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John Gartland is in his 37th season with Indiana State track and field in 2024-25 as an assistant coach after spending 27 years on staff as the women’s head coach. Gartland, a 2025 Indiana State Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee, works primarily with the Sycamores' high jumpers.
Gartland served as the women’s head cross country coach from 1988-2014 and the head women’s track & field coach from 1988-2010 before handing off the women’s track and field program to his former pupil and current director of the combined program, Angela Martin. Gartland remained on staff as an assistant until retiring after the 2015 season, instead choosing to remain in a volunteer capacity focusing on ISU’s men’s and women’s high jumpers.
Gartland is one of just 11 coaches in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference to be named to the league’s track and field All-Centennial Team, which was released in 2007. The veteran women’s head coach joined John McNichols on the list to form the only coaching tandem in the league on the all-time list.
The honor stems from his team’s successes over two decades on the course and on the track, including two cross country conference titles (1991, 1993), four indoor track conference titles (1993-95, 2001) and six outdoor crowns (1991-94, 1998-99). Gartland’s squads have also fared well at the national level as the women’s track and field teams have finished in the top-10 at the NCAA Championships three times, including a fifth-place finish at the 1993 NCAA Indoor Championship and a sixth-place finish at the 1994 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
As a head coach, Gartland coached 11 NCAA Champions, six NCAA runners-up, 50 All-Americans, 88 NCAA qualifiers, 200 MVC individual champions and 212 MVC Scholar-Athletes. He has been named the MVC or Gateway Coach of the Year 10 times (six in outdoor track & field, three in indoor track & field, and once in cross country) and the NCAA District V Coach of the Year four times (indoor track & field and outdoor track & field in both 1993 and 1994).
Gartland has been a jack-of-all-trades coach during his career with the Sycamores, specializing with distance runners and high jumpers, in addition to his duties with running the women’s program as a whole.
His most notable pupil during his time as a head coach, though, is seven-time NCAA Champion and world-class sprinter Holli Hyche, who he helped train in tandem with McNichols during her illustrious Sycamore career. Hyche earned 10 total All-American honors as a Sycamore while reigning as the fastest woman in the United States (and even gracing the cover of Track & Field News in August of 1993). Hyche’s wind-legal 11.03 still reigns as the seventh-fastest ever at the NCAA Outdoor meet in the 100-meter dash.
Another of Indiana State’s impressive sprinters during Gartland’s tenure is Omegia Keeys, who – along with Hyche, Cindy Dobbs and Anisa Evans – was part of a 4x100-meter relay team that took third outdoors in 1994. Keeys – also an All-American in the 200 the following season – went on to finish third in the 200-meter at the 1995 Pan American Games.
Several Sycamore high jumpers have also flourished under the guidance of Gartland, including Steve Smith, who qualified for four combined NCAA Championships and added two second-place finishes (1991 Indoor and 1994 Outdoor). Smith later went on to win a silver medal at the 1995 Pan-American Games, placed seventh at the 1995 Indoor World Championships in Barcelona, and participated in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1992, 1996 and 2000. He owns a career-best mark of 2.31m (7-07.00). Steve Parker, Gartland's third high jumper above 7-05.00 finished fourth in the NCAA twice with a mark of 2.27m (7-05.25).
Major Clay advanced to the NCAA Championships, as he competed in three straight championships (finishing 11th in 2011) before an injury kept him from competing as a senior. He also competed in two straight USA Outdoor Championships and had qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials but was unable to compete in 2012. Clay owns the indoor school record in the high jump with a mark of 2.26m (7-05.00). Jaime Murtagh became a two-time MVC Champion and the Irish National Champion under Gartland's coaching. He jumped a 2.18m (7-01.75) in 2018 and qualified three times for the NCAA East Preliminary Round. In all, high jumpers have qualified for the NCAA Championships 19 times under Gartland’s leadership with nine All-Americans and 40 MVC Champions.
Indiana State distance runners have often found their way to the top indoors and outdoors during Gartland’s tenure at ISU. Debbi Ramseyer leads an impressive group of runners as a winner of nine combined titles in track and two cross country championships to go along with 12 combined all-conference selections. Also included in that group are All-American Angie Martin, a three-time all-conference selection, Angela Lansing, who currently serves as Senior Associate Athletic Director at Indiana State, and Jessica (Crowder) Wayton, wife of former Sycamore coach Geoff Wayton, who was a cross country All-American in 2003.
Gartland’s women’s cross country teams were equally as successful in the classroom, racking up an incredible 20 All-Academic team honors alongside six Academic All-Americans. Twice his women’s teams earned the NCAA Public Recognition Award in 2010 and 2011, and for four straight seasons from 2000-03 Gartland’s women’s teams recorded a top-10 GPA in the NCAA – culminating with taking the top GPA in 2003 at 3.765.
In 2017, Gartland was honored by USATF with the Ron Buss Award which recognizes a coach whose career has a distinguished record of service in leadership roles, teaching, strengthening curricula, as well as advising and mentoring coaches. The award winner is a person is a leader whose counsel others seek, and who selflessly gives his/her time and talents to the profession.
At the 2018 USTFCCCA Convention in San Antonio, Texas, Gartland was honored as the Jimmy Carnes Award Recipient. The Jimmy Carnes Distinguished Service Award is presented to individuals who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in their service to the Association and to the sports of cross country and track & field. Since its inception in 2007, twelve coaches (including Gartland) have received the prestigious award and Gartland is the first Missouri Valley Conference honoree. This award is handed out each December at the USTFCCCA Convention.
Indiana State Track & Field also honored Gartland during the 2019 indoor season by hosting the inaugural John Gartland Invitational on January 19 in the newly renovated Indoor Track & Field Facility.
Gartland was also honored by USATF in 2015 when he received the Kevin McGill Award. The Kevin McGill Award recognizes a veteran coach with 25 or more years of involvement who has shown an exceptional level of passion and initiative in Coaching Education.
Prior to accepting his position at Indiana State, Gartland served an assistant track coach and women’s cross country coach from 1982-88 at Western Michigan. The Broncos won three-consecutive Mid-American Conference titles from 1984-86 and he mentored 13 MAC individual champions and six runners-up in the throws and distances. He also coached three NCAA qualifiers, including 1986 third-place finisher Caroline Mullen whose time of 15:56.30 is still the 27th fastest 5000-meter time by an Irish woman, as well as two All-Americans, and one U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier in the distances.
Before heading to Western Michigan, Gartland served as a graduate assistant track coach and women’s cross country coach at Indiana under head coach Sam Bell from 1980-82. Under his guidance, the Hoosier women finished sixth in the Big Ten in cross country and second in the NCAA Regional Meet, while two of his runners advanced to the NCAA Championships in 1981.
Gartland’s coaching ledger began in Wisconsin, where he was the head boys cross country coach at Madison Edgewood High School from 1976-78. He also served as the assistant girls track coach at Edgewood in 1976 before being named the head coach in 1977 and the boys assistant coach in 1978. From there, he moved on to become the head boy’s track coach at Madison West High School from 1978-80, while also spending time as a part-time assistant men’s track coach at Wisconsin from 1979-80.
Aside from coaching, Gartland served as the president of the USTFCCCA Division I Cross Country Coaches Association from 2006 to 2009 and has been the Assistant Meet Director at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2002 and from 2004-11, 2013-14, and 2016. In 2006, he spent time as the Second Vice-President of the Women’s Intercollegiate Cross Country Coaches Association and from 1993-96 he was the District V Women’s Cross Country Representative. He served on the USTFCCCA Board of Directors from 2007-09 and 2011-15. He also had a seven-year stint on USA Track and Field’s Coaching Education Executive Committee from 2014-21. The chair of that committee was Dr. Larry Judge, a former Sycamore thrower and assistant coach.
From 1984 to 2008, Gartland was a USA Track and Field Certified Masters Level Official and was a member of Indiana USA Track and Field’s Board of Directors until 2006. He has also received the following coaching certifications by USA Track and Field: Level I, Level II (Endurance and Combined Events), and Level I Lead Instructor. He completed his third Level II certification in jumps during summer 2014. In 2016 Gartland completed Level III certification in jumps for USATF, and his Level V certification in jumps for the International Association of Athletics Federation (now World Athletics). Additionally he has attended seven Level III seminars.
Gartland is also a veteran teacher, as he served as a lecturer in the English department and the department of Kinesiology, Recreation & Sport Management at Indiana State while teaching freshman composition from 1992-2001. He received the Indiana State College of Arts and Sciences Educational Excellence Award in 1994.
A native of Madison, Wis., Gartland earned his undergraduate degree from Wisconsin-La Crosse in 1970 as double-major in English and physical education. As a two-year letter winner at UW-La Crosse, he was two-time all-conference sprinter and a member of the school-record setting 4x100-meter relay team. After serving three years of active duty in the U.S. Army from 1970-73, he returned and later received a Master’s Degree in Kinesiology from Indiana University in 1982.
Gartland served in the U.S. Army from 1970-1973 and served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1974 until 1995. He received the Army Commendation Medal and the Good Conduct Medal for enlisted service in Turkey (1971-1973), and received the Army Achievement Medal for Commissioned Service in Team Spirit 1991 in South Korea. Gartland currently holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Retired Reserve.
John Gartland – By the Numbers
Women’s Cross Country Head Coach, 1988-2014
Women’s Track & Field Head Coach, 1988-2010
Assistant Coach, 2011-15, 2017
Volunteer Assistant, 2016-23
Assistant Coach, 2023-present
- 37 total seasons spent coaching at Indiana State (27 as a head coach)
- 12 MVC team titles – Four indoor (1993-95, 2001), six outdoor (1991-94, 1998-99), two cross country (1991, 1993)
- 10-time MVC Coach of the Year
- 4-time District V Coach of the Year (‘93 Indoor, ‘93 Outdoor, ‘94 Indoor, ‘94 Outdoor)
- 17 Members on the MVC All-Centennial Team
- 11 NCAA Champions (7 by Holli Hyche, 4 by Kylie Hutson)
- 6 NCAA Runners-Up (three women, three men)
- 50 All-Americans (39 women, 11 men)
- 9 Women’s NCAA Top-25 finishes
- 4-straight top-15 NCAA women’s finishes in 1993-94
- 85 NCAA Track Qualifiers (67 women, 18 men)
- 3 NCAA XC Qualifiers
- 199 MVC Track Champions (101 men, 98 women)
- 40 MVC High Jump Champions
- 4 MVC Women’s XC Champions
- 11 XC Women’s All-Region
- 30 XC All-MVC
- 159 Women’s Track MVC Scholar-Athletes
- 53 Women’s XC MVC Scholar-Athletes
- 20 Women’s Academic All-American XC Teams
- 6 Women’s XC Academic All-Americans
- 2 Women’s XC NCAA Public Recognition Award Teams (2010-11)
- 4 straight years with an NCAA top-10 GPA in women’s XC (2000-03)
- Top women’s XC GPA in the NCAA in 2003 with a 3.765
