The head coach for six sports -- cross country, indoor track and outdoor track for both men and women -- Janis Christopher continues to build MSU Denver into competitive status in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
She begins her 11th season at MSU Denver and her ninth season as the men's and women's track and field head coach in 2024-25, while also beginning her fourth season as head coach for the men's and women's cross country programs.
In track & field, she specializes in coaching the sprinters, horizontal jumpers and hurdlers while overseeing the entire program.
In 2024, sprinter Naleia Sowell emerged under Christopher's tutelage and qualified for the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships in the 400 meters after winning the RMAC championships in the event and improving her personal best by 11 seconds in just two seasons. She was the MSU Denver women's team's first national qualifier outdoors since 2015 and first RMAC champion outdoors since 2013.
Sowell (who also set the school record in the 200) was part of an outdoor team that set nine school records -- the others were Maya Ries in the 100 hurdles, Taylor Engram in the 3,000 steeplechase, the 4x400 relay of Sowell, Allyssa Romero, Audrynn Street and Claire Hummel, Grace Solarin in the shot put, discus and hammer throw, and Jocelyn Korbe in the heptathlon. The Roadrunners women also set six records in indoors (Ries in the 60 hurdles, Romero in the 200, the 4x400 relay of Romero, Street, Raygen Ivins and Sowell, Korbe in the high jump and Solarin in both the shot put and weight throw).
For the men, Brandon Simpson broke his own outdoor program records in the javelin and hammer throw and well as the indoor shot put.
Outdoors, Sowell earned All-RMAC first team honors, while Romero (400), Ries (100 hurdles) and Solarin (hammer) earned All-RMAC second team. For the men outdoors, Sean Pecenka (110 hurdles) and Isaiah Williams (high jump) earned All-RMAC second team. The MSU Denver had a program-record four All-RMAC honorees indoors, with Sowell (400) making the first team and Romero (400), Ries (60 hurdles) and Solarin (weight throw) making second team. Meanwhile, for the men, both Anthony Martinez (60 hurdles) and Noel Lopez (5,000) made the All-RMAC second team indoors.
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In cross country in 2023, both Noel Lopez and JJ Ramey qualified for the Division II National Championships, becoming the first MSU Denver men to do so since 2015.
The 2023 outdoor season saw the Roadrunners continue to take down school records while also adding more throwers and multi-sport athletes to the program. Program records were set by Ries in the women's 100-meter hurdles, Hummel in the women's 200 meters, both the women's 4x100 and 4x400 relays, Brooklynn Jones in the women's javelin, and by Solarin in the women's discus and hammer throw. Jade Marvel established the heptathlon record. For the men, PJ Guidry set a school record in the triple jump, while Brandon Simpson set school marks in the shot put, javelin and hammer. For the women, Ries and Abi Read (3,000 meters) both earned All-RMAC first team, while the 4x100 relay (Hummel, Romero, Jessica Hobson and Jaivion Lattimore) as well as Romero (200, 400) and Jones (javelin) gained All-RMAC second team status. Nick Nowlen (800), Anthony Martinez (110 hurdles) and Ethan Loper (400) were all named to the All-RMAC second team for the men. The women scored 40 points at the RMAC Championships, the program's best since scoring 48 in 2013. The women placed eighth, while the men scored 22 points for ninth.
Indoors in 2022-23, Hummel set the program record in the 60 (one week after Lattimore had broken it), Ries broke her own mark in the 60 hurdles, Romero took over the top time in the 200 and 400, Jocelyn Korbe set the high jump mark, Marvel set the pentathlon record, and Solarin broke the shot put record while establishing the program best in the weight throw. For the men, Lopez broke the 12-year-old school record in the 5,000 meters, while Simpson established program records in the shot put and weight throw. For the men, Lopez earned All-RMAC first team in the 5,000, while Martinez (60 hurdles) and Nowlen (800) were each named to the second team, while Ries made All-RMAC first team for the women.
The 2022 cross country season saw Lopez place 16th individually while leading the men to a seventh-place result at the RMAC Championships, then JJ Ramey finished 19th individually at the South Central Regional while narrowly missing an at-large invitation to the National Championships. The women were led all season by Read, who was 38th at the RMAC Championships while leading the team to a ninth-place finish.
The 2022 outdoor season saw MSU Denver set school records in three events (Ries, women's 100-meter hurdles; women's 4x400 relay of Kamryn Scott, Hummel, Audrynn Street and Teagan Garand; Korbe, javelin). The women had 25 performances that moved into, or improved upon, top-eight all-time status in their events, while the men had 22 such performers. Ries and Alliyah Molina (5,000) earned All-RMAC first team recognition, while Read and Anna Swanson (both in the 10,000) earned All-RMAC second team. For the men Brandon Bodner earned All-RMAC first team in the 800, and he was joined on the second team by Nowlen (800), Loper (200) and Martinez (110 hurdles). Nowlen and Bodner consistently posted some of the best times in program history for what has been one of its strongest events. The men finished eighth and the RMAC Championships with 32 points, while the women were ninth with 31 points. It was the women's team's highest point total since 2013 and the men's second-best total since 2014.
Indoors in 2021-22, the MSU Denver women set school records in seven events (Lattimore, 60; Ries, 60 hurdles; Romero, 400; Erin Norton, 5000; Korbe, pentathlon, shot put and high jump; and Riley Negrey, high jump), while Brant Killmon set the record in the men's high jump. One of the major highlights was Nowlen qualifying for Division II Indoor Nationals in the 800 for the first time since 2019 while posting some of the top times in program history. The women had 45 performances that ranked among the top eight in program history in their events, while the men had 14. At the RMAC Championships, the men placed eighth with 19 points, while the women were ninth with 19. It matched the most points for the women since the 2014-15 season. Nowlen, in the men's 800, and Norton in the women's 5000 earned All-RMAC first team status, while for the men Bodner (800) and Loper (200) and for the women Ries (60 hurdles) and Romero (400) were All-RMAC second team.
The 2021 cross country seasons saw the MSU Denver women finish sixth in the RMAC and ninth at the Division II South Central Regional, while the men finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in those races.
The 2021 outdoor season was special for the MSU Denver track & field programs, as multiple school records were broken. Leading the way was sprinter Blaize Holland, who developed into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Men's Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year after winning both the 100 and 200 meters at the RMAC Championships as well as running on the second-place 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Holland qualified for the National Championships in both the 100 and 200 and earned All-America status -- MSU Denver's first since 2014 -- by finishing sixth in the 200. The MSU Denver men finished eighth at the RMAC Championships with 44 points -- the program's highest point total since 2010 -- while the women were 11th with 14 points, that program's best total since 2016. Holland set program records in both the 100 and 200, while the 4x100 and 4x400 relays (both men and women) set program records. Jaivion Lattimore set the program standard in the women's 100, while MSU Denver's women turned in the program's best performances since the 1980s in the 100 hurdles, the 400 hurdles, the 200 and the 400. The men had their best high jump effort since the 1970s. Holland was All-RMAC first team, while Ethan Loper in the 200, the men's 4x100 (Holland, Loper, Cole Howes, and Said Moreno) and the 4x400 (Holland, Loper, Moreno, Brandon Bodener) joined Lattimore (100) on the All-RMAC second team.
Norton and the women's team earned Academic Awards from the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
While Holland and Lattimore starred during the 2020-21 indoor season, so did Erin Norton, who qualified for Indoor Nationals in both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters while also posting a provisional qualifying time in the mile. She placed 11th in the 3000 and 10th in the 5000 as MSU Denver's first indoor nationals qualifier since 2016. In addition to Norton, Lattimore set the school record in the 60, Summer Jarolmen did the same in the 60 hurdles and Allyssa Romero had the program's best 400 time since the 1980s. The men made a serious impact on the school's all-time performer list and finished seventh at the RMAC Championship with 30.5 points, the program's best since 2011. The women's team's 10th-place total of 19 points was its best since 2015. Norton (3000) and Holland (200) were All-RMAC first team honorees, while Anna Swanson (women's 5000), Nick Nowlen (men's 800), Bodner (men's 800), Holland (60) and Loper (400) earned All-RMAC second-team status.
Christopher's teams continued their upward trajectories in 2019-20, as the men's indoor 4x400 relay of Bodner, Michael Dike, Loper and Moreno set the school record in the event, breaking the old mark by more than two seconds, and Moreno set the school record in the 500. Roadrunners earned multiple individual title. On the men's side, Bodner (800 meters), Dike (60) and Nikolas Polite (60) all earned All-RMAC second team distinction for their efforts.
Under Christopher's direction in 2018-19, Nowlen earned Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Co-Freshman of the Year honors while qualifying for the NCAA Division II Indoor Nationals. During the outdoor season, Nowlen (men's 800), Austin Davis (men's 110 hurdles) and Mikayla Renfroe (women's 400) all earned All-RMAC second team honors.
The previous year, Dike was a first team All-RMAC performer in the outdoor 400 meters as well as earning second-team status indoors in the 60 meters in addition to the 400. Also, women's high jumper Bree Wellington was second-team All-RMAC during the outdoor season.
In 2016-17, Christopher saw four athletes named to the All-RMAC team. While at the RMAC outdoor championships, she coached Robert Carlson to the RMAC men’s long jump title. To become champion, Carlson posted an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 24-feet, 1/2 inch (7.32 meters).
During the 2015-16 season, Christopher coached one of the most dominant jumpers that MSU Denver has seen. As a junior, Sarah Hughes starred in the triple jump, finishing first in the CSU-Pueblo Pack Classic, the CU Invitational, and in the Colorado School of Mines Invitational. Hughes earned first team All-RMAC for her performance in the triple jump, the first jumper in school history to achieve that status.
In 2014-15, Christopher coached 14 All-RMAC athletes and three All-Americans, and she helped the women's cross country team to a 23rd-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The women's team also finished 54th at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, led by All-America middle-distance runner Breanna Hemming. Hemming and Michael Warburton both earned second team All-America in outdoor track in the women's and men's 1,500 meters. Christopher's sprinters and jumpers had one of their best seasons in school history. Carlson, as a freshman, became the first MSU Denver jumper to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships, where he finished 15th. During the 2014-15 season, he and Jon Clarke combined for five all-conference awards between indoor and outdoor track.
Christopher joined the Roadrunners after spending 17 years as an assistant sprints/middle-distance track coach at Colorado School of Mines. At Mines, Christopher coached 42 All-Americans and two national champions. Her sprinters and runners also had success outside of the NCAA as she coached four USA Track & Field Junior Olympics national qualifiers and one USATF Junior Olympics regional champion in the 800 meters.
Concurrent with coaching at Mines, Christopher worked as a transportation engineer for Felsburg Holt & Ullevig in Centennial, Colo., and is a registered professional engineer. In addition to her engineering degree, Christopher holds an associate's degree in exercise science from the International Sports Science Association.
Christopher graduated from Colorado School of Mines in 1997 with a bachelor's in civil engineering. While at Mines she ran track and was a two-year team captain.
