Alex Wills enters his Second season in Canyon as an Assistant Track & Field Coach for the Buffs and Lady Buffs specializing in the Jumps and Multi events.
In Wills’ first year, the 2017-18 Lady Buffs captured their first NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field National Championship and fifth straight LSC Indoor Championship. The Lady Buff Jumpers accounted for 2 LSC event champions (LJ, TJ) and capped an amazing indoor season with Fatim Affessi winning the NCAA Title in the triple jump and finishing 4th in the long jump to pick up All-American honors while teammate Rellie Kaputin finished of her WT career with a NCAA title of her own in the long jump and a 3rd place All-American finish in the triple jump. Affessi was also named the USTFCCCA Women’s National Field Athlete of the Year.
During the 2018 Outdoor season, Wills guided Fatim Affessi to two individual LSC titles (LJ & TJ) and helped her defend her long jump NCAA title and also earn a 3rd place All-American finish in the triple jump as well. The Lady Buffs would go on to finish 6th as a team at the Outdoor NCAA Championships.
On the men’s side, the 2017-18 indoor season saw two jumpers qualify for the Indoor NCAA Championships and Abraham Seaneke making All-American Status in the Men’s Triple Jump. Abraham Seaneke would All- American again at the Outdoor NCAA Championships in Men’s Triple Jump and just narrowly miss in Men’s Long Jump taking 9th in the finals. Paolo Lazaric also qualified for the NCAA Championships in the high jump both indoors and outdoors. The Buffs finished 16th at the indoor championships and 15th at the outdoor championships and combined to finish as the 6th best team in the USTFCCCA Program of the Year Standings.
All together 5 school records were broken by Men’s and Women’s Jumpers in the 2017-2018 season.
Prior to WT, Wills competed for the Adams State Grizzlies in a variety of events from Pole Vault and 400m to the Decathlon. In the 2016-2017 season Wills made the move to coaching and was a volunteer assistant at Adams State University and worked with Jump’s and Multi’s event groups. In that year the Lady Grizzlies won the Indoor National Championship and were 3rd at the Outdoor National Championships. The Men’s team also had a good year with a 4th place finish at the Indoor National Championship and won their ninth straight Damon Martin Division II Men’s Program of the Year Award.
