Local running standout Jake Poyner just concluded his fourth year coaching Grace's cross country programs. He also serves as the distance coach during the track and field season.
Poyner, who served as a graduate assistant coach for Grace's cross country and track and field teams in 2018, moved into the head coaching role for cross country in 2019. During just his first few years as Grace's coach, he has helped bring seven national championships to the department including four for cross country and three for track and field.
His cross country teams have garnered national acclaim in recent years. Both the men's and women's cross country teams have swept the NCCAA national championships in 2021 and 2022. For his efforts he was named the NCCAA National Coach of the Year for both men's and women's cross country in 2021 and 2022.
He guided both squads to a berth at the NAIA National Championships -- the first time for both the men and women qualifying as teams together. One of Poyner's recruits (Kylie Sauder) became Grace's first NAIA All-American performer in women's cross country history at the 2021 meet. The men ended the 2021 season ranked No. 22 in the NAIA postseason ranking, and the women finished the year at No. 15. This marked the first season in school history for the men and women to be ranked at the same time. In 2022, Grace's XC squads both grabbed top-10 finishes in the NAIA with the men in eight and the women grabbing 10th. Grace had three NAIA All-American finishers in the race, and each team set or tied the program record for team time as well.
For track, Grace has claimed NCCAA national championships for the women (2023) and the men (2021, 2022) during Poyner's tenure. Grace won first place for the men's and women's 4x800-meter relays at the 2023 NAIA Indoor, marking Grace's first indoor NAIA titles.
He was named the 2022 USTFCCCA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year for track after guiding the Lancers' distance and middle distance squads into national track prominence. The Lancer men set school records in four events during the outdoor season and produced a total of seven NAIA national qualifying performances. In the USTFCCCA Event Squad Rankings, which take into account the top four performers from each institution, Grace ranks fourth in the NAIA in the 1,500 meters and fifth in the 800.
The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) ranked Grace as No. 8 for the NAIA Program of the Year due to the Lancers' success at NAIA championships during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. It marked the first time that Grace has been ranked by the USTFCCCA Program of the Year rankings.
In his first year, Poyner led Grace to one of its best finishes ever at the 2019 NCCAA National Championships. The men's team placed third at the 2019 NCCAA National Championship, tying the best finish in program history. The women finished sixth overall, one spot away from the program record.
In 2020-21, Grace's distance runners broke new ground. The men's cross country team sailed into the national rankings at No. 24 in the NAIA; it marked Grace's first NAIA ranking since 2003. During the track season, the distance squads were critical in helping Grace claim the 2021 NCCAA national championship (for the men) and a national runner-up performance (for the women). The team repeated its NCCAA finish in 2022 with the men claiming the title and the women being runners-up.
"I would like to thank Grace's administration, Coach Briscoe, Coach Raymond and the rest of the Grace Athletics Department for believing in me and giving me an incredible opportunity to lead the men's and women's cross country programs here at Grace College," Poyner said. "It is both humbling and extremely exciting for me to be entrusted with writing a new chapter in the Lancer distance running tradition. I look forward to continuing my work with our current student-athletes while developing new relationships with recruits, parents, alumni and the greater Winona Lake community as we pursue excellence on all fronts and grow the cross country family in a way that honors Christ and reflects His image."
Poyner is a former NCAA Division I runner who graduated high school from Warsaw. He led the Tigers to a pair of top-five finishes as the cross country state finals as a junior and senior.
As a cross country senior at Warsaw, he won the individual title at the regional and semistate levels before placing fourth overall at the state finals. He garnered All-State and Indiana All-Star recognition for the Tigers.
He was also a two-time All-State honoree for Warsaw's track and field team, helping the Tigers to a fifth-place finish at the state finals.
Upon graduation, Poyner signed to run at Wake Forest University from 2013-15 and was a Dean's List student-athlete.
He then transferred to Lipscomb University where he concluded his collegiate running career from 2015-18. He won numerous accolades at Lipscomb and was the ASUN Conference Runner of the Year and the ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2017; as a senior, he won the cross country conference meet as an individual while helping his team to the trophy as well.
Poyner won five ASUN Conference Runner of the Week awards and helped Lipscomb win two ASUN cross country championships.
Poyner was also an academic standout. He earned a spot on the prestigious CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-America Team. He compiled a perfect 4.0 GPA while majoring in exercise science and minoring in coaching and biology. He was recognized to the USTFCCCA Academic All-American First Team and was also awarded the Outstanding Exercise Science Major as a senior.
Poyner will continue as an assistant track and field coach in addition to leading the cross country program.
