Bobby Lockhart enters his sixth year with the Bears as the cross country head coach and distance coach for the track & field staff in 2023-24. A decorated national champion coach and runner, he joined the Bears’ staff after a year at the University of North Carolina and a 10-year stint as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State University.
The 2025 track & field season saw Lockhart coach Garrett MacQuiddy to program records in the 1500m and indoor mile, Honorable Mention All-America status and an outdoor ACC silver medal. He also posted program top-10 marks in the indoor 800m and distance medley relay, joined by Iyan Godwin, Justin Pretre and Isaiah Shaw (the first two each setting two additional program top 10s). On the women’s side, Amelia Wardle-Stacey (10,000m), Sophie Tau (indoor 5000m) and Addie Johnson (indoor 3000m) each recorded program top 10s of their own.
In the 2024 cross country season, Lockhart coached senior Carrick Denker to All-Region honors after being Cal’s top finisher in every race that season. Denker and MacQuiddy placed first and second, respectively, at the USF Invitational, marking the first win by a Cal man since 2018 and the first 1-2 finish since 2016. Both Cal's men's and women's teams recorded improvements in the NCAA West Regionals final standings, with the men finishing 11th and the women 13th.
In the 2024 track & field season, freshman Justin Pretre was Cal’s breakout star, scoring in the 1500m to help the Bears’ men to a third-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships before winning the U20 Canadian Championship and qualifying for the World U20 Championships in the same event. Two additional runners – Georgia McCorkle (3000m steeplechase) and Caden Carney (outdoor 3000m) – posted program top-10 times during the year, while Garrett MacQuiddy ran two sub-four-minute miles in the indoor season.
The 2023 Cal cross country men’s team posted their best finish since 2011 at the Pac-12 Championships, taking fifth place overall as a team. Garrett MacQuiddy and Carrick Denker paced the men's squad in the race, notching personal best times to take 13th and 14th place, respectively, and earn All-Pac-12 Second Team recognition; MacQuiddy's 13th was also the best finish by a Bear since 2017. On the women's side, the team saw a two-place improvement from their last outing at the Pac-12 Championships, taking eighth place overall - the team's best finish since 2020. Both the men's and women's squads wrapped up the postseason at the NCAA West Regionals with nine-place improvements from last year's competition, respectively taking 12th and 14th place overall.
In the 2023 track & field season, Lockhart coached several athletes to great success. Garrett MacQuiddy posted the first sub-four-minute mile by a Golden Bear since 2017 for the third-best time in program history; he later followed that up with an appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, earning USTFCCCA Honorable Mention in the 1500m. Claire Yerby also posted another standout year under Lockhart’s tutelage, setting no fewer than three program top-10 marks and a new Big Meet 1500m record. Two additional freshmen stood out for Lockhart’s Bears; Georgia McCorkle posted the ninth-fastest steeplechase in program history, while Caden Carney earned fifth-place finish in the 1500m at the USATF U20 Championships.
Cal cross country competed in five meets in 2022, with the men's team securing a second-place finish at the USF Invite and a ninth-place finish at Pac-12s, while the women notched 10th place overall at the conference championships. Lockhart led the young roster in a campaign that saw every student-athlete on the women's squad break a personal record and eight men's team members notch personal bests. On the men's side, Garrett MacQuiddy ran the quickest 8,000-meter loop in 24:22.6 at the UCR Invite, good for 31st place, while Claire Yerby's 20:58 (33rd place) at the Bronco Invite was the women's fastest time in the 6,000-meter race.
The 2022 track & field season saw Lockhart’s athletes accumulate three outdoor program Top 10 marks, courtesy of sophomore Garrett MacQuiddy and senior Erin Archibeck, as well as four indoor Top 10 marks (MacQuiddy, Archibeck and senior Ben Micallef, the latter of which set a new Maltese 800m record).
In the 2021 cross country season, the Cal men's team won the Sac State Invite and took second-place overall at the USF Invitational. Erin Archibeck on the women's side and Garrett MacQuiddy and Carrick Denker on the men's side all took top-40 finishes at the Pac-12 Championships. In the classroom, the cross country team performed exceptionally with seven men and eleven women being placed on the Pac-12 Fall Academic Honor Roll. Lockhart also added Assistant Coach Kayla Ferron to the coaching staff in the 2021-22 season.
In the 2021 track & field season, Lockhart coached six different athletes to 10 event wins. Freshman Garrett MacQuiddy particularly shined for the men, notching three 800m wins and one 1500m win, while senior Annie Boos recorded two separate wins for the women in the 3000m steeplechase. Earlier that year, the 2020-21 Pac-12 Cross Country Championships saw three Golden Bear men and two Golden Bear women reach the top 40 in their respective races. Academically, the cross country squad excelled, with six men and 14 women reaching Pac-12 Fall Academic Honor Roll status.
In the 2019 cross country season, the Cal women won two meets and the men won one, with both Mina Anglero and Sara Osterburg placing first overall in separate races. Anglero’s performance that year earned her USTFCCCA All-West Region honors. In the classroom, the women as a unit received the school’s Annual Newmark Small Teams Award for the highest cumulative grade point average of all smaller athletic teams on campus. Three men and six women also reached Pac-12 Fall Academic Honor Roll status.
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.
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. 103 of Lockhart’s distance runners received All-America honors, while 73 distance runners earned Big 12 titles.
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 over the past 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.
