Aug. 20, 2007

FAIRFAX, Va. - Katrina Allen will join the George Mason women's track and field/cross country staff as an assistant coach for the upcoming 2007-08 season, head coach Angie Taylor announced today. Her primary responsibilities include coaching the jumpers, recruiting and administrative duties.

"I am very excited to have Katrina join the women's track and field/cross country staff at George Mason," Taylor said. "She has had a great deal of success coaching all events, and particularly the jumping events, for the University of Maryland. I know our student-athletes will learn a great deal from Coach Allen."

Allen, who spent the past four years at the University of Maryland as an assistant with both the men's and women's track and field teams, is a Level I certified coach in track and field. In her four years in College Park, Md., she coached three NCAA qualifiers and ACC Championship scorers such as Heather Houston, Toni Aluko, Kierra Foster and Lynn Hernandez. Her work with Foster and Hernandez aided their progress toward All-America status in 2006, which both earned during the indoor and outdoor NCAA nationals.

Foster, who won a silver medal competing for Team USA at the 2006 NACAC Championships, won the 2006 NCAA East Regional Championship in the long jump, setting a new meet record of 6.61 meters (21 ft. 8.25 in.) in the process. Aluko experienced similar success, becoming the first female at Maryland to win an ACC title in the high jump when she placed first in the event at the 2007 ACC Championships with a mark of 1.78 meters (5 ft. 10 in.). She also coached Dominic Berger, a three-time NCAA All-American, a four-time ACC Champion and the 2004 USATF Junior National Champion, in the 110-meter hurdles.

Allen came to Maryland from Suitland High School in Suitland, Md., where she was an assistant coach for both the men's and women's track and field teams from 2001 to 2003. She helped lead the men's team to two state championships.

Prior to her duties at Suitland, Allen was highly successful as the head coach of the women's track and field team at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Md. from 1999-2001, earning four state championships at the school. For her accomplishments, Allen was named the Washington Post All-Met High School Coach of the Year two consecutive years (1999 and 2000). Allen also spent time coaching at Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Md. and Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, D.C.

As a student-athlete at James Madison, where she graduated in December 1994 with a bachelor's degree in exercise science/sports medicine, Allen competed in the triple jump, long jump, hurdles and relay events. She was a finalist at the Junior Nationals her freshman season in the triple jump, making the Junior National team. She was an All-East finalist in the hurdles and triple jump, and ran on the relay teams at the ECAC Championships during her four years at JMU.