COACHING HIGHLIGHTS AT PORTLAND STATE (2008-PRESENT)
• 36 Big Sky Individual Championships (24 in the sprints)
• Six NCAA National Championship Qualifiers (out of nine total in program history)
• 47 NCAA West Regional Qualifiers
• Four Big Sky Athletes of the Meet
• Coached the program’s only NCAA Division I First-team All-American (Nick Trubachik, Decathlon, 2010)
• Coached all three of the program's NCAA Division I Second-team All-Americans (Geronne Black, Indoor 60m, 2013; Joenisha Vinson, Outdoor Heptathlon, 2013; Baileh Simms, Outdoor Long Jump, 2015)
• 59 Big Sky Silver and Bronze Medalists: 31 Silver; 28 Bronze
• 96 All-Big Sky honorees
• 38 school records broken, including 24 out of a possible 54 women’s records
• Seven Big Sky Conference records (women’s indoor 55 meters, indoor 60 meters, indoor 200 meters, outdoor 100 meters, outdoor 200 meters, outdoor 100-meter hurdles and outdoor long jump)
• Coached Karene King to National Indoor Record for British Virgin Islands
• Oversaw Sarah Dean as she became the PSU women's cross country program's first cross country All-Big Sky honoree since 1999 with a seventh-place finish at the 2013 Big Sky Championships
OTHER NOTES ON HARRISON
• The Portland State women have set school records in eight of the nine indoor and outdoor sprints 400 meters and under
• Under Harrison, the Portland State women won five straight Big Sky titles from 2009-13 in the shortest sprint at the Big Sky Indoor Championships (Jernise Saunders, 60m, 2009; Geronne Black, 55m, 2010 and 2012; Geronne Black, 60m, 2011 and 2013)
• The Portland State women won six straight Big Sky titles in the 100 meters at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships from 2008-13 (Jernise Saunders, 2008 and 2009; Geronne Black, 2010, 2012 and 2013; Karene King, 2011)
• Took over the Portland State track program in 2009 after former head coach Kebba Tolbert left to become an assistant at UTEP
• Was a regionally renowned high school sprint coach, serving at Benson and Jefferson High Schools in Portland before coming to Portland State
Head track and field coach Ronnye Harrison has revitalized the track program on the Park Blocks, and has made the sprint program a force to be reckoned with regionally and nationally as he enters his eighth season at the helm in 2015-16. The Portland State women have won 24 Big Sky titles in the sprints, and have set school records in eight of the nine indoor and outdoor sprints 400 meters and under.
Most recently, Harrison led the Vikings to one of their most successful seasons in program history in 2015. Baileh Simms and Jasmine Woods each qualified for the national meet in 2015, the first time the Vikings have ever had more than one athlete qualify for the national meet in a single season. Simms also became just the Vikings' third second-team NCAA All-American in school history during the season, as she placed 15th in the long jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Simms and Woods qualified for the national meet after breaking multiple records earlier in the season. Simms defended her Big Sky title in the long jump with a Portland State-, Big Sky championship meet- and conference-record jump of 20-09.25 (6.33m), while Woods broke the Portland State and Big Sky Conference records with her time of 11.35 seconds in the first round of the 100 meters at the NCAA West Preliminary.
The Vikings also set school records in the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays during the season, while Rockwell Tufty also broke his own school record in the men's high jump with a mark of 6-10.25 (2.09m).
Additionally, the Viking women placed third at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships, the third-highest finish for the Vikings in program history, behind only the team's second-place finishes in 2008 and 2013. Senior Jazmin Ratcliff also defended her Big Sky title in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2015 Big Sky meet, and provided the Vikings' lone individual winner at the Big Sky Indoor Championships earlier in the year, as she won her first title in the indoor 60-meter hurdles. Ratcliff won her title while breaking the school record in the 60-meter hurdles, while Amanda Boman (5,000m) and the men's distance medley relay team also set school records during the
Harrison led the Vikings to six Big Sky titles between the 2014 indoor and outdoor seasons, as well as 10 new school records. The Vikings set two school records at the 2014 Big Sky Outdoor Championships, as the Viking women's 4x100-meter relay won the Big Sky title in a record 45.11 seconds, while Ratcliff won the Big Sky title in the 100-meter hurdles while breaking the school, conference and championship records in the process. Ratcliff was also one of six PSU athletes to qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in Fayetteville, Ark., where she came within a tenth of a second of qualifying for nationals in the 100-meter hurdles. Additionally, Harrison coached four athletes to the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships, where CeCelia Jackson came within a hundreth of a second of medaling in the 100-meter hurdles.
During the 2013 indoor and outdoor seasons, Harrison led the PSU women to their best finish at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships since 2006, with 110 points and a second-place finish in 2013. The Viking women won four Big Sky titles at the 2013 outdoor meet, their most at a single conference meet since the team won six at the 2005 outdoor meet. The PSU women also placed second at the Big Sky Indoor Championships and recorded over 90 points at the meet for the second straight season.
The 2013 season also capped the individual careers of Geronne Black and Joenisha Vinson, two of the most decorated athletes in Portland State history, who Harrison coached from their freshman seasons on. Black won Big Sky titles in the indoor 55 meters, outdoor 100 meters and 4x100-meter relay last season, while Vinson was named the Big Sky Athlete of the Meet at the indoor and outdoor conference meets after winning titles in the indoor pentathlon, outdoor heptathlon and outdoor long jump.
Black won her title in the indoor 55 meters in record time, running the distance in 6.86 seconds to break the Portland State and Big Sky Conference records in the event. Black also became the first Portland State athlete to qualify for the NCAA Indoor National Championships with her time in the 60 meters. Vinson, meanwhile, qualified for the NCAA Outdoor National Championships in the heptathlon, and broke her own school record at nationals with 5,563 points in the competition.
Overall, Harrison has coached four of Portland State’s six all-time NCAA Division I qualifiers in Black (60m in 2013), Vinson (heptathlon in 2013), Jernise Saunders (200m in 2009) and Nick Trubachik (decathlon in 2010).
Harrison also developed sprinter Karene King, who set the Big Sky record in the indoor 200 meters in winning the event at the 2012 Big Sky Indoor meet. King also set the Big Sky record in the outdoor 200 meters in 2011, a season in which she won four Big Sky titles between the indoor 200, outdoor 100, outdoor 200 and 4x100-meter relay. Additionally, Harrison coached King to the British Virgin Islands national indoor record in the 200 meters during the 2011 season.
Black also set Big Sky records in the indoor 60 meters (7.36 seconds) and outdoor 100 meters (11.39 seconds) during the 2012 season.
Saunders and Trubachik, meanwhile, posted historic finishes at the NCAA Outdoor National Championships during Harrison’s first two seasons at Portland State. Trubachik became the program’s first-ever NCAA Division I All-American with a seventh-place finish in the the decathlon in 2010, while Saunders became the first sprinter in Portland State history to qualify for nationals in 2009, when she qualified in the 200 meters.
All told, Portland State athletes have won 34 Big Sky individual titles under Harrison, and earned 88 All-Big Sky honors. PSU athletes have also broken 37 school records under Harrison, including 24 of a 54 possible women’s records.
Harrison was named Portland State’s head track and field and cross country coach on Aug. 7, 2009, after serving as interim head coach since September 2008. Harrison had been hired as an assistant coach by then-head coach Kebba Tolbert in August, 2008, but Tobert left for a coaching job at UTEP shortly thereafter.
Prior to coming to Portland State, Harrison spent four years at Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, serving as the co-head coach for the boys and girls varsity track and field team. The boys and girls squads were both 2004 OSAA State Champions, and both placed in the top three at the 2005 state meet.
From 1998-2003, Harrison served as an assistant coach for the track and field teams at Jefferson High School in Portland. In 2000, the boys 4x100m relay team placed first at the OSAA 4A State Championships under Harrison’s tutelage.
Along with his work in track and field, Harrison is an accomplished jazz musician, and has taught jazz since 1981. He has performed the national anthem at Portland State sporting events on his saxophone.
A native of Portland, Harrison graduated from Jefferson in 1977 and served a total of seven years in the military, including the Oregon National Guard. He has studied at Marylhurst University, focusing on both music and business, and is currently pursuing his degree at Portland State.
