Bulldogs' Holland, Bevevino claim South/Southeast Region coaching awards

GENEVA, Ohio – Texas Lutheran Men's Track & Field Head Coach Darlene Holland and assistant coach Ben Bevevino each picked up major United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association South/Southeast Regional Awards at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships banquet on Wednesday.

Holland was named the South/Southeast Region Men's Track & Field Coach of the Year, and Bevevino was named the South/Southeast Region Men's Track & Field Assistant Coach of the Year.

Holland picked up her second South/Southeast Region Men's Track & Field Coach of the Year award. She previously received the honor in 2017.

Holland guided the Bulldogs to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's team title for the third consecutive year, and she did so in just the fifth year of the program's re-start.

Holland is in her seventh season as a head coach at TLU. She also is the head coach for TLU Women's and Men's Cross Country and for Indoor/Outdoor Women's Track & Field.

Holland first took the head coaching role for TLU Women's Cross Country and Women's Indoor/Outdoor Track and Field at the start of the 2012-13 academic year. She started at TLU in the fall of 2006 as an assistant coach. The TLU Men's Cross Country and Men's Track & Field programs began and re-started, respectively, in 2014 with Holland as head coach of those programs.

This year, TLU has seven men's entries into the 2019 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which began Thursday in Geneva, Ohio at the SPIRE Institute.

TLU has men's track and field participants in the 400 meters (Connor Thompson), the 200 (Darren Jones), the 100 (Jones and Paris Foster), the 110 Hurdles (Foster), the shot put (Garrett Garza), and the 4x100 relay (Foster, Jones, Thompson, and Tyler Dykes).

The Bulldogs have a top-30 national team ranking in men's track and field. The team has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the South/Southeast Region rankings.

Bevevino is in his first year as an assistant coach with the Bulldogs.

Bevevino came to TLU from Clarion University (Pa.), where he served as the interim women's head track and field coach.

During his time at Clarion, Bevevino's student-athletes broke 12 shool records, notched 38 "Hall of Fame" performances (top five all-time), collected three total USTFCCCA Division II All-Academic awards (two team, one individual), and recorded 32 scholar-athlete awards.

Prior to his time as the interim coach at Clarion, Bevevino was a graduate assistant for cross country and track & field at California University of Pennsylvania.