Head Coach Brady Bonsall

With the start of the 2021-22 school year, Brady Bonsall enters his 15th season as the head men’s and women’s cross country coach and his 15th year running the Nebraska-Kearney track & field programs.

During his time at UNK, he has seen student-athletes qualify for the NCAA Division II Championships in both cross country and track, set numerous school records and earn All-American and Academic All-American honors.

Bonsall was named head cross country coach in June 2007. Upon his hiring he was also named an assistant track coach, mainly working with the mid-distance and distance runners. Before the start of the 2008 season he was promoted to co-head coach status alongside Andy Meyer. Following Meyer’s retiring in 2010 Bonsall assumed head track & field coach duties.

In cross country, Bonsall has seen success on both the men’s and women’s sides. During his tenure, six individuals (five men and one woman) have qualified for the NCAA's a total of nine times, earning three All-American honors.

The 2013 Loper men, making the program's first national appearance in 14 years, finished 17th. A year later UNK was again ranked nationally throughout the season and finished as MIAA runners up. The Lopers returned to the NCAA's in 2015, finishing 15th. This was after the squad had won the MIAA title, helping Bonsall be named the MIAA Coach of the Year. In 2016 Jahn Landrigan and Andrew Fields both qualified for nationals with the Lopers finishing sixth out of 25 teams in the tough Central Region. Coach Brady Bonsall

Back in 2011 Al Sanabria became the first Loper man to earn D2 All-American honors in 15 years. He has since gone on to run in international competitions for Costa Rica. Nebraska native Corbin Hansen was UNK's next All-American, earning the honor in 2018. He also qualified for the 2019 national meet, held in Sacramento. In 2009 Tanner Fruit became the first Loper to qualify for the NCAA's since 2004. The following season he again qualified, along with Sanabria. Since then the Ogallala native has twice taken part in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

During Bonsall’s first season in 2007, the women’s cross team earned their first national ranking at the D2 level. They also finished runner-up at the large Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota. More recently, UNK was runner up at the 2013 MIAA Championships, the highest finish for a Loper women's team in a D2 league meet.

Individually Columbus native Morgan Benesch became UNK's first-ever D2 All-American when she placed 27th at the 2015 championships. She repeated as an All-American in 2016, finishing 31st after winning the MIAA title.

On the track, Bonsall has seen even greater success coaching the distance runners and long sprinters. Including all the event areas he has directly coached 13 All-Americans, 15 MIAA individual champions, one MIAA relay champion squad and 29 school records have fallen in his tenure.

A four-time RMAC (Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) Men’s Track & Field Coach of the Year, Bonsall has also been named the Women’s C.O.Y. twice. As co-head coach in 2010 Bonsall helped lead the UNK men to their first outdoor RMAC title. The team repeated as they placed first at the 2011 RMAC indoor meet. In 2014 the Loper men were MIAA indoor runners up and then placed third in the spring. Including the cross country team's strong fall UNK ranked 10th nationally in total program standing.

TeamOff the track, Bonsall's teams have had equal success as 59 cross country members have been named USTFCCCA Academic Scholars. The women’s team has been ranked in the top 10 in the nation five times, including the 2010 squad, which tied for the nation's top GPA. In track and field 122 Lopers have been named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic team with 2011 women ranking second nationally in GPA. Four Lopers, including three in 2014, have been named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.

Individually Michelle (Dill) May became the first Loper woman to earn D2 All-American status in a distance running event as she was seventh in both the mile (indoors) and 1,500 (outdoors) in 2008. Also on the women's side, Marissa Bongers earned All-American status in the 800 at both the 2013 NCAA indoor and outdoor championships. Bongers was again among the nation's elite in 2014 and 2015, earning two more All-American honors.

Named the 2010 Central Region Men's Indoor COY, Bonsall saw Fruit win the 5,000 meter race at the Kansas Relays and place first in the 10,000 at the Drake Relays the following weekend. Two years later Bonsall coached two 800 meter All-Americans in Paul Pape (fourth) and Matt Shipp (fifth). Pape went on to earn All-American honors in the spring with Sanabria finishing 10th in the 10,000.

In the winter of 2015 Cole Wellnitz was an All-American for the first time, placing eighth in the mile. He helped the DMR team break a 53-year old school record that season as well. Finally at the 2013 NCAA outdoor meet, Fruit capped off a great career by finishing 14th in the 5,000 meter run with Pape (800), Nick Knudson (steeple) and Sanabria (5,000) each making the 2014 NCAA indoor/outdoor meets.

Finally both DMR teams broke school marks in 2020. The Loper men twice bested a four-year old record with the fastest foursome turning in a 9:55.17 to win an MIAA title. At the same meet the Loper women ran a 12:08.58 to best a 15-year old UNK record.

Prior to UNK, Bonsall spent six years working with the cross country and track and field programs at Ogallala High. In 2006 he helped the Indians win the Nebraska Class B state championship as co-head coach with Shane Fruit, who is the father of Tanner.

Bonsall also spent time teaching in the Ogallala, Broomfield (Colo.), and Lincoln school systems. He also taught courses at Mid-Plains C.C. in Ogallala.

After starring at Burwell High, Bonsall graduated from Nebraska-Lincoln in 1995 where he was a two-time NCAA qualifier in both cross country and track, as well as being a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American. He was a team captain for the 1996 'Husker indoor team that finished as NCAA runner up. Bonsall went on and competed in the steeplechase at the 1996 and 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials and the 1997 World University games.

He and his wife, Sherri, who also ran cross country and track at UNL, have a son, Nathan, and four daughters: Grace, Emma, Haley, and Sara. Grace will run for the Lopers starting with the 2020-21 season.