UTEP Miners

UTEP Track & Field Announces New Additions Griffin, Owens and Zent to the Staff

8/11/2022 3:15:00 PM

By: Katrina Villareal

EL PASO – UTEP Track and Field Head Coach Mika Laaksonen announced the hiring of Rohsaan Griffin, Bridgette Owens and Christopher Zent to the track and field staff on Thursday.

Griffin and Owens will serve as assistant coaches for sprints, relays and hurdles, and Zent has been named the director of track operations.

"We haven't really experienced much turnover with our staff up to this year and now abruptly we get to replace half of it," Laaksonen said. "We're taking this as an opportunity to bring in new energy, individuals who have great work ethics and want to win in this sport at this level. I'm excited to be able to work with Bridgette, Christopher, and Rohsaan in the future. We are very pleased with the hires and the level of skill, will, talent, and passion coming in to help the program."

Griffin is a former American record holder and a two-time U.S. Champion in the 200-meter indoor. While an Athlete and Infantryman of the United States Army, Griffin was a 2003 world Military Games Finalist in the 200-meter. Griffin worked as an assistant track and field coach for the Tennessee Volunteers where he led the 4x100m relay teams to back-to-back NCAA Championships. Most recently, Griffin has coached in Shanghai, China, in sprints and in Manila, Philippines, for the Philippine National Team where he coached Kristina Knott in the Tokyo Olympics. Griffin was the 1996 NCAA champion in the 200-meter (20.24) - a season before former UTEP track star Obadele Thompson's championship.

Before starting her coaching career, Owens competed at the University of Florida and earned seven NCAA All-American titles, finished tenth at the USA Outdoor Championships in 2019, competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Trials, and is the record holder in the 100m hurdles at the University of Florida. Owens got her start in coaching at Daniel High School and got her collegiate coaching start as a volunteer assistant coach at California State University, Northridge and has most recently coached at Western Michigan as an assistant coach. As a coach Owens has had three NCAA Championship births, eight conference champions and 13 high school state meet qualifiers.

As a coach for high school track, Zent has had multiple successes. While at Deer Valley Zent had 13 AIA Division II Boys and Girls Cross Country team State qualifiers. He began his collegiate coaching career as a volunteer cross country/track and field coach at NM State in 2020. Most recently, Zent worked as the head coach for cross country and track and field at Ranger College. While at Ranger College, Zent led the men's and women's to two NJCAA Region V cross country honors and led the men's team to an appearance at 2021 NJCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.

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