Trey Brokaw was hired as the Western Illinois University Director of Track & Field and Cross Country in the summer of 2021. Born in Macomb and raised on a farm twenty minutes north of campus, Brokaw is very familiar with west central Illinois. Despite inheriting one of the smallest rosters in the NCAA, his first three years guiding the team have been filled with academic and athletic success.
During the 2023-2024 academic year Brokaw guided the women's indoor and outdoor track & field teams to their highest conference finish in nearly two decades. Additionally, the program had one individual who qualified to the NCAA National Championships, four individuals qualified for the NCAA West Regional Championships, eight student-athletes won an Ohio Valley Conference Championship in their individual event, and ten school records were broken.
"My wife and I have loved our three years here in Macomb. When we arrived, there were only twenty-seven student-athletes on the roster. Despite the small team, we have enjoyed seeing the personal growth of each individual within the program. Through effective recruiting and talent development, our roster size grew to over eighty successful student-athletes and we believe the program is in a position to compete for conference team titles again soon."
In three years at the helm for WIU, Brokaw led track & field and cross country teams saw a total of eighteen school records fall. One of the most impressive records was set by Ackeen Colley in the men’s indoor 800 meters. Colley ran 1:47.98 despite his academic workload as a nursing student. The Oklahoma transfer ended his Leatherneck career with five school records, five conference titles, a Drake Relays 800 meter title, a conference record in the 800 meters, and a sixth place finish at the NCAA Division I Indoor National Championships.
Additional school records were established in 2024 by Logan Lommel in the 1500 meters and 3,000 meter steeplechase. His marks of 3:47.60 and 8:58.10 are even more impressive considering Lommel joined the track & field team from the WIU soccer team. Student teaching allowed him to attempt cross country for the first time ever. Cross country went very well with Lommel setting the men’s eight kilometer school record at 24:16.8. Overall, he broke eight WIU school records in cross country and track. Due to his academic and athletic success, Lommel was selected by the Ohio Valley Conference for their prestigious Scholar-Athlete Award. This award is given annually to three male and three female student-athletes out of nearly 5,000 possible recipients in the conference.
“When we arrived at WIU, there were no hurdlers, no multis, no vertical jumpers, two horizontal jumpers, two throwers, and four sprinters. We focused a lot of time and energy on recruiting to say the least. It’s been quite the process but I’m happy to say we have a balanced, healthy track & field program again here at Western Illinois University.”
New recruits completely transformed the record books at WIU. Sophomore Aliyah Adams was high point scorer at the 2024 indoor and outdoor championships. Indoors she won the triple jump, long jump, and placed second in the 60 meter hurdles, breaking the school record from 1983. Outdoors, Adams won the triple jump, placed second in the long jump, and finished third in the 100 meter hurdles. She was also a member of the quartet who broke the 4 x 100 relay school record from 1987.
Another member of that relay was sophomore Renee Raglin. Raglin was conference champion in the outdoor long jump as well. She had the furthest wind legal jump in school history, 20' 5" (6.22 meters); nearly four feet further than her personal best of 16' 9" (5.11 meters) from high school.
Another star recruit Brokaw signed was Arnie Grunert, a pole vaulter from Illinois. With a personal best of 12' 11.5" (3.95 meters) when he was signed, Grunert jumped 17' 9.25" (5.42 meters) as a sophomore to qualify for the NCAA National Championships. At Nationals he finished 17th in the NCAA despite being one of the youngest competitors in the field.
Brokaw arrived back in his hometown of Macomb after serving as the head cross country coach, assistant track & field coach, and recruiting coordinator at the University of Akron. While in Ohio, Brokaw helped lead a resurgence of the cross country programs which included the first Mid-American Conference champion and NCAA qualifier in men’s program history, Marc Migliozzi.
Additionally, Brokaw guided the women’s program to their highest conference and NCAA Regional finish in over a decade. Four individuals achieved all-conference honors; Haley Hess (6th), Mackenzie Andrews (7th), and Lindsey Scarton (8th in 2019 and 5th in 2020). Exemplifying Brokaw’s ability to develop runners, that trio of women placed 50th, 65th, and 70th at the conference cross country championships as freshmen.
In track & field, Akron middle distance and distance runners broke six school records and twice qualified for the NCAA championships. Nine individual conference champions were crowned during Brokaw’s tenure in Ohio. This included a duo sophomore sweep of the indoor 800 by Blake Lucius and Kyra Keurentjes in 2021. Brokaw also guided 2021 Conference Freshman-of-the-Year, Beth Arentz from Australia. Arentz was awarded the honor for scoring the most points of any freshmen; placing third in both the mile (4:49.69) and 3000 (9:39.31).
In 2019, Mackenzie Andrews qualified for the NCAA Championships in the mile and 3000 meter steeplechase. She also won five individual conference titles on her way to being selected as the most valuable performer of the conference championships. Her 4:35.63 mile was a conference record and she also set the mile record at the Kent State indoor track and field facility. Andrews won the 2019 Texas Relays in the Invitational 1500. Under Brokaw's direction as a post-collegiate runner, Andrews set personal bests of 4:12.91 in the 1500 and 4:27.83 in the mile, both marks making her one of the highest ranked runners in her home country of Australia.
Brokaw came to the University of Akron after serving as recruiting coordinator for the cross country and track and field programs at the University of Nebraska. His top signee, George Kusche of South Africa, was an 8x NCAA qualifier and set Nebraska school records in the mile (3:57.93) and the 3000 (7:50.93). Kusche went on to set the South African indoor national record in the 5,000 meters (13:28.95)
Before his time at Nebraska, Brokaw was an assistant coach, recruiting coordinator, and director of operations for the University of Northern Iowa. With his contributions the women’s cross country team won their first conference championship title in sixteen years and the men’s track and field team won their first conference title in a decade. While at UNI, Brokaw helped guide Alexina Wilson, a 2016 Drake Relays Champion and two-time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Brokaw is married to another central Illinois native, Stephanie (Brown) Brokaw. Stephanie won eight Illinois state titles while at Downs Tri-Valley. She was also an 8-time NCAA first team All-American at the University of Arkansas. Stephanie was SEC freshman-of-the-year in cross country and won an NCAA title in the distance medley relay for the Razorbacks. Stephanie still trains professionally as a middle-distance runner with personal bests of 2:01.71 in the 800 and 4:06.71 in the 1,500.
