Elijah Talk is coming into his fifth year as the throws coach for the UND track & field program in 2025-26.
Under Coach Talk’s direction in 2025, Kenna Curry had another successful year. At the NCAA Indoor Championships, she took 10th in the weight throw with a toss of 71-5 1/2 (21.78m) and became the first Fighting Hawk in UND’s Division I history to partake in back-to-back NCAA Indoor Championships. At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Curry was seventh and broke her own school record in the hammer throw with a PR toss of 223-7 (68.16m), making her just the second Hawk in the Division I era to gain first-team accolades at the meet. At the end of both seasons, Curry was named the Summit League Women’s Field Athlete of the Year.
Talk’s throwers piled up a total of 10 (four indoor, six outdoor) All-Summit League performances at the conference meets in 2025. The all-conference performances at the Summit League Indoor Championships were highlighted by Curry’s titles in the weight throw and shot put, while the Hawks at the outdoor conference meet were led by Curry’s crowns in the shot put and hammer throw. Ethan Thomas was also a standout at both meets, finishing as the silver medalist in the shot put during the indoor conference meet and bronze in the shot put at the Summit League Outdoor Championships. Curry was named the Women’s Field M.V.P. at both conference championships, while Thomas earned the title of Newcomer of the Championship at the conclusion of the outdoor meet.
Thomas also qualified for the USATF U20 Championships and was the runner-up in the shot put (68-7 3/4, 20.92m) at the meet in June 2025. With that throw, Thomas moved up to No. 9 in the United Stats all-time with the 6kg shot put weight and the second-place finish was the best any individual has place at the meet in UND’s Division I history.
With the help of Talk’s coaching in 2023-24, Curry had another successful throwing campaign. Curry picked up Second Team All-America honors in the weight throw at the NCAA Indoor Championships and became just the third student-athlete in UND’s Division I history to qualify for indoor nationals. During the indoor season, Curry won the Summit League title in the weight throw and was the runner-up in the shot put at the Summit League Indoor Championships. During the outdoor season, Curry was the runner-up in the shot put and took third in the hammer throw at the Summit League Outdoor Championships, also earning a bid to the NCAA West Preliminary Round in the hammer throw.
Aided by Curry picking up All-Summit League status thrice, the Fighting Hawk throwers had another successful campaign in 2022-2023. Curry took third in the shot put at the indoor conference championships, before earning all-conference honors twice during the outdoor season. During the outdoor season, Curry won the gold medal at the Summit League Outdoor Championships and destroyed the school record in the shot put, while also finishing third in the hammer throw. Curry concluded the year by taking 39th in the hammer throw and 46th in the shot put at the NCAA West Preliminary Round.
In his first year with UND in 2021-2022, Talk coached Natalie Mohring to all-conference honors during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Mohring took third in the weight throw at the 2022 Summit League Indoor Championships and was third in the hammer throw during the outdoor conference championships.
With his help, combined events athlete Elise Ulseth broke the school record in the javelin. Her mark qualified her for the NCAA West Preliminary Round and Ulseth finished the year as the first-ever combined events athlete at UND to compete at a National Championship meet, taking 17th at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Before UND, Talk coached the throws group at Ashland. The Eagles captured the men’s indoor and outdoor national titles in 2019 and the 2021 men’s indoor national crown.
He coached Lindsay Baker to an outdoor national championship and a national indoor runner-up finish in 2019 at Ashland.
Talk was a seven-time NCAA Division II All-American in the shot put. He was on three-straight NCAA Division II national championship coaching staffs at Ashland, which is his alma mater.
As a student-athlete at Ashland from 2015-18, Talk threw a personal-best 62-3 (18.97m) in the shot put.
