Tarleton State University Athletics

When the 2021-22 season begins, Pat Ponder will start his 15th season as the head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field program at Tarleton. Ponder’s duties involve year-round coaching as the leader of the men’s and women’s cross country teams in the fall, the men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams in the winter, and the men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams in the spring. 

Ponder will now guide the program through its second of four NCAA Division I transition years as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, beginning with the cross country season in the fall of 2021. 

With Ponder at the helm, Tarleton put together a spectacular showing during the 2021 outdoor track and field season in its first year competing at the Division I level. Tarleton crowned four individual conference champions – Jasmine McQuirter (100m dash), Gentrye Munden (high jump), Alan Palmer (long jump) and Oscar Rodriguez (discus) – and won the men’s 4x400m relay at the WAC Championships. In the process, Tarleton track and field became the first program in the Texans’ WAC and Division I era to produce a conference champion. Over the course of the three-day meet, 22 athletes earned All-WAC first or second team honors. The men’s team placed fourth out of nine teams with 91 points while the women finished sixth with 57 points. At the conclusion of the 2021 campaign, 30 athletes broke into or improved a mark on the top-10 of Tarleton’s outdoor records list.  

Ponder also facilitated the return of the Joe Gillespie Invitational, which was held on Apr. 22 on Oscar Frazier Memorial Track and Tarleton Memorial Stadium. It marked the first time in five years that Tarleton sponsored a home meet.  

Tarleton’s truncated spring 2021 cross country season featured a significant milestone as well. Ponder coached Kevin Baez to a 10th-place finish at the WAC Cross Country Championships with a time of 25:04 on the 8k course. He received All-Conference second team accolades at the conclusion of the race and became the first athlete in Tarleton sports history to receive All-WAC recognition 

The veteran head coach began his final season at the NCAA Division II level by leading both cross country teams to their third consecutive NCAA South Central Regional Championship appearances. The men’s team finished sixth at the Lone Star Conference Championships and followed up the performance with a 10th-place showing at the Regional Championships. On the women’s side, Tarleton placed fifth at the LSC Championships and 14th at the Regional Championships. Both cross country teams won the Bob Gravett Invitational to begin the 2019 campaign, with the men’s team posting a perfect score of 15 points.  

The Texans’ 2020 indoor track and field season and last as a member of the Lone Star Conference then fell subject to one of the most devastating finishes in Tarleton sports history. A program-best five student-athletes qualified for the NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships in Birmingham, Alabama and earned USTFCCCA All-American credentials. Then, the coronavirus pandemic ground college sports to a standstill. The National Championships were subsequently cancelled as was Tarleton's outdoor season. 

Despite missing out on the opportunity to compete on the national stage, Tarleton’s 2020 indoor season remains one of the best in program history. At the Lone Star Conference Championships, 21 athletes posted top-10 finishes, seven of whom earned medals. Additionally, four athletes secured NCAA provisional marks. Following the meet, 18 athletes earned All-LSC honors and an additional nine received USTFCCCA All-Region accolades.  

Tarleton also rewrote a chunk of its indoor school records list in 2020 under Ponder’s leadership. Eight men’s athletes broke school records: Mikel Stone in the 200m dash (21.63 seconds), Anterius Brown in the 400m dash (47.24 seconds), Michael Simcho in the 1,000m run (2:33.98), Alan Palmer in the long jump (24’ 0.75”) and the 4x400m relay team of Brown, Stone, Brandon McKissick and Colton Troutman (3:13.30). Additionally, Ponder coached his daughter, Kylee, to a school record-setting run in the 400m dash (55.98 seconds) and saw Jenna Brazeal reset indoor records in the 800m run (2:18.40) and 1,000m run (3:08.05). 

Ponder had an impressive run of dominance in the fall of 2017 as the men’s cross country team finished second in the LSC Championship meet and the ladies brought home an LSC Championship for the second time in three seasons. For his efforts with the women’s program, Ponder was named the LSC Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons. It was his seventh LSC Coach of the Year Award in his career. He followed up in track season by coaching Dalton Stidham to All-American honors in both indoor and outdoor competition, as well as the mile relay team in outdoor. Stidham was also named the LSC Co-Male Track Athlete of the Year for Indoor. He followed up in 2019 by sending Jasmine McQuirter to the outdoor national championships, where she finished 16th in the nation in the long jump. 

In 2016-17, the men’s cross country team were led by Ponder to a third-place finish at the Lone Star Conference Championships and 18th at the NCAA Regional Championships. Indoor track & field saw three new school records and the men’s and women’s teams had a combined nine all-conference selections. Ponder had one athlete – Rascellis Williams – reach the NCAA Indoor Championships. 

During the outdoor track & field season, Ashley Johnson broke a 20-year-old record in the 400m dash (55.19), she also won first at the LSC Championships. Ponder helped coach Rascellis Williams (high jump) and Chantz Chambers (long jump) to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Rascellis Williams won a bronze medal and earned All-American status for the first time in his career. 

Ponder had seven athletes earn All-LSC honors for the outdoor season, he also had seven athletes named to the USTFCCCA All-Region team. 
 
In 2015-16, Ponder led the women’s cross country team to its first Lone Star Conference championship and Aly Coughlin won the individual title. Ponder was named the LSC Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year. Under Ponder's guidance, Tarleton had both?LSC Academic Runners of the Year in Tye Doty and Aly Coughlin. 

Coughlin also won the LSC Female Runner of the Year award. Tarleton had seven runners on the All-LSC team for Cross Country. During Indoor Track & Field, Ponder had two athletes reach the NCAA Championships with Chase Rathke winning a bronze medal in the mile run. Ponder's athletes swept the LSC academic awards once again, with Jordan Jones and Coughlin claiming LSC Academic Athletes of the Year. For the Outdoor T&F season, Ponder had 11 athletes earn All-America status at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Seven athletes were named All-LSC performers for the Outdoor T&F season. 

In 2014-15, his men’s cross country team placed 18th at the South Central regional meet led by Dylan Willett. In the spring, the women’s team saw their first national champion in school history when Euphemia Edem won the long jump to become Ponder’s second national champion at Tarleton State. The Texans 4x400m relay team won a national championship when they finished with a time of 3:08.25 (current school record). Chase Rathke took home a silver medal in the 1500m run at the championships. 
 
In 2013-14 Ponder's women’s cross country team competed in the national championships for the first time in Tarleton’s 19-year NCAA history under Ponder’s guidance. The women's cross country team began the season unranked in the south central polls and picked in the middle of the pack in the LSC preseason polls but with the efforts of LSC Cross Country Runner of the Year, Lindsey Hinton, the LSC Newcomer of the Year, Aly Coughlin, and LSC Freshman of the Year, Audrey Shelton, Ponder's team advanced to Spokane, Washington and finished 24th in the nation. Ponder was named the Lone Star Conference Women's Coach of the Year while his athletes racked up numerous awards including individual superlatives, all-conference and all-region. 

He followed the fall season by leading Tarleton in its inaugural season of NCAA Indoor Track and Field, highlighted by a third-place national finish in the 800m run by Chase Rathke, before heading into the 2014 outdoor season. 

In the spring, Ponder led his runners to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships where Chase Rathke won the 1500m run to become Ponder's first national champion at Tarleton State. In all, Tarleton had six All-Americans named at the event. 

That year, Ponder and the women's cross country team had arguably the most remarkable season in school history - qualifying for the national championship meet for the first time - before sending a school-record nine athletes to the NCAA Outdoor National Track and Field Championships with a national champion in the 1500m run. 
 
In the 2012-13 school year, his team's found success in both the fall and spring semesters.?In the fall, Ponder guided the men's cross country to the South Central Regional meet after claiming a third-place finish at the Lone Star Conference Championships. 
 
The head coach then turned around in the spring and coached 11 track and field athletes to NCAA provisional marks. Ponder had four athletes - Nikki McNorton, Danyelle Dillard, Davene Carter and Chase Rathke - qualify for the NCAA National Championships and coached McNorton to her second straight All-American season as a high jumper. 
 
The 2012 year began with his spring track and field season in which his squad broke three school records. Ponder's track and field team also had three provisional qualifiers, two automatic qualifiers, three all-conference selections and an All-American, following a third-place finish in the high jump at the NCAA National Championships. 
 
He rounded out the 2012 calendar year by leading the Tarleton men's cross country team to a third-place finish in the LSC. In both the men's and women's team, Ponder coached three all-conference selections and one academic all-conference runner in the cross country season. 

In 14 seasons at Tarleton, Ponder has had numerous school records broken, seen 48 student-athletes earn All-American status and coached three?track and field national champions.?Ponder?is responsible for coaching Tarleton’s first ever men's All-American in cross country and the first cross country teams to qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championships.?Throughout his coaching career, Ponder has had 71?student-athletes earn All-American credentials and produced four?national champions.? 

Ponder arrived at Tarleton in 2007 and earned Lone Star Conference Coach of the Year recognition on seven occasions. 

He remains active in the United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association and previously was the cross country regional representative for the Lone Star Conference. He also served as the president of the Lone Star Coaches Committee, was a member of the LSC awards committee and chaired the conference’s ethics committee during Tarleton’s Division II era. 

Ponder is the meet director for the Joe Gillespie Invitational and has served as a meet director for Texas UIL Region 2A track and field championships. He has twice been a meet director for NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championships as well. 
 
Ponder is a former All-AIC (Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference) distance runner at Ouachita Baptist University, where he holds the current school record in the 10,000-meter run. He qualified to the NAIA National Championships in cross country and track on multiple occasions. 

A native of Linden Texas, Ponder earned a bachelor’s from Ouachita Baptist in 1988 and a master’s degree from Henderson State University in 1989. He and his wife, Michele, have two daughters, Kenna and Kylee, who ran track at Tarleton from 2017-2020 and owns the indoor school record in the 400m dash.