Cathrine Erickson 2025-26 Track and Field Staff

Cathrine Erickson was elevated to throws coach for the track and field program in November 2022. Since joining the program in her role as throws coach in 2022, Erickson has recruited and developed athletes who have rewritten the record books for the Irish and has helped produce four school records, five All-Americans, three Olympic Trials qualifiers, 20 national qualifiers, and 22 ACC All-Conference scorers across four seasons of competition.

The 2026 season delivered a landmark year for the Irish throws program. Obi Okeke claimed the ACC Indoor Championship in the shot put, became a rare triple NCAA East Region qualifier in the shot put, discus, and hammer, and earned All-American Honorable Mention honors outdoors. Okeke ranks second in Notre Dame history in four events — posting a season-best 19.32m in the shot put outdoors, 57.37m in the discus, 65.28m in the hammer, and 21.50m in the weight throw. Ben Pable shattered Notre Dame school records in both the hammer (67.27m) and weight throw (22.94m), earned All-American honors indoors, and qualified for the NCAA Championships in both events. Isabelle Esler and Chris White each qualified for the NCAA East Region Championships in the javelin. Esler and White captured ACC Runner-Up honors in the javelin while Zach Petko earned NCAA East Regional qualifier status in the shot put. The Irish throws group placed multiple ACC All-Conference scorers across the shot put, discus, hammer, and javelin in both men’s and women’s competition — combining for 59 points across the indoor and outdoor seasons.

The 2025 season continued the program’s upward trajectory, highlighted by key performances by Luke Himes and Jill Stafford. Himes took ACC Runner-Up honors in the indoor shot put and was an NCAA East Regional qualifier in the outdoor season. Stafford qualified for the NCAA Championships and holds the fourth-best mark in school history in the hammer.

The 2024 season brought additional ACC All-Conference performances from Cole Targart (shot put and discus) and Michael Shoaf (shot put). Shoaf and Blake Kusky both qualified for the NCAA Championships in the shot put and hammer, respectively. In 2023, Shoaf claimed the ACC Championship and earned All-American honors after setting a Notre Dame school record with a throw of over 20 meters in the shot put. That same season, John Keenan captured All-American recognition in the javelin and secured a school-record mark of 75.96m. He was part of a group of three Irish athletes who competed at the Olympic Trials – Keenan (javelin), Shoaf (shot put), and Maura Kimmel (discus).

Erickson’s connection to Notre Dame predates her full-time appointment. She served as a volunteer coach from March 2021 through November 2022 — stepping in during an extraordinarily difficult period for the program — and assisted in the development of Rachel Tanczos and Michael Shoaf during that span.

The results at Notre Dame are the product of a coaching career built across some of collegiate track and field’s most demanding environments. At Northeastern, Erickson was a three-time CAA Men’s Coach of the Year, guiding the program to 12 conference team championships, 25 individual conference champions, 18 national qualifiers, and eight school records from 2012-2018. At Harvard she rose from assistant to associate head coach and helped engineer a #5-ranked Track & Field News recruiting class — the sport’s most respected recruiting distinction — while coaching 18 NCAA qualifiers, 14 All-Ivy selections, seven Ivy League champions, and four Olympic Trials/USATF Senior National qualifiers from 2007-2012.

Earlier stops at Tennessee, Clemson, and Ole Miss added further credentials for Erickson:

• Coached the 2005 NCAA Indoor National Championship team at Tennessee
• Mentored a collegiate record holder and national hammer champion at Clemson
• Coached seven All-Americans, 13 conference champions, and a combined four NCAA Championship trophy finishes
• Served as the USATF National Development Coordinator for the Women’s Hammer Throw

A dual-sport NCAA Division I student-athlete in basketball and track and field at Florida State, Erickson earned All-ACC Academic Team and All-ACC recognition as a competitor.