A former runner for the Vulcans, Sandy Estep enters her fourth season as an assistant coach at Cal U working with sprints, hurdles and relays.
Estep has mentored a pair of record-breaking sprinters while also coaching two league champion relay teams. She has helped Jae’Len Means develop into one of the top sprinters in the country while breaking three school records. Means became the program’s first-ever individual All-American sprinter in 2017 and repeated as the indoor league champion in the 200 meters last year. Last spring, he became the first sprinter in recent program history to win conference titles in both the 100 and 200 meters at the same championship.
In her first year on the coaching staff, Estep helped Gabby Irving set indoor school records in both the 60 and 200 meters while earning All-PSAC status in both events. Irving also broke the school mark in the 200 meters during the outdoor season in 2016.
Estep has worked with five relay teams that have placed among the top three at the league championships. In 2016, the men’s outdoor 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays both earned All-PSAC honors with the 4x100 relay winning the league title by nine-hundredths of a second. The Vulcans again received All-PSAC laurels in the 4x400 relay in 2017 before winning the conference crown during the outdoor season in dramatic fashion – again by nine-tenths of a second.
While a student at Cal U, Estep competed on the cross country and track & field teams from 2008-13 and also served as a graduate assistant for the program during 2013-14 academic year.
In track & field, Estep was a nine-time individual qualifier for the PSAC Championships and set three school records as part of relay teams. As a sophomore, Estep helped the 4x400-meter relay claim the first women’s relay league title since 1985 and qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Estep also competed on the cross country team for three years. She placed sixth on the team as a freshman in 2008 at both the league and regional championships.
A native of Virginia, Estep received USTFCCCA All-Academic honors for track & field three times in her career and earned D2ADA Academic Achievement Award status as a senior. She also garnered PSAC Scholar-Athlete laurels five times in her collegiate career and was a 10-time member of the Cal U AD Honor Roll.
Estep earned her undergraduate degree in sport management with a concentration in wellness and fitness in 2012. The following year, she completed her master’s degree in exercise science and health promotion with an emphasis in performance enhancement and injury prevention. Estep also earned a post-master’s certificate in sport psychology from Cal U in 2014.
