A familiar face leads the Portland State cross country and track & field programs, as Jonathan Marcus, an assistant coach with the Vikings from 2012 to 2015, took over as head coach of both programs on July 17, 2023. He’ll enter his second year at the helm of both programs during the 2024-25 season.
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In his first year as head coach, Marcus helped lead Dieumerci Migani to the NCAA West First Round in the triple jump. Migani’s regional appearance came after he set two school records on back-to-back days at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships. His first school record came in the 100 meters, where he bettered a 21-year-old record while finishing in 10.51 seconds. Migani set his second standard a day later in the triple jump, becoming the first Viking ever to crack 50 feet in the event with a best mark of 50-00.75 (15.26m).
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During his time as an assistant earlier in his career, Marcus helped kickstart the Vikings' resurgence in the distance events. Marcus led Sarah Dean to All-Big Sky honors at the 2013 Big Sky Cross Country Championships, making Dean the program's first All-Big Sky runner since 1999 at the time. Additionally, the 2014 women's cross country team recorded the program's then-highest finish within the Big Sky Conference, relative to the size of the field, with a sixth-place finish at that year's conference meet.
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On the track, Marcus led Dean to a conference title in the outdoor 1,500 meters at the 2014 Big Sky Championships, while Dean (10,000m), Bianca Martin (1,500m), Camelia Mayfield (10,000m, x2) and Amber Rozcicha (1,500m) all qualified for the NCAA West First Round during Marcus' tenure as an assistant. Dean, Martin and Rozcicha still rank 1-2-3 in the all-time rankings in the women's outdoor 1,500 meters, having traded off the school record between themselves over the 2013 and 2014 seasons. All told, Marcus' athletes set school records in six different events during his tenure as an assistant between the women's indoor mile, 3k and 5k; men's indoor 3k and DMR; and women's outdoor 1,500m.
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ROOTED IN PORTLAND’S RUNNING CULTURE
In addition to his coaching stops with the Vikings, Marcus founded High Performance West, a Portland-based running group of sub-elite and elite middle distance runners. In that role from 2015 to 2020, Marcus helped lead Tara Welling (women's 5k & 10k) and McKayla Fricker (women's 800m) to qualifying marks for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials. Eleanor Fulton also twice placed in the top five at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships between a fifth-place finish in 2017 and a fourth-place finish in 2019.
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Since 2018, Marcus has run High Performance Growth, LLC, which has 600+ active members subscribing to online educational courses and content related to track & field and running. He also served as an assistant coach at Catlin Gabel from 2020-23 where he helped lead the boys team to OSAA 3A state titles in 2021 and 2022. Marcus' distance runners contributed to both trophies between back-to-back individual titles in the boys 800m (Eli Foster in 2021; Mike Hart in 2022), and fourth-place finishes in the 1,500m and 3k by Evan Williams (now at Pomona-Pitzer) in 2022. The Catlin Gabel girls team placed fifth at the 2022 OSAA 3A state meet behind two individual titles in the 1,500m and 3k from Megan Cover (now at Occidental College).
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Other stops in Marcus' coaching career include serving as a volunteer assistant coach with the Bowerman Track Club pro team from 2010-15. He also served as head coach of the Jacuzzi Boys Athletic Club and Team Athena Running Club from 2014-15, as well as the Run Portland Running Club from 2010-14. As a high performance meet director, Marcus has led meets at the Portland Track Festival and Stumptown Twilight from 2010-20, the Hoka One One Adrian Martinez High Performance Classic from 2014-19, and the USATF Middle Distance High Performance Classic from 2011-19.
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Marcus remains connected to the broader running community within Portland and the state of Oregon. Outside of coaching, Marcus served as USATF event chair for men's middle and long distance development from 2012-20. He also served on the Board of Directors for the Oregon Association of the USATF from 2010-15.
