Jennifer Allen - Men's Track and Field Coach - Montana State University Athletics

Jennifer Allen

Title:
Assistant Coach (Throws)
Email:
jennifer.allen@msubobcats.com
Phone:
406.994.7837

Jen Allen, a 2004 Montana State graduate, begins her eleventh season as the Bobcats’ throws coach during the 2026-27 season. In her tenure with the Blue and Gold, Allen’s throwers have reset seven MSU school records across the indoor and outdoor throwing events. The throwers have won Big Sky Conference championships in men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor shot put; men’s and women’s discus, hammer, and javelin; and in the women’s weight throw. She continually qualifies athletes to the NCAA Regional Championships each year, with the Cats qualifying in every throwing event during her coaching career.

The 2025-26 season saw the Cats reset five school records on their way to winning seven Big Sky Conference individual championship titles. Junior Sydney Brewster led the way with indoor and outdoor Big Sky championship wins in the shot put, as well as an outdoor title in the discus. Those school-record marks advanced her to both indoor and outdoor appearances at the NCAA Championship meets, where she earned Second-Team All-America honors both times. The 17.27-meter/56-feet, 8-inch shot putter scored 25 team points at the outdoor meet to help the Cats to their first Big Sky Championship team title in 23 years. Junior Emma Brensdal continued her consistency for the Cats, placing at the Big Sky meet indoors in the shot put and again outdoors in both the shot put and the discus. In her time as a Bobcat, the Plentywood, Mont., native has improved from her high school mark of 41-2 in the shot put to a then-school record throw of 16.25m/53-3.75 and from 137-0 in the discus to a then-school-record throw of 50.43m/165-5. She has held two school records in her time as a Bobcat, as the powerful duo of Brensdal and Brewster continue to push each other and reset the records they create.

On the men’s side in the shot put, sophomore Easton Hatleberg captured Big Sky indoor and outdoor titles on the way to resetting the long-standing outdoor school record. His Big Sky outdoor title is a moment Bobcat fans won’t soon forget, as Hatleberg was sitting in second place when the meet was postponed for a lightning delay. The stoic thrower maintained his composure and then fed off the energy of his teammates to win the meet on his final throw of the competition, pushing his personal best mark out to 18.71m/61-4.75 on that throw.

During their final year for the Cats, Matt Furdyk and Jenavieve Lynch left their marks on the program in events they had not thrown in prior to college. Both athletes were solid shot put and discus throwers in high school but fell in love with the hammer and weight throw during their time at MSU and developed into the best yet for the Cats. Furdyk finished his career as the school record holder in the hammer at 66.77m/219-1 and was a two-time NCAA Regional qualifier in that event while also competing at a high level in the discus and shot put. Lynch, a Bozeman High grad, made the most of her senior year by winning a Big Sky Conference title and setting the school record indoors in the weight throw (19.75m/64-9.75). She kept that momentum rolling during the outdoor season, where she kicked off the Big Sky Championship meet with a win in the hammer throw for the Cats. The energy she and her teammates created in the opening event carried through the meet and helped lead the women to winning the Big Sky title over NAU with a dominating score of 181-128.

The throwers’ success during the 2026 season was built off the consistency they created during the season of 2025. Brewster and Brensdal topped the Big Sky Conference podium indoors in the shot with a 1-2 finish, while Hatleberg took second on the men’s side. Lynch stood on the podium for her first time in the women’s weight throw, and Elijah Jackman took bronze on the men’s side. During the outdoor Big Sky Conference meet, the throwers scored points for the Cats in every throwing event, including podium finishes for Brewster (shot put, discus), Lynch (hammer), Clara Fox (javelin), Jackman (discus, hammer) and Hatleberg (shot put). They advanced four to the NCAA Regional meet, with representation from Jackman as well as sophomores Brewster, Brensdal and Fox.

In 2023-24, Allen developed then-freshman Brewster to a school record in the shot put outdoors and coached sophomore Pat Vialva to a school-record 71.32m/234-0 in the men's javelin. As a freshman, Fox secured silver in the women's javelin at the 2024 Big Sky Outdoor Championships, with Tristen Sedgwick earning her second consecutive medal in the discus. On the men's side, Jackman earned silver in the shot put, while Furdyk claimed bronze in the hammer throw as the Bobcats secured a one-point victory over No. 11 Northern Arizona, 186-185, to win their first conference championship since 2005.

Qualifying for the NCAA Regional championships in three separate events (shot put, discus, hammer) Jackman was one of only three men at the NCAA Division I level to triple at that meet. Additionally, Fox (javelin), Brewster (shot put), Vialva (javelin), Cooper Hoffman (javelin), and Furdyk (hammer) all joined Jackman as part of a school-record 23-athlete contingent to the NCAA Regional meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Under Allen's tutelage, Fairfield, Mont., native Cantor Coverdell won a Big Sky javelin title in 2021 and finished 13th at the NCAA Regional meet, just missing the top-12 qualification needed to advance to the NCAA Championships. Dillion, Mont., grad Cooper Hoffman placed third in the javelin at the 2022 Big Sky Outdoor Championships and made an NCAA Regional championships appearance during all four years of his career. Alec Nehring, who Allen also coached as a high school athlete in Manhattan, Mont., became one of MSU’s standouts during his career with Big Sky Conference podium appearances in the shot put while also qualifying for the NCAA Regional championships twice. Nehring received two Academic All-America honors during his time at MSU, which included a first team selection in 2021, making him the first male Bobcat athlete to be recognized with the top team designation. During those same years, Leah Klein earned Big Sky medals in the indoor and outdoor shot put as well as the weight throw to help lead the MSU women’s team to runner-up appearances at the conference meets.

Soon after coming on staff, Allen helped senior thrower Kyle Douglass qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the discus following his Big Sky Championship win in the event with a lifetime-best throw of 58.66m/192-5. In that same outdoor championship meet, teammate Calvin Root won the hammer throw after a runner-up finish in the weight throw during the indoor season. Douglass and Root joined Carley VonHeeder (javelin) and Jacqueline Verlanic (hammer) as MSU’s NCAA Regional qualifiers in the throwing events that year. VonHeeder, a native of Plains, Mont., would go on in her career to set a school-record javelin throw of 52.99m/173-10 and win the Big Sky javelin title in 2021. That throw also qualified her for the USA Olympic Trials, where she competed alongside the nation's best to close out her amazing career as a Bobcat.

Allen began her coaching career at Manhattan (Montana) High School, where she coached several state champions in the throwing events for the Tigers over a six-year span. She came back to Montana State to assist longtime throws coach Mike Carignan throughout the 2016-17 campaign, then took over the coaching duties when Carignan announced his retirement in October 2017. Originally from Billings, she was a nine-time all-conference honoree, two-time national qualifier and when she graduated, held five MSU school records in the throwing events. She was selected to the Montana State Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2018 as an individual and the 2016 class with her 2001 Big Sky Championship-winning team. Allen is married to Kaci Noble, a personal trainer in the local area, and the two reside in Belgrade.