Jake Krolick joined Queens Athletics in 2021 just ahead of the indoor track and field season as the director of track & field and cross country. Krolick becomes the third person to lead all four programs who compete through six seasons. Krolick comes to the Royals after spending five seasons as head cross country and assistant track & field coach at West Texas A&M University.
In his first semester with the Royals, history was made. The Royals sent more individuals to the NCAA Championships at both the indoor track & field championships – 11, as well as the outdoor track & field championships – 13. The Royals set 11 school records during the 2022 indoor season and proceeded to break an additional 11 school records during the outdoor season. The Royals won the 2022 Men’s & Women’s Indoor SAC Track & Field Championships as well as the Men’s Title Outdoors. Krolick was named SAC Track & Field Coach of the Year on 3 occasions as we as 3 times USTFCCCA Southeast Region Coach of the Year.
Krolick directly coached Fatima Alanis to 4 NCAA Top-5 and All-American finishes during the indoor and outdoor season. Krolick also guided Stevie Lawrence to an NCAA Top-3 All-American finish in the Steeplechase. The Royals distance runners went 10/10 winning all of the distance events at the 2022 SAC Indoor Championships as well as winning 7/10 distance events at the SAC Outdoor Championship. In total, Krolick guided the Royals to 10 NCAA All-American honors as well as 33 SAC individual event champions. Fatima Alanis was named SAC track & field athlete of the year for both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Lucy Walliker earned Women’s Indoor Field athlete of the year and Martin Knauer earned Men’s Outdoor Field athlete of the year.
Also to note, the Royals Programs earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors for both the indoor & outdoor seasons as the men finished the 2021-22 year with a team GPA of 3.49 and the women a 3.59 team GPA.
Krolick comes to the Royals after spending the past seven seasons coaching cross country and track & field in the Lone Star Conference. In that time, he has coached the highest ever men’s program (10th) and individual finishes in men's (12th) and women's (9th) cross country at West Texas A&M. Krolick guided the Buffs to 4 NCAA championship appearances and concluded his time at West Texas with his first women’s NCAA championship appearance.
In total between track & field and cross country, Krolick has been a part of 15 Lone Star Conference titles, an NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championship, as well as 6 other NCAA podium finishes at West Texas. He coached 40 individual event LSC champions and 20 All-Americans. Krolick has also coached 2 NCAA 800m national champions. Butare Rugenerwa in 2021 at West Texas A&M and Luis Romero at Texas A&M Commerce. Both hold school records of 1:48.33 & 1:48.75 respectively. Krolick was named LSC Cross Country coach of the year on 5 occasions and named the USTFCCCA South Central Assistant Track & Field Coach of the Year in 2017 & 2021. Prior to joining the Buffs, Krolick had a short stint as an assistant coach at Queens and spent time at Texas A&M-Commerce, Pfieffer University, Edinboro University, and Adams State University. Krolick spent his undergraduate collegiate career running at Edinboro under USTFCCCA Hall of Fame Coach Doug Watts. He was named All-PSAC and all-region, competing at NCAA Cross Country National Championship for three years. He was also a three-time academic all-American, earning his bachelor's degree in mathematics education. Krolick then attended Adams State for graduate school running under 30-time National Coach of the Year Damon Martin and earning RMAC First-Team honors in the 10,000-meter. Krolick continued to compete post-collegiately, having narrowly missed qualifying for the US Olympic Marathon team trials in 2016 by 25 seconds and in 2020 missing the 2:19 standard by 14 hundredths of a second.
