Katie Camarena

Title

Volunteer Assistant Coach

Katie Camarena spent just six months competing for the Vikings after transferring to the school following her graduation at UC Santa Barbara. But those six months made an impact well beyond the short time span. That impact extends during the 2022-23 school year, which will be Camarena's first as a volunteer assistant.

The Vikings had a standout fall in Camarena's first fall as a coach for the Vikings. The Viking men set a program record by placing third at the Big Sky 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.

Alex 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 Tatum Miller at the Viking Rust Buster and Bára Stýblová at the Charles Bowles Invitational.

In her first indoor season with the Vikings as an assistant, Camarena helped lead the Vikings to a second-place finish in the women's DMR at the 2023 Big Sky Indoor Championships. That finish followed a school record in the DMR earlier in the season, as Barbour, Wendy Hare, Miller and Stýblová broke a 16-year-old record in the event with their finish in 11:36.53 at the UW Invitational.

Of course, Camarena has the athletic accolades to back up her coaching. In her lone year with the Vikings, Camarena became the first Viking to qualify for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships after placing fifth at the NCAA West Regional.

Camarena ended up finishing 70th out of 250 of the best runners in the NCAA at nationals. The performance tied a bow on a record-breaking season that saw Camarena 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)

Additionally, Camarena's performances helped the Viking women set program bests at the Big Sky Championships and NCAA West Regional. Behind Camarena, the Viking women finished third at the conference meet -- a program best by two spots -- and 11th at the NCAA West Regional (tied for a program best).

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. She 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. She would finish 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. All told, 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

Camarena has continued to run post-collegiately, including qualifying for her first USATF Outdoors meet this past summer, where she finished as the first runner out of the finals of the women's 1,500 meters.