Portland State University Athletics

David Hepburn was promoted to head coach of the Portland State cross country and track & field programs in August of 2017, after spending that past two seasons as the Vikings’ assistant coach in charge of field events and recruiting coordinator. He'll enter his sixth year at the helm of both programs during the 2022-23 season.

During his time as head coach, Hepburn has led the Vikings to:

• 3 NCAA National Qualifications (Women's Cross Country: Katie Camarena, 2021; Women's Indoor: Katie Camarena, Mile, 3k, 2022)
• 2 NCAA All-American Honors (Katie Camarena, second-team honoree in indoor mile & 3k in 2022)
• 1 USTFCCCA All-Region honoree (Women's Cross Country: Katie Camarena, 2021)
• 5 Big Sky Individual Titles (Sarah Medved, 3k Steeple, 2018, 2019; Donté Robinson, Heptathlon, 2018, 2019, Decathlon, 2018)
• 11 NCAA West Prelims Qualifications (Women: Sarah Medved, Steeple, 2018, 2019; Kaila Gibson, 10k, 2019, 2021; Alex Barbour, Steeplechase, 2023; Tatum Miller, Steeplechase, 2023; Bára Stýblová, Steeplechase, 2023 – Men: Alex Cisneros, 10k, 2018; Kamal-Craig Golaube, 110m Hurdles, 2018; Josh Snyder, Steeple, 2021; Chase Lovercheck, 800m, 2022)
• 2 Big Sky Conference Records (Women's Indoor: Katie Camarena in the Mile & 3k)
• School Records in 22 different events (Women’s Cross Country: 4k, 5k, 6k; Men's Cross Country: 6k, 10k; Women’s Indoor: 800m, Mile, 3k, 5k, DMR, Pole Vault; Men’s Indoor: Mile, 3k, 5k, 60m Hurdles, Pole Vault; Women’s Outdoor: 2k Steeple, 3k Steeple, Pole Vault; Men’s Outdoor: 10k, 3k Steeple, Triple Jump)
• 7 Podium Finishes at Big Sky Outdoor Championships (Women: Sarah Medved, Steeple, 2018, 2019; Nia Powdrell, 100m, 2018 – Men: Donté Robinson, Decathlon, 2018; Viktor Moen, Pole Vault, 2018; Chase Lovercheck, 800m, 2019, 2022)
• 4 Podium Finishes at Big Sky Indoor Championships (Women: Katie Camarena, 800m, 2022; DMR, 2023; Men: Donté Robinson, Heptathlon, 2018, 2019)
• 3 All-Big Sky Honorees in Cross Country (Kaila Gibson, 2018; Sarah Medved, 2018; Katie Camarena, 2021)
• 18 USTFCCCA All-Academic Team Honors (two more pending)
• 7 USTFCCCA All-Academic Individual Honorees (Women: Kaila Gibson, 2019, 2020, 2021; Katie Camarena, 2022 – Men: Donté Robinson, 2019; Braden Masanga, 2020; Josh Snyder, 2021)
• Men’s XC Program’s Best Finish at Big Sky Championships (3rd in 2022)
• Women’s XC Program’s Best Finish at Big Sky Championships (3rd in 2021)
• Men's XC Program's Best Finish at NCAA West Regional (8th in 2021)
• Women's XC Program's Best Finish at NCAA West Regional (11th in 2021)

The 2023 track season saw Hepburn lead the Vikings to several historic finishes between the Big Sky Indoor and Outdoor Championships. Outdoors, a trio of Vikings posted historic finishes at the conference meet. Bára Stýblová became the first Viking to score in both the women's 800 and 1,500 meters at a single conference meet since 2013, placing sixth in the 800 and fifth in the 1,500. On the men's side, Dom Morganti became the first Viking ever to score in the men's 10k, placing fourth overall. Jordan MacIntosh, meanwhile, became the first Viking since 2006 to score in the men's 1,500 meters, placing fifth overall.

Stýblová was also part of a trio of qualifiers for the NCAA West Prelims. Stýblová, Alex Barbour and Tatum Miller all qualified in the women's steeplechase, giving the Vikings the most qualifiers in the event outside of BYU. Miller and Stýblová traded off the school record in the steeplechase during the regular season. Stýblová initially set the record at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 13, breaking Sarah Medved's five-year-old mark with a time of 10:17.05. Miller then passed that two weeks later, finishing in 10:14.62 at the OSU High Performance Meet on April 28.

The trio of Barbour, Miller and Stýblová also ran three of the four legs on the Vikings' distance medley relay that placed second at the Big Sky Indoor Championships. That finish followed a school record in the DMR earlier in the season, when those three plus Wendy Hare broke a 16-year-old record in the event with their finish in 11:36.53 at the UW Invitational.

It’s also become a yearly tradition for the Vikings to set a program-best cross country season under Hepburn. In 2022, that took the shape of the men's program recording its best finish ever at the Big Sky Championships. The Viking men finished third at the conference meet, behind only a pair of nationally ranked teams in Northern Arizona (the eventual national champions) and Montana State. Jordan MacIntosh led the way with the best individual finish by a Viking men's runner, placing 12th overall. MacIntosh would also set the highest individual finish ever by a men's runner at the NCAA West Regional, where he'd place 27th overall.

The biggest step the Vikings took in 2022, however, came in the team's depth. The men had five runners finish in the top 25 at the Big Sky meet for the first time in program history. Before 2022, the Vikings had only ever placed two runners in the top 25, and even that they had only accomplished three times before. The men then placed six runners in the top 100 at the NCAA West Regional. Two years earlier, that record stood at three in the top 100, so the Vikings doubled that total in 2022.

Besides MacIntosh, Ben Collins set the freshman records for highest individual finishes by a Viking men's runner at the Big Sky meet (17th) and NCAA West Regional (56th).

The Vikings showed similar depth on the women's side. They placed four runners in the top 25 at the Big Sky meet for the second straight season after not having done so before last season. That depth led them to a fourth-place team finish at the conference meet, trailing only 2021's third-place finish as the program's best ever.

The women went on to finish 16th overall at the NCAA West Regional, just 61 points out of 11th which would have tied their highest finish ever at the meet.

Barbour led the Viking women at every meet at which she competed, placing 13th overall at the Big Sky meet and 56th at the NCAA West Regional. The women also had two runners win races during the season in Miller at the Viking Rust Buster and Stýblová at the Charles Bowles Invitational.

But the Vikings may have taken their largest leap under Hepburn in 2021. For the first time in program history, the Vikings had representation at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. Katie Camarena inserted some Viking green into the national meet after placing fifth at the NCAA West Regional, and finished 70th overall out of 250 of the best runners in the country.
 
Camarena’s appearance at nationals tied the bow around a season that included the:

• Best men’s team finish at NCAA West Regional (8th)
• Best women’s team finish at NCAA West Regional (11th, tied)
• Best women’s team finish at Big Sky Championships (3rd)
• Best individual finishes for a Viking woman at the Big Sky (3rd), NCAA West Regional (5th) and NCAA D1 National meets (70th, Katie Camarena every time)
• Best individual finish for a Viking man at the Big Sky Championships (14th, tied, by Jordan MacIntosh)
• First Top 10 regional ranking in USTFCCCA West Region (men ranked ninth on Oct. 18)

The Viking men’s eighth-place finish at the NCAA West Regional halved their previous best finish of 16th. Additionally, the Viking women’s third-place finish at conference beat their previous best finish by two spots.
 
The Viking women’s entire top five finished among the first 30 runners at the Big Sky meet, as depth was a theme throughout the season. The Vikings had never placed more than three runners in the top 30 before the 2021 meet, let alone five. The Vikings accomplished a similar feat at the NCAA West Regional where both teams placed their entire top five among the first 100 finishers. The men nearly placed their entire top five among the first 75 finishers, missing out by only two spots, while the women were one spot away from putting six runners in the top 100 of their race.
 
The highlight of the 2021 cross country season remained Camarena’s accomplishments, however. A transfer from UC Santa Barbara, Camarena made a quick impact in her time on the Park Blocks, as she would either set or become the Vikings’:

• First national cross country qualifier in Division I program history
• First USTFCCCA All-Region honoree in cross country
• Best individual finish at Big Sky Championships (4th)
• Best individual finish at NCAA West Regional (5th)
• 4k school record (at Viking Rust Buster, Sept. 3)
• 5k school record (at Big Sky Championships, Oct. 29)
• 6k school record (at Santa Clara Bronco Invitational, Oct. 16)

Camarena's success continued into the 2022 track & field indoor season in which she swept the Portland State school records in the 800 meters, mile, 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. Camarena's records in the mile and 3k also set new standards within the Big Sky Conference, and came on back-to-back days at the Husky Classic. Camarena became the first woman ever in the Big Sky Conference ever to crack nine minutes in the 3k while finishing in 8:57.08. Camarena then followed with an even-more-impressive mile race the following day as she beat out a deep field that included BYU's Courtney Wayment and Elizabeth Bird, a 2020 Olympic Finalist in the steeplechase for Great Britain. Camarena's winning time of 4:32.27 broke a 19-year-old conference record that Northern Arizona's Johanna Nilsson set in 2003.

Camarena went on to become the Vikings' first-ever double qualifier for the NCAA Indoor Championships, as she finished the regular season ranked third and 11th nationally in the mile and 3k, respectively. Camarena finished ninth and 13th in the finals of both events, making her the Vikings' first-ever two-time NCAA Second-Team All-American.

The NCAA Indoor Championships wrapped up Camarena's Viking career, which was admittedly short but incredibly impactful. In just one cross country and one indoor track & field season, Camarena: 

• Set 7 school records (Cross Country: 4k, 5k, 6k; Indoor: 800m, mile, 3k, 5k)
• Set 2 Big Sky Conference Records (indoor mile, 3k)
• Became the first woman in Big Sky Conference history to crack nine minutes in the indoor 3k (8:57.08 at the Husky Classic on Feb. 11)
• Became the first Viking to qualify for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships
• Became the Vikings' first qualifier for the NCAA Indoor Championships since Geronne Black in 2013, and the only Viking ever to qualify in two different events in the same year
• Became the Vikings' first two-time NCAA second-team All-American during the Division I era

Outside of Camarena, the Viking men set three school records during the indoor track & field season between two for Jordan MacIntosh and another for Keynan Abdi. MacIntosh and Abdi both went under the old record in the indoor 3k at the UW Indoor Preview, with MacIntosh finishing in 8:07.94 and Abdi in 8:14.04. MacIntosh then set the indoor mile record at 4:04.28 at the UW Invitational, while Abdi followed with the indoor 5k record (14:17.70) at the Husky Classic.

The 2022 outdoor season saw Chase Lovercheck return to the Big Sky podium in the 800 meters. Lovercheck made a surprise podium appearance as a freshman in 2019, but then battled the pandemic and a foot injury over the next two years before returning to the podium as a senior. Lovercheck placed second in the conference in a new personal best of 1:50.24. His time, which got altitude-adjusted down to sub-1:50, qualified him for the NCAA West Prelims, making him the first Viking to qualify in the 800 meters since Tony Crisofulli in 2011. 

MacIntosh added another school record late in the outdoor season at the Bell Canadian Track & Field Championships. MacIntosh finished fourth at the Canadian national meet in a time of 8:35.44, which bettered the record Josh Snyder set a year before. MacIntosh's time would have ranked him 13th in the NCAA had he competed during the collegiate season. 

Hepburn helped the Vikings navigate a successful 2021 track season despite restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic. Forced to train in pods of anywhere from four to 15 athletes, the Vikings still came through with five marks that were the program's fastest or second-fastest times in their respective events in at least 20 years. The crown jewel of that set was the school record in the men's steeplechase, which Snyder set twice during the season. Snyder topped out at 8:56.64 at the Oregon Relays, breaking a 39-year-old school record in the process. Besides that mark, Kaila Gibson ran the fastest women's 10k since 1987 (33:55.99), Tom Richardson ran the fastest men's 1,500m since 2001 (3:48.39), Keynan Abdi ran the fastest men's 5k since 2001 (14:14.00), and Cayla Seligman ran the second-fastest women's 5k since 1987 (16:38.83).

Snyder and Gibson also both made the NCAA West Prelims in 2021, marking a historic debut and long-awaited return for both runners, respectively. Snyder became the Vikings' first-ever qualifier in the men's steeplechase, while Gibson returned to the NCAA postseason after missing out on a chance to qualify in 2020 due to the pandemic. Gibson joined Camelia Mayfield as the Vikings' only two-time NCAA West Prelims qualifiers in the women's 10k.

The Vikings only competed at one meet during the unique 2021 winter cross country season, but that meet -- the Big Sky Cross Country Winter Championships -- brought more history as the Vikings posted a program-best finish. The Viking men set a program record by placing fifth, while the women's sixth-place finish meant the Vikings saw their best combined finish ever between their men's and women's teams. The finish at the Big Sky meet earned the Viking men their first-ever USTFCCCA West Region ranking (12th), while the women finished the season ranked 14th. The end-of-season rankings for both teams marked the first time both had been ranked simultaneously in program history.

In their second year since shifting to a distance-events focus, Hepburn led the Vikings to one of the program's best cross country seasons in the fall of 2019. The Viking men set a program-best finish at the Big Sky Championships, finishing seventh out of 11 teams. The Viking men also placed three runners in the top 100 of the NCAA West Regional for only the second time in program history.

Richardson led the Viking men with a 54th-place finish at the NCAA West Regional, the third-best individual finish ever by a Viking at the meet. Richardson's time of 31:00.2 also marked the second-best ever by a Viking in the cross country 10k. Snyder and Max Norman joined Richardson in the top 100 at 95th and 96th, respectively. Norman became only the second Viking men's runner to place in the top 100 in back-to-back years, joining one of the program's all-time greats in Michael Devenport.

All that amounted to a 20th-place team finish for the Viking men, the first time they've placed in the top 20 of the NCAA West Regional since 2003. The Vikings were a bit unlucky to not finish even higher, as only 46 points separated the Vikings from the 13th-place team at the meet.

The Viking women, meanwhile, placed two runners in the top 75 at the NCAA West Regional for the second straight season. Hunter Storm and Delaney White led the Viking women at 70th and 72nd overall, respectively. Storm led the Vikings at every meet during the season, and moved into the all-time top five in the cross country 4k and 6k. Storm came within 3.3 seconds of the school record in the 6k while finishing in 20:51.4 at the Bronco Invitational.

Hepburn also guided pole vaulter Braden Masanga to two school record-breaking performances during the 2020 indoor season. Masanga initially broke the record at the season-opening Vandal Open and Lauren McCluskey Multi, where he went two bars over the old record that had stood for 13 years. Masanga topped out at 16-04.75 (5.00m) at the Vandal Open, bettering his own indoor personal best by more than a foot.

Masanga added another 2.5 inches to the record while clearing 16-07.25 (5.06m) at the UW Invitational on Jan. 31. All told, Masanga surpassed the old record at four of the five meets at which he competed this season.

An expert multi-events coach, Hepburn oversaw the development of Viking mutli-eventers Donté Robinson and Kristen O'Handley. Robinson finished his Viking career as a three-time Big Sky champion in the multi-events, winning the 2018 and 2019 indoor heptathlon titles, as well as the 2018 outdoor decathlon title. Robinson became only the second Big Sky athlete to repeat as conference heptathlon champion, joining fellow Viking Nick Trubachik, who won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.

O'Handley, meanwhile, broke the 5,000-point barrier in the heptathlon for the first time in her career in 2019, scoring 5,029 points while placing fifth at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships. O'Handley improved her personal best by more than 450 points in the last month of the 2019 outdoor season, as she also set a near 300-point personal best at the Bryan Clay Invitational.

Hepburn has also led five Vikings to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in his head coaching tenure. Sarah Medved became the Vikings' first-ever qualifier in the steeplechase in 2018, and then repeated the feat as a fifth-year senior in 2019. Medved also repeated as the Big Sky champion in the steeplechase in 2019, a year after becoming the Vikings' first-ever conference champion in the event.

Gibson joined Medved at the 2019 NCAA West Prelims after she qualified in the women's 10,000 meters. Gibson qualified after running the 10k in 34:12.51 at the Stanford Invitational, a time that marked a 70-second personal best for Gibson and moved her up third all time in the outdoor 10k at Portland State.

Alex Cisneros and Kamal-Craig Golaube joined Medved at the NCAA West Prelims in 2018. Cisneros became the Vikings' first-ever qualifier in the men's 10,000 meters that season, while Golaube became only the second Viking to qualify in the men's 110-meter hurdles.

Hepburn led the Vikings to their best cross country season in program history in the fall of 2018, his second year at the helm of the program. The Viking women tied their highest team finish ever at the Big Sky meet with a fifth-place finish, after being picked to finish in a tie for ninth. Additionally, the Vikings' fifth-place finish came in the 11-team Big Sky Conference, making it the Vikings' best finish ever within the conference relative to the size of the field. The Viking women followed it up with a 15th-place finish at the NCAA West Regional, their highest finish at the meet since they placed 11th in 2002.

Medved and Gibson led the Viking women to their historic performances throughout the year, as they traded off going first and second all season. Medved and Gibson became the first Viking teammates – male or female – to place in the top 40 together at the NCAA West Regional, just under two weeks after they became the first Viking teammates to place in the top 10 together at the Big Sky Conference meet. The Vikings had never had two runners place in the top 50 of the NCAA West Regional before Medved and Gibson, let alone the top 40.

Medved led the Vikings with a 39th-place finish at the NCAA West Regional, the second highest finish ever by a Viking women's runner, behind only Melissa Telford's 28th-place finish in 1999. Medved broke the school record in the 6k with her finish at the NCAA West Regional meet, while Gibson also broke the previous record while finishing only three-tenths of a second behind her. Gibson broke the school record in the 4k earlier in the season.

Medved became only the second two-time All-Big Sky honoree in program history while finishing 10th at the Big Sky meet behind Gibson at ninth. Medved and Gibson finished with seven top-10 finishes between them during the season, including at the Cougar Classic where they each placed in the top five to lead the Vikings to their first-ever team win at a meet hosted by a Pac-12 school (Washington State). The Vikings upset regionally-ranked Washington State and Idaho at that meet, moving them into the USTFCCCA West Region rankings at 15th. The Vikings remained ranked 15th for three straight weeks, the longest period of time that the Vikings have ever been ranked in the poll.

The Viking men, meanwhile, recorded their second-best finish ever at the Big Sky meet relative to the size of the conference, as they placed eighth out of 11 teams after being picked to finish dead last before the season. The men also recorded their best finish at the NCAA West Regional meet since 2003 with a 21st-place finish.

Norman and Drew Seidel, both freshman in 2018, led the Viking men to their strong finishes at both meets. Norman and Seidel placed 31st and 32nd, respectively, at the Big Sky meet, making them the Vikings' first pair of freshmen men's runners to place in the top 35 of the Big Sky meet since 2002.

Norman and Seidel also led the Vikings with 98th- and 99th-place finishes at the NCAA West Regional, making them the first freshmen teammates to place in the top 100 together at the regional meet in program history. The Viking men hadn't had two runners of any classification finish in the top 100 of the NCAA West Regional since 2003, when Devenport and Blake Flanders placed 56th and 93rd overall, respectively. Norman's 98th-place finish also marked the highest finish by a first-year Viking men's runner at the regional since Devenport placed 64th overall in 2002.

In his first season as head track coach in 2018, Hepburn led Robinson to a sweep of the Big Sky heptathlon and decathlon titles, and saw Medved become the Vikings' first-ever Big Sky title-winner in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase. Viktor Moen and Nia Powdrell also earned All-Big Sky honors in the men's pole vault and women's 100 meters, respectively, with Moen becoming the first Viking ever to earn all-conference honors in the pole vault.

Under Hepburn, Robinson became the first Viking since Nick Trubachik in 2010 to sweep the Big Sky titles in the two multi-events. Robinson also moved up to second all time in the heptathlon and decathlon, trailing only Trubachik in both events, and ranked 30th nationally in the decathlon by the end of the season.

Overall, the Vikings set 10 school records in 2018 between the indoor and outdoor track seasons.

Hepburn led Cisneros and Gibson to a couple of record performances in his first year at the helm of the Viking cross country teams. Cisneros ran the fifth-best 8k time ever by a Viking at the Bronco Invitational, dipping below the 24-minute barrier for the first time with his finish in 23:54.20. Cisneros' time represented the best 8k time ever by a Viking outside the 2010 Big Sky Championships.

Gibson, meanwhile, ran the fourth-best 6k time ever by a Viking while finishing in 21:09.9 at the NCAA West Regional. Gibson's time placed within 12 seconds of the school record in the cross country 6k, which Sarah Dean set at 20:58.00 at the 2013 NCAA West Regional.
 
As a Viking assistant, Hepburn led Robinson to back-to-back second-place finishes in the indoor heptathlon and outdoor decathlon in 2017, making him the first Viking to earn all-conference honors in both multi-events since Trubachik won both in 2010. 

Hepburn also led Ta'mara Richey to her first NCAA West Prelims qualification in 2017, as she made it to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in the women's triple jump.

The Vikings set two school records in the field events in 2017, as well, as Jean-Luc Toku and Troy Bacon set the records in the men's triple jump and men's discus, respectively. Toku broke a 44-year-old school record in the men's triple jump with his jump of 48-07.25 (14.81m), beating out the old record of 48-06.00 (14.78m) that Don Hall set in 1973. Bacon, meanwhile, broke the school record in the discus with a throw of 163-08 (49.88m) in his first year competing for the Vikings after initially coming to Portland State as a football player.
 
In his first year as an assistant, Hepburn helped Viking athletes to three Big Sky titles, including a sweep of the indoor and outdoor triple jump titles for freshman ChaQuinn Cook. Cook became just the second Viking ever to sweep the indoor and outdoor triple jump titles in the same season, and the first freshman ever to do it. Spenser Schmidt also won the Big Sky title in the indoor long jump – the Vikings’ first conference title in the men’s indoor long jump since 2003 – and placed second in the outdoor long jump to earn All-Big Sky honors in May.
 
Both Cook and Schmidt qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds as well. Schmidt’s qualification on the men’s side marked the first time a Viking men’s athlete had qualified since 2012, and the first time a Viking had qualified in the men’s long jump since 2006.
 
Richey also earned a pair All-Big Sky honors during the indoor season, as she placed third in both the women’s long jump and triple jump.

Hepburn also spent a lot of time with the Portland State cross country teams in 2016, and helped both the men's and women's teams to two of their better seasons in program history. Medved earned All-Big Sky honors on the women's side, while Cisneros tied the highest individual finish by a Viking men's runner at the Big Sky meet. Cisneros also broke a 13-year-old school record in the cross country 10k at the NCAA West Regional at the end of the year, finishing in 30:29.8 to beat the old record by more than 37 seconds.
 
Before coming to Portland State, Hepburn coached as an assistant coach at Pacific (Ore.) University from 2014-16. He also coached as an assistant at San Diego State from 2002-03, as well as at three different Oregon high schools in Creswell High School (1997-2002), Bend High School (2004-05) and Hillsboro High School (2014).
 
Hepburn holds a USATF Level I Certification, as well as a USATF Level II Certification in the jumps. Additionally, Hepburn holds USTFCCCA certifications in the Combined Events and strength and conditioning.
 
As an athlete himself, Hepburn competed in the decathlon at the University of Oregon in 1994 and 1995. A year earlier, Hepburn placed first in the decathlon at the USATF Oregon Association meet.