BERKELEY — Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Robyne Johnson announced the addition of standout distance coach and three-time national champion coach Bobby Lockhart to the staff on Monday.
 
Lockhart will be the Cross Country Head Coach and serve as the middle distance and distance coach for the track & field staff. After a 10-year stint as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State, Lockhart joins the Bears' staff after spending last season at UNC.  In his season at UNC, Lockhart coached Morgan Ilse to a runner-up spot in the mile at the ACC Indoor Championship and two student-athletes to top-five finishes in the 1500m during the ACC Outdoor Championship. Three distance student-athletes qualified for the NCAA East Regional while 11 set personal bests in their events.
 
Prior to joining the Tar Heels, Lockhart spent 10 years helping turn Oklahoma State into a distance powerhouse. The men's cross country team won three NCAA National Championship titles in 2009, 2010, and 2012 and notched two more top-three finishes in 2011 and 2013. The men's program also won the NCAA Midwest Regional Cross-Country Championships eight times in a nine-year period between 2008 and 2016. The Cowboys racked up nine consecutive Big 12 Conference Championship titles during that same time period.
 
"I am excited about having Bobby on our team," Johnson said. "He comes from a national championship background as a student-athlete and as a coach, coaching three national championship teams at Oklahoma State. He has an amazing body of work, and we're excited for him to impart that knowledge on our team."

Throughout the years, Lockhart's student-athletes have completely dominated the OSU record books, taking over every spot in the top-10 in the indoor mile, all but one of the top-10 spots in the indoor 3000 and all but three spots in the 1500. Their success twice earned them a second-place finish in the USTFCCCA National Program of the Year standings and following the 2015-16 academic year, both the men and women found themselves among the top-10 programs in the rankings.

In 2015, Lockhart helped coach the women's cross country team to wins at both the NCAA Midwest Regional Cross Country Championships and the Big 12 Cross Country Championship before the team took seventh at the NCAA National Cross Country Championships.

The teams also found success during the track and field seasons with the men finishing 6th at the 2014 NCAA Indoor National Championships and 8th at 2013 NCAA Indoors in 2013 while also capturing two Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships in 2014 and 2016.

While his teams won title after title, Lockhart's student-athletes found just as much success as individual competitors. Having helped coach 103 distance runners to All-America honors and 73 distance runners to Big 12 titles.
 
"I am thrilled to join Robyne and the Cal staff," Lockhart said. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for the previous staff, and am fortunate to walk into a good situation. I am grateful for the opportunity to continue my career at such a highly regarded institution and I'm really looking forward to this journey in the East Bay."
 
Lockhart has also coached four NCAA Individual National Champions. He helped Chad Noelle (2015), Natalja Piliusina (2013) and German Fernandez (2009) to 1500m titles during his tenure. He also coached Kaela Edwards in the 2016 indoor mile. Fernandez (2008 and 2011), Ryan Vail (2009), Girma Mecheso (2010), Kirubel Erassa (2014) and Vegard Oelstad (2015) were also crowned as Big 12 individual cross country champions.

Under Lockhart's decade at Oklahoma State, the men have managed nine straight cross country titles and six regional titles. Middle-distance runner Josh Thompson earned three All-America honors for the first time in 20 years and Hassan Abdi won Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in 2017. Lockhart's guidance led Craig Nowak to the Indoor High-Point Award.

In 2016, Lockhart assisted coaching transfer Josh Thompson into a national contender, bringing his personal best mile time down from 4:15 at the beginning of the season to 3:58.33. Thompson went on to win two Big 12 titles in his debut indoor season and anchored the distance medley relay team to the third-fastest time in NCAA history, as well as a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Thompson's breakout season under Lockhart earned him the USTFCCCA Midwest Region's Male Athlete of the Year award, as well as Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in Cross Country.

Cerake Geberkidane won two Big 12 titles at the 2016 Outdoor Championships that earned him Freshman of the Year. Geberkidane also won an indoor title in the 5000 and took home all-conference honors at the Big 12 Cross Country Championships this season.

Academically, Lockhart's teams have shown just as much dedication to their studies. The men's cross country rosters have earned USTFCCCA Academic All-Americas honors in seven of the last eight years with the 2009 and 2012 teams being named USTFCCCA Scholar Team of the Year. The women's cross country program bested the men's streak by one and have now earned USTFCCCA Academic All-America honors for eight straight years.

Lockhart came to Stillwater from the University of Oklahoma, where he served as an assistant coach for the Sooners track and field/cross country program in 2007-08. A 2007 graduate, Lockhart helped Wisconsin win a national cross country championship in 2005 after finishing runner-up three consecutive years. He was also part of 11 Big Ten championship-winning cross country, indoor track and outdoor track teams.

Twice an NCAA All-American at Wisconsin, Lockhart earned the honor once each in cross country and outdoor track (10,000-meter run). He was twice named to the All-Big Ten Conference Cross Country Team.

Bursting onto the scene as one of the nation's most talented high school distance runners, Lockhart was a member of Team USA at the 2002 World Cross Country Championships and was named a Nike Athlete of the Year after winning the two-mile run at the Nike Indoor Nationals and two-mile run at the Adidas Outdoor Classic. Lockhart was also runner-up at the 2001 Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships and won 19 state titles in Virginia, including a record four in cross country. He was inducted into the Virginia High School Hall of Fame in 2015.
 
Lockhart will be the fourth addition to Robyne Johnson's inaugural staff. He will team with holdover Chas Davis to coach the middle distance and distance groups throughout cross country and the track & field seasons. Johnson will coach the horizontal jumps, Dan Lefever will coach vertical jumps, pole vault and multis after following Johnson from Boston University. Mohammad Saatara returns to coach throws after leading Camryn Rogers to a NCAA Championship in the hammer throw last season.