University of North Dakota Athletics

Jim Vahrenkamp is entering his fifth year as the head track & field coach at the University of North Dakota in 2025-26.

The Fighting Hawk women were in the hunt for the Summit League titles on the women’s team at both conference meets during the 2024-25 season. The women earned a runner-up finish at the indoor conference meet and had the best finish for the team since finishing as the runners-up at the 2012 Great West Indoor Championships, while the third-place finish at the Summit League Outdoor Championships was the best finish at a league meet for the women since taking third at the 2019 Summit League Outdoor Championships.

During the 2025 outdoor season, thrower Kenna Curry and distance runner Jadyn Keeler both qualified for the NCAA Championships. It marked the first time in UND’s Division I history that a pair of Fighting Hawks competed at the outdoor national meet. Curry was a First Team All-American in the hammer throw and bettered her own school record in the event with a PR toss of 223-7 (68.16m). That throw held up for the seventh-place finish and made Curry just the second athlete in the Division I era to gain first-team accolades at the meet. Keeler garnered Second Team All-America status and was 16th in the 10,000 meters in 32:59.12.

Six Hawks qualified for the 2025 NCAA West Preliminary Round during the outdoor season in 10 events, while UND athletes piled up 13 All-Summit League performances at the Summit League Outdoor Championships. Curry (hammer throw, shot put and discus) and Keeler (1,500 meters, 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters) led the all-conference team. Curry (hammer throw and shot put), Keeler (5,000 meters and 10,000 meters) and Malene Kollberg (heptathlon) were the individual Summit League champions in their respective events. At the end of the conference meet, Curry was named the Women’s Field Championship M.V.P, while Keeler earned the title of Women’s Track Championship M.V.P. At the end of the season, Curry and Keeler also garnered the title of Summit League Outdoor Athlete of the Year in their respective categories.

At the 2024-25 NCAA Indoor Championships, Curry and Keeler also made headlines. Curry and Keeler both earned Second Team All-America accolades and were 10th in the weight throw (71-5 1/2, 21.78m) and 10th in the 5,000 meters (15:31.63), respectively. With Curry’s finish, she became the first Fighting Hawk in UND’s Division I era to partake in back-to-back NCAA Indoor Championships, while Keeler became just the fourth athlete to compete at the meet in history. Following their performances at indoor nationals, Curry and Keeler were named the Summit League Women’s Indoor Athletes of the Year.

The Fighting Hawks won seven gold medals at the 2024-25 Summit League Indoor Championships and 19 total medals to go with 22 all-conference performances. Keeler headlined the All-Summit League Team, was a triple crown winner and garnered the title of Track Championship M.V.P. at the end of the meet after capturing the crowns in the mile, 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. Curry, later named the Field Championship M.V.P., earned gold medals in both the weight throw and shot put. Tiffanie Magnusson (pentathlon) and Brooklyn Brouse (800 meters) were the final gold medalists from the meet.

In 2023-24, Curry (weight throw) and Luke Labatte (3,000-meter steeplechase) both earned Second Team All-America status at the NCAA Championships. Curry was just the third UND student-athlete to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in UND’s Division I history, while Labatte was the first student-athlete on the men’s side in UND’s Division I history to reach the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

UND recorded 18 All-Summit League Performances in the 2023-24 seasons, with seven all-conference performers during the indoor season and 11 during the outdoor season. Yonca Kutluk was a triple-crown winner at the indoor championships, claiming the individual titles in the mile, 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. Curry (weight throw), Maurie Petersen (heptathlon), and Kollberg (pentathlon) also claimed crowns at the indoor meet. During the outdoor season, Labatte (3,000-meter steeplechase), Justice Dick (800 meters), and Keeler (3,000-meter steeplechase) each won titles at the Summit League Outdoor Championships. At the end of the outdoor season, Vahrenkamp’s coaching guided North Dakota to five bids to the NCAA West Preliminary Round and he has now helped UND accumulate 16 bids to the NCAA Regional in his time at UND.

With the help of his coaching in 2022-2023, Elise Ulseth became an honorable mention All-American in the heptathlon for the second straight year. By competing at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Ulseth became the first Fighting Hawk since Molli Detloff (hammer throw, 2017 & 2019) to compete on the outdoor national stage in the same event.

The Fighting Hawks produced 18 All-Summit League performers in 2022-23, piling up 10 all-conference honorees during the indoor season and eight during the outdoor season. The All-Summit League performers were highlighted by Kollberg winning the pentathlon at the indoor conference championships, while three Hawks won Summit League titles during the outdoor season: Curry (shot put), Austin Wolf (high jump) and Labatte (3,000-meter steeplechase).

In 2021-22, Vahrenkamp coached honorable mention All-American Ulseth. With his help, she became the first combined events athlete at UND to ever compete at a National Championship meet, taking 17th at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Ulseth rewrote the record books at North Dakota in 2021-22, setting seven new school records (three indoor and four outdoor).

Vahrenkamp also produced 14 All-Summit League performers in his first year, with four all-conference honorees during the indoor season and 10 during the outdoor season. The list of All-Summit League performers included four Summit League individual champions: Ulseth (pentathlon and outdoor long jump), Brooklyn Gould (heptathlon) and Luke Labatte (3,000m steeplechase).

Coach Vahrenkamp arrived at UND as a 14-time NCAA Division II Southeast Region Head Coach of the Year and came to North Dakota from Queen’s University in North Carolina.

Before North Dakota, he spent nine years as the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country and produced 21 South Atlantic Conference (SAC) team championships, including two SAC triple crowns, 61 NCAA All-Americans to go along with an NCAA Champion in five different individual events.

In addition to Queens’ 21 conference championships, Vahrenkamp’s teams finished second as a team in conference championships on nine occasions.  Until 2018, the SAC didn’t sponsor indoor track and field at the conference level, meaning there wasn’t an indoor conference championship held.  The 30 top two team finishes at the conference level represent 93% of the total number of SAC championships held in Vahrenkamp’s nine years at helm of the program. 
  
Prior to his time at with the Royals, he was an assistant track and field and cross country coach at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, S.D from 2009-2012 where he was a part of two women’s Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference team championships as well as the 2012 women’s NCAA cross country championship team.
 
He spent the 2008-2009 season as an assistant coach at NCAA Division III Emory University where he was part of the University Athletic Association coaching staff of the year after winning the conference indoor championship.
 
Vahrenkamp spent two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of South Dakota from 2006-2008. 
 
Vahrenkamp was a multi-event student-athlete for the Coyotes and earned a bachelor’s degree in 2006 and a master’s degree in 2008 from USD. He was the 2005 North Central Conference champion in the pentathlon.