Bio

Tyler Steigenga joined the Vincennes University Athletic Department in the fall of 2021 and has since played a pivotal role in the success of the Trailblazers' Cross Country and Track and Field programs.

During the 2024–25 season, Steigenga led both the VU Cross Country and Track & Field programs to a series of standout performances across all three championship events. At the NJCAA Cross Country National Championships, the men’s and women’s teams placed 14th and 19th respectively, with both squads finishing 7th at the Half Marathon Nationals. Freshman Anis Abdaoui (Kairouan, Tunisia) earned NJCAA Coaches Association All-American honors while breaking school records in both the 8K (24:59.5) and half marathon (1:08:44.1), helping the men record the second-fastest team time in program history. The success continued into the Indoor Track and Field season, where Abdaoui secured a 6th-place All-American finish in the 1000m (2:30.42) and sophomore Sophia Salvi (São Paulo, Brazil) claimed a national title in the pole vault (4.15m), leading to overall team finishes of 28th (men) and 17th (women) at the national meet. At the Outdoor National Championships, sophomore Maliek Bush (Jeffersonville, Ind.) placed 4th nationally in the decathlon, while Salvi added another national title (3.81m) and freshman Tony Keene (Harrisburg, Ill.) finished runner-up in the pole vault (4.65m), capping the season with team finishes of 19th (men) and 20th (women).

Steigenga’s most successful season at VU came in 2022–23, when the Men's and Women's Cross Country teams placed 12th and 16th respectively at the NJCAA Cross Country National Championship, as well as 7th in the Half Marathon National Championship. Additionally, that Indoor Track and Field season saw the men’s DMR (10:01.17) and 4x800m (7:46.84) relay teams break school records and achieve All-American status. At the Outdoor Track and Field National Championship, freshman Isaac Stanford (Flora, Ill.) was named All-American in the 1500m with a 5th-place finish and a school-record time of 3:49.92, while sophomore Mathew Keitany (Iten, Kenya) placed 3rd in the steeplechase (9:30.29).

In total, Steigenga has coached ten NJCAA All-Americans across distance, middle distance, and multi-events, with his athletes setting 12 school records and achieving 93 performances that rank among the best in school history. He was named the 2025 NJCAA Division I Track & Field Atlantic Region Coach of the Year and earned Assistant Coach of the Year honors for the region in 2024. Steigenga holds USTFCCCA Jumping Event Specialist and Track & Field Technical Certifications.

Prior to his time at VU, Steigenga coached sprinters and jumpers at Holland Christian High School (MI) in 2021, where he helped guide the boys’ 4x200m relay team to an All-State finish. From 2018 to 2020, he served as a Graduate Assistant at Mount Mercy University (IA), where he helped coach multiple NAIA National Qualifiers and All-Americans. Before that, he was an Assistant Cross Country and Track & Field Coach at Cornerstone University (MI) from 2017 to 2018.

As a student-athlete from 2012 to 2016, Steigenga was a captain and four-time national qualifier at Cornerstone University. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Sports Management  from Cornerstone (2016) as well as a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in Human Resources from Mount Mercy (2020).