New Orleans, La. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women's track & field team earned a pair of national coaching awards as selected by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), the organization announced Tuesday. 
 
Head coach Nickolas Davis was named the USTFCCCA Outdoor Coach of the Year for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III and assistant coach Katie Wagner was voted the USTFCCCA Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year. 

Award winners are determined by a vote of USTFCCCA member coaches. Only those individuals from USTFCCCA member programs are eligible for awards.  
 
Davis and Wagner helped lead UWL to the NCAA Division III Championship on May 21-23 at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex, earning 25 All-America honors. The Eagles recorded 53.0 total points in nine events in capturing their fifth (1983, 1984, 2015, 2023, 2026) Division III title in school history. 

 
Davis oversees UWL's jumps and multi-events. The Eagles earned seven NCAA Division III All-America honors in the long and triple jump at this year's championships. Maya Evans was an All-America in both events, finishing fifth in the long jump and 12th in the triple jump. Regan Scott (ninth-place) and Josie Blum (12th) picked up accolades in the long jump with Samantha Barrett (eighth), Mackenzey Kronberg (10th) and Emily Blaskowski (14th) earning All-America awards in the triple jump.
 
Madison Thoreson earned NCAA Division III All-America honors in the heptathlon, finishing 12th overall. 
 
It marks the third time Davis has been named the USTFCCCA National Coach of the Year after earning the 2023 Indoor and Outdoor Award as UWL swept the NCAA Division III Championships. Along with the three national titles, Davis has led the Eagles to seven other top-four finishes. At the NCAA III Indoor Championships, UWL has placed second in 2022, third in 2025 and fourth in 2026 under Davis. He has led the Eagles to three (2021, 2022, 2024) second-place and one (2025) third-place showing at the outdoor meet.
 
Davis, in his ninth season as head coach, has been named the USTFCCCA North Region Indoor Coach of the Year four times (2022-25) and Midwest Region Indoor Coach of the Year once (2020). He has earned the North Region Outdoor Coach of the Year three seasons (2022-23, 2025) and Midwest Region Outdoor Coach of the Year once (2021).
 
Wagner, in her 16th season as an assistant coach at UWL, oversees the Eagles' sprints, hurdles and relays. Her student-athletes accounted for 30.0 of UWL's 53.0 points in winning this year's outdoor national title, including sweeping the 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays. Julie Yang, Anika Reiland, Makenna Zak and Anna Plautz took the 4x100 title, the fifth (2013-14, 2024-26) relay crown in school history. Plautz, Macy Reybrock, Zoe Lain and Andie Otto captured the 4x400 (school and facility record 3:40.69). It was the fourth (1997, 2013-14, 2026) relay title in school history.

Plautz earned All-America honors with a third-place finish in the 400-meter dash while Otto garnered All-America accolades after a fifth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles. Plautz set a school record (54.28) in the 400-meter dash earlier this season.
 
UWL won its 14th straight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship and league record 40th title in school history under Davis and Wagner this season. The Eagles earned the WIAC Outdoor Coaching Staff of the Year Award for the seventh straight season.

The Eagles captured this year's outdoor conference title with 362.0 team points. The 362.0 points are second in conference history after UWL scored 363.5 in 2023. UWL won eight individual and two relay titles at this year's conference championships while recording points in all 21 events. The Eagles earned at least 10 points in 17 events.
 
Plautz (400-meter dash), Otto (400-meter hurdles), Evans (long jump; triple jump), Thoreson (heptathlon), Molly Novotny (1,500-meter run), Brooklyn Luebke (5,000-meter run) and Julia Zalewski (3,000-meter steeplechase) captured individual league titles while Yang, Reiland, Zak and Plautz (4x100-meter relay) and Plautz, Reybrock, Lain and Otto (4x400-meter relay) swept the relays.
 
It is the fourth (2014, 2021, 2023, 2026) time Wagner has been voted the USTFCCCA National Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year. She has also been selected the National Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year four seasons (2010, 2014-15, 2023).
 
Wagner swept the 2026 USTFCCCA North Region Indoor and Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year honors. She has been named the USTFCCCA Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year six times in her career, including three times in the North Region (2023, 2025-26) and three in the Midwest Region (2010, 2014-25). Wagner has earned the Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year four times, including twice in the North Region (2025-26) and twice in the Midwest Region (2014, 2021).