Helen Lehman-Winters Last College: California (1987) Position: Head Coach Experience: 6th Year

2005 West Coast Conference Men's Cross Country Co-Coach of the Year

2004 West Coast Conference Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year

Helen Lehman-Winters enters her sixth season as the head men's and women's cross country and track & field coach at the University of San Francisco. Lehman-Winters brings an exceptional coaching resume to the Hilltop with a history of building programs from the ground up at the prep level and also coaching the nationally elite at the collegiate level. Before arriving at USF, Lehman-Winters spent three successful seasons working at UCLA with the men's and women's middle and long distance corps and fifteen years coaching at the prep level.

Since Lehman-Winters arrival to the Hilltop, she has transformed a long dormant cross country program into a contender in the West Coast Conference and has built a men's and women's track program from scratch. In 2007,under her guidance, Cheyne Inman claimed the individual WCC Championship title, snapping University of Portland's 28 year individual win record. She also coached six athletes to All-Conference honors in 2007, the highest total in program history In 2006, Lehman-Winters guided both the men's and women's cross country teams to second place finishes in the WCC Conference, the best combined finish in program history. She was named the 2004 WCC Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year and the 2005 Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year.

Dons Accomplishments under Lehman-Winters
Jeannine Hagedorn: 2005 runner up at the WCC Cross Country Championships, the best finish in school history and the seventh fastest time in WCC history; Hagedorn also turned in USF's highest finish at the at the 2005 NCAA Western Regional Championships, narrowly missing qualifying for the NCAA Championships, all conference honors in the 5000.

Jennifer Hartford: improved tremendously under Lehman-Winters guidance- Hartford was a 5:26 miler and 19:40 5K runner in highschool and concluded her career on the hilltop competing at the NCAA Regional Championships on the track;she posted times of 16:49.50 (5000 meters), 36:51 (10K) and 4:41.93 (1500 meters) on the track; she earned All WCC honors three times in cross country and posted school 6K record of 21:18 in he senior year.

Cheyne Inman: earned all WCC honors four straight years, culminating with a WCC Championship individual title in 2007 when he snapped University of Portland 29 year streak of individual WCC titles

Alex Nelson: still competing for the Dons, improved from 3:56.89 in the 1500 in his freshmen campaign to 3:52.55 in his sophomore year, and then to 3:44.76 in his junior year; he was an NCAA Regional finalist in 2008 and earned WCC Cross Honors in 2007.

Renee Stribling: with no prep experience, Stribling ran 2:14.21 and 4:31 in her third year of competing; she earned three all Conference honors on the track.

Lehman-Winters' Coaching Career Prior to the Hilltop
Lehman-Winters owns an exceptional coaching resume with a history of building programs from the ground up at the prep level and coaching the nationally elite at the collegiate level. Before arriving at USF, Lehman-Winters spent three successful seasons working at UCLA with the men's and women's middle ad long distance corps. While at UCLA, Lehman-Winters assisted the Bruins in qualifying for back to back berths in the NCAA Cross Country Championships (2001-02). Lehman-Winters also assisted UCLA's Distance Medley Relay team to the 2002 NCAA Indoor Championship title and Lena Nilsson in two individual NCAA titles (2003 Indoor 800 and 2002 NCAA outdoor 1500). In addition, Lehman-Winters served on the coaching staff for the Bruins' 2001 NCAA Indoor Championship team, runner up team finishes on the 2002 and 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championship teams.

Lehman-Winters built dominant teams from scratch as a head coach of the cross country and track programs at Carondelet High School from 1989-2000 and El Cerrito High School from 1985-89. At the prep level, Lehman-Winters guided her cross country teams to nine California state meet cross country berths, eight North Coast Section titles and 12 league titles.

Lehman-Winters also coached Kristen Gordon, 1996 Footlocker National Champion. Gordon posted a 17:01 (5K) on the Woodward Park course, 4:46.18 (1600), 10:19.84 (3200), and also posted a runner up finish at 3000m in the 1997 USATF Junior Nationals. Gordon went on to become a three-time collegiate All-American.

On the track, Lehman-Winters' squads enjoyed even greater success, posting an unprecedented 109-1 league dual meet record, five North Coast Section titles, and two national rankings (Carondelet #11 in 1997 and #24 in 1998). Lehman-Winters coached 23 distance runners to the state meet, nine of which earned top four finishes. Her distance medley relay team won the National High School Indoor Championship title in 1996 and in 1997 achieved a #4 national ranking in three distance relays.

Lehman-Winters also coached Tiffany Roberts, a runner up at 800 meters (2:11.81) in the California State Championships in 1995 and a three-time California State Meet Qualifier in three events. Roberts was a Gold Medalist for the United States Women's Soccer team in 1996.

A highly decorated coach, Lehman-Winters earned the 1998 Contra Costa Times Women of the Year Merit Award, North Coast Section Coach of the Year in 1993 and 1996 and was named American Athletics Coach of the Year in 1991. In addition to her coaching duties, she was director of athletics at Carondelet (1993-96).

Lehman-Winters competed in cross country and track at UC Santa Barbara before graduating from California in 1987. Lehman-Winters earned her master's degree in sport psychology from John F. Kennedy University in 1997. She and her husband of 12 years, John, have three children- Miles (six) , Mathias (four) and Milana (two). They reside in El Cerrito.