the A-R-C Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Peake and Patterson finished 1-2 in the 200 meter dash, with Patterson winning the 400 meter dash and anchoring the winning 4x400 meter relay. Hardison finished second in the 110 meter hurdles, helping UD to secure a second consecutive runner-up team finish. At outdoor nationals, Patterson (400 meters) and the 4x400 meter relay team each ran the 10th fastest times of the weekend. Hardison also finished 13th in the 110 meter hurdles, and Peake and Patterson ended 20th and 21st in the 200 meter dash, respectively.
The UD women’s sprints program has seen growing success since the 2024 season. Keira Aliss, Grace Kahon, and Gianna Borzileri all achieved top ten times in school history in the 100 meter dash. Borzileri, Kahon, and Jaide Flowers made their mark on the 200 meters list, and Flowers set the school record in the 400 meter dash, with Borzileri currently sitting fourth. Hurdler Victoria Zoltowska ran the fifth fastest 60 meter hurdles race in UD history, while Mackenzie Rader and Faith Hayes both made the 400 meter hurdles list, sitting sixth and seventh respectively. The 2025 women’s 4x400 meter relay team broke into fifth place on the all-time list, showcasing UD’s growing depth.Â
Before joining the Spartans, Gerish served as a volunteer assistant coach at Division II MSU Denver from 2020 to 2023. Charged with revitalizing the hurdles program, he saw 17 school records fall in the 60 meter and 100 meter hurdles during his tenure between several athletes. Maya Ries placed third at the RMAC Championships in both 2022 and 2023, setting program records in both the 60 meter (8.71) and 100 meter (13.99) hurdles. The men’s program, which had no hurdlers in 2020, saw remarkable growth, with the 60 meter hurdles event squad being ranked 15th in Division II by February 2024. Anthony Martinez earned All-RMAC honors in both 2022 and 2023, becoming the second-fastest male hurdler in program history in the 60 meter (8.18) and 110 meter (14.61) hurdles.
Gerish also spent several years at the high school level. As a head coach, he spent the 2019-2021 seasons at Peak to Peak (CO) before starting a new program at The Pinnacle (CO), a K-12 school system where he taught middle school English. Prior to moving to Colorado, Gerish served as an assistant coach from 2012-2018 at the all-boys Detroit Catholic Central High School (MI) under the legendary Tony Magni, and got his start at Northville High School (MI), his alma mater, in 2010. Each year, Gerish recruited within the school to bring out between 12-15% of the student body to join the high school track team.
Hurdle Tech is an effort Gerish began in 2010, working with hurdlers locally and then nationally on hurdle form, technique, and theory. Between the years of 2010-2018, he worked with over a dozen hurdlers who qualified and placed at Michigan’s D1 MHSAA State Championships. Many of those hurdlers went on to compete for universities such as Boston, Brown, Cal, Grand Valley, Michigan, Michigan State, NC State, Penn, and others, with several moving on to post-collegiate athletics.
Gerish moved to Colorado in 2019, and began developing a new group of local hurdlers. From 2019-2023, Hurdle Tech celebrated five individual CHSAA state championships and three additional state runners-up across various divisions. In the 2023 season, he supported 16 hurdlers at state, with 13 making the podium. Colorado Hurdle Tech athletes have gone on to compete for universities such as Biola, Lewis & Clark, Minot State, McGill, Colorado Mesa, Stony Brook, Puget Sound, UCCS, Creighton, Jamestown, Colorado School of Mines, and the University of Michigan. Gerish also supported masters athletes, including Roman Marenin, who won the USATF Masters Championship in the 60 meter hurdles in 2022.
Coach Gerish earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Eastern Michigan in 2018, and also attended Division I Winthrop, where he was All-Big South Conference in the 60 meter hurdles in 2009. He is certified USATF Level 2 in Sprints, Hurdles, & Relays. He is also a speaker at coaching clinics around the country, speaking primarily on hurdle development.
