Wildcats also have a few new coaches
Arizona’s track & field program is under new leadership, with Andrew Dubs officially taking over for longtime coach Fred Harvey following the NCAA championships last month. Since then he’s made some additions to his staff and on Monday added his first crop of competitors.
The Wildcats have announced the signing of seven athletes for the 2025-26 season, four of whom have collegiate track experience as well as two international recruits and one from the prep ranks.
Arizona has added four who spent this past season at Washington State, a program that announced in June it was focusing on distance events and cutting field events. The Wildcats have picked up four Cougars who ran sprints and hurdles, signing Parker Duskin, Mason Lawyer, Brooke Lyons and John Paredes.
The UA has also signed Bryce Melton, a sprinter from Santa Fe, N.M., and Kenyan distance runners Vincent Gwachi and Lawi Ngetich.
Lawyer reached the NCAA championships in the 100- and 200-meter dashes last month, also competing on a relay team that included Duskin, while Lyons was part of WSU’s 4×100 relay squad that competed in regionals. Paredes was third in the 110-meter hurdles at the Pac-12 Championships in 2024.
Melton, who runs for the NM Elite Club, was a top-16 finisher in the 100 and 200 at the Nike Outdoor Nationals and was part of a 4×400 relay unit that finished third nationally.
Gwachi has a personal best in the 1500-meter run of 3:39, while Ngetich has done that in 3:43 in addition to an 800 in 1:48.89. They are expected to be joined at Arizona by fellow Kenyan distance runners Evans Tanui and Praise Chepkemoi.
That quartet will be coached by Jay Koloseus, who will handle Arizona’s distance runners after previously being head coach at Drake. Koloseus, who is also expected to coach the cross country team in the fall, is one of three staff members hired last month by Dubs including Gabriel Mvumvure, who had been Washington State’s sprints coach and will handle the same role with the Wildcats.
The third addition was former Tennessee director of operations Mackenzie Landa, who will be Arizona’s ops director under Dubs.