Todd Lehman - Track and Field Coach - Grand Canyon University Athletics

Photo by: Derrick Tuskan/San Diego State

Todd Lehman

Title:
Associate Head Coach
Email:
todd.lehman@gcu.edu
Phone:
602-639-7407
Alma Mater:
USC (1992)
Year at GCU:
14th season

Todd Lehman is in his 14th season as GCU’s associate head men’s and women’s track and field coach in 2023-24. Lehman has coached with Grand Canyon track and field program since it began. Lehman oversees the pole vaulters and the multi-event athletes.

In the 2022-23 outdoor season, Lehman assisted in coaching the men's team to a third straight outdoor WAC Championship in Nacogdoches, Texas where pole vaulter Eric Cabais-Fernandez placed second and Aidan Diggs placed second in the decathlon. Additionally, Lehman coached Summer Grubbs and Camdyn Bruner to second and third place finishes in the heptathlon. The Lopes also had the largest group of athletes in program history at NCAA West Regionals with a total of 17. The Lopes men won the indoor WAC Championship in Spokane, Wash. where they have continued their streak of seven straight victories. Grant Hagaman and Eric Cabais-Fernandez took second and third place in the pole vault competition while Patrick Nelson took second in the heptathlon.

Since the transition to Division I, Lehman has coached 20 Lopes to WAC pole vault titles. Lehman coached Scott Marshall to two NCAA National Championships appearances at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships where he tied for 13th and to the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Marshall would finish his career winning every WAC pole vault title he competed in, a total of six championships in three years. Lehman also coached Madelyn Lundberg to win second team All-American at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. This was the first-ever female to win an All-American for the Lopes.

In 2021, Lehman coached a sweep of WAC Outdoor titles for his pole vaulters and multi-event athletes including Evan Dudley, Alyson Schwartz, Niki Xydona, and Aidan Diggs. Pole vaulters, Madelyn Lundberg, Schwartz, and Megan Fry were three of ten Lopes to qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary round. Lundberg continued to the NCAA Championships to obtain her second team All-American status.

In 2020, Lehman coached Grant Carpenter and Niki Xydona to their repeat individual WAC Indoor titles in the heptathlon and pentathlon, respectively. It was Carpenter's third indoor title in a row for the event. Xydona, Symone Wright-Flowers and Rees Young swept the podium in the pentathlon event.

Lehman moved back to Arizona and to coach at Paradise Valley Community College in 1999 as an assistant track and field coach. Lehman then moved into the co-head coach position where he coached 27 NJCAA individual national champions, 62 All-Americans and 33 academic All-Americans in his 15 seasons at PVCC. His athletes have set NJCAA national records 11 times and his teams posted 15 top-10 performances at the national meet, including back-to-back third-place finishes in 2005 and 2006. In 2017, Lehman was inducted into the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.

Lehman is a former Arizona high school state champion and state record holder who attended Southern California. While at USC, he was a four-time letterman and co-captain of the track and field team. He began his collegiate coaching career as a volunteer assistant at USC in 1992. He then went to PVCC after coaching stints at the U.S. Air Force Academy (1993-95) and Indiana State (1995-97). While coaching at USAFA and ISU, Lehman coached three All-Americans, five conference champions, and five school record holders.

In 1998, Lehman opened the Kiss the Sky Pole Vault Center in Phoenix, which he continues to operate while also running pole vault camps across the Valley. He gives instruction to pole vaulters of all levels and ages, including some of the best in the world.

A USA Track and Field Level II coach, Lehman was selected as the 2004 National Collegiate Pole Vault Coach of the Year in 2004 by the USATF Pole Vault Development Committee. He also was voted the 2005 Indoor Track and Field Assistant Coach of the Year by the NJCAA Track Coaches Association.

Together with his wife Kate, they have four sons: Lucas, Maxwell, Ty and Reed.