After just his second season as the Wildcat’s cross country and track and field head coach, Jonathan Hill has rewritten the CWU record books. In 2025 the Wildcat women came home with a 7th place finish at the NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championship and a 9th place finish at the Indoor National Meet where the men also placed 18th. He coached the 2023 NCAA Field Athlete of the Year, Emily Nefzger, to three national titles, 2 triple jump and 1 high jump. Over just two seasons under his direction the Wildcats have amassed 19 All American finishes, 42 conference champions, 4 conference records, and 29 school records.
Hill comes to Ellensburg after just wrapping up his fifth season with NCAA Division I member Rice University in Houston, Texas as the lead assistant, recruiting coordinator, compliance liaison, and home meet director with their women’s track and field team. He helped guide the team to the 2020 indoor and 2023 outdoor Conference USA team championships. Under his guidance the Owls finished in the top 60 at the NCAA Division I National Championships four different times with the best finish coming in the 2021 outdoor championships where Rice finished 21st.
Hill was a USTFCCCA South Central Regional Division I Assistant Coach of the Year finalist and a member of the assistant coach development program. He also oversaw five All Americans and one academic All-American as well as 16 C-USA champions, 44 All-CUSA award winners, and one C-USA Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Two of Hill’s former athletes currently hold national records in their respective home countries; Rie Taylor (New Zealand, women’s indoor high jump; 1.88m) and Marthe Lewison (El Salvador, men’s pole vault; 5.32m), as well as an Olympic finalist in Morgann LeLeux for Team USA at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Prior to his time at Rice, Hill was the assistant men’s and women’s track and field coach at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York for six years.
While in West Point Hill worked with the jumps, pole vault, sprints, hurdles, combined events, as well as strength and conditioning; he served as the teams’ travel coordinator, budget manager, home meet director, camp coordinator, and the on-campus recruiting coordinator.
During his time with the U.S. military academy, the team saw some of its most success as the team saw its highest finish in 22 years as well as seeing 10 different event school records broken. The Black Knights saw 12 NCAA first round qualifiers, 38 conference champions, 111 All-Conference award winners, and three conference championship records. The team also saw a CoSIDA national scholar-athlete of the year, two CoSIDA first team All-Americans, four Patriot League scholar-athletes of the year, six Patriot League academic All-Conference selections, two brigade academic officers, and one brigade commander.
Hill broke into the collegiate ranks at Eastern Washington University in 2008 as an assistant men’s and women’s track and field coach. At EWU he coached the jumps, combined events, strength and conditioning, and was the team equipment manager. He helped oversee nine NCAA first round qualifiers, eight Big Sky champions, and 24 All-Big Sky award winners. During his time, the Eagles also saw their highest conference finishes in program history.
Hill started out his coaching career at La Salle Catholic Prep in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he became the head track and field coach, assistant football coach, and the physical education instructor in 2007. He helped direct all aspects of the track program while managing nine assistant coaches and the whole budget. Both the boys’ and girls’ track and field teams had their highest finish in history while also earning the most All-State awards collectively, with 15 state champions, 17 All-State runners-up, and 34 All-Conference awards. In his one year at La Salle Catholic Prep, the track and field team saw a team size growth of 20 percent.
Hill is a 2007 graduate from Portland State University where he received his Bachelor of Science in Public Health with a minor in Business Administration
