NEW ORLEANS – Indiana State Cross Country and Track and Field Program Director and Head Coach Angela Martin was selected as the 2026 USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Women's Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year, as announced by the coaches association.

Martin, who is in her 16th season in charge of the women's track and field program and her 10th as the head coach of the men's program at Indiana State, picked up her second regional honor of the year after being named the 2026 USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Women's Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year in March.
 
The 2026 MVC Women's Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year and 2026 MVC Women's Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year, Martin led the Sycamores to their third straight conference title while lifting the trophy on home soil for the second time in the last three years. Indiana State set a program record for points scored at a women's outdoor championship with 183.5 while winning its seventh MVC Women's Track and Field Championship since the start of the 2021-22 season.
 
Martin's Sycamores qualified seven women's entries for the NCAA East First Round in Lexington, with Rachel Mehringer going on to be named the program's first First Team All-American since 2019 after finishing seventh in the 100m hurdles at the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Indiana State earned national recognition this season, as the Trees checked in at No. 67 nationally following the MVC Outdoor Championships and finished the season at No. 62 in the nation, the program's highest outdoor ranking since the 2018-19 season.
 
The Trees featured nine different marks which ranked in the top 10 in the Great Lakes Region this season, including Rachel Mehringer's region-leading time in the 100m hurdles which also ranked in the top five nationally in 2026. Mehringer's wind-legal season-best time of 12.72 also qualified her for the USATF Outdoor Championships, making her the first Sycamore since 2023 to compete in the US Championships while still enrolled at Indiana State.
 
Indiana State finished the season at No. 8 in the Great Lakes Region rankings, the best among teams outside the Power Four conferences, and had five event groups (hammer throw, shot put, 100m hurdles, heptathlon, discus) which ranked in the top 25 nationally in the final set of Event Squad rankings.
 
Under Martin's tutelage, Mehringer continued her dominance by breaking her own Indiana State and Missouri Valley Conference records in the 100m hurdles with the first-ever times under 13 seconds in the conference. Mehringer, who clocked nine 100m hurdles times under 13 seconds this season, ran wind-aided times of 12.64 and 12.71 while also adding wind-legal times of 12.72, 12.75 and 12.79 during the NCAA East First Rounds and NCAA Outdoor Championships.
 
Mehringer was also a part of two Indiana State victories at the Drake Relays, the program's first since 2023, and she anchored a school record in the shuttle hurdle relay at 55.59, the fastest in MVC history. Sycamore student-athletes and set 21 program top-10 marks over the course of the 2026 outdoor season, including the two hurdles records and Janiya Bowman's program long jump record (6.27m/20-7).
 
Brittney Burak (10,000m), Amy Luttrell (pole vault), Janiya Bowman (long jump), Jahnel Bowman (triple jump) Aliseonna Garnett (discus) and Emma Yoder (hammer throw) all won individual conference titles in addition to Mehringer's conference hardware, with Indiana State student-athletes earning 16 all-conference accolades for top-three finishes. Six different Sycamore athletes – Jahnel Bowman, Janiya Bowman, Garnett, Mehringer, Cora Williams and Emma Yoder – qualified for the NCAA postseason.
 
The regional honor marks the eighth Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year honor for Martin in her career, having earned five women's coach of the year accolades (2013 outdoor, 2022 indoor, 2025 indoor, 2026 indoor, 2026 outdoor) and three men's coach of the year honors (2023 outdoor, 2024 outdoor, 2025 outdoor) Martin has earned at least one Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year honor in each of the last five seasons, totaling seven Great Lakes Coach of the Year accolades in that span. She is also a 17-time MVC Coach of the Year, having won multiple conference coach of the year honors in each of the last five seasons.
 
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