Leslie Hardesty

Sport: Track and Field
Position: Assistant Coach (Throws)

With the 2009-10 season, Leslie Hardesty begins her fifth season of coaching the Bulldog throwers. She began coaching at the University during the 2005-06 season.

During her tenure, six student-athletes have qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships. Bridgette Carpenter finished seventh in the shot put and Ashley Colon finished third in the weight throw during the 2007 Indoor Championships, while Carpenter was sixth in the shot during that season’s outdoor meet.

Ashley Bernard qualified for the 2008 outdoor championships in the Hammer throw and finished 17th while qualifying for the 2009 indoor championships in the shot put and placed 12th.

Kortney Holeman qualified for the 2009 outdoor meet and finished 12th in the discus.

Hardesty coached two men to the 2009 national meet in the shot put. Derek Atwood placed 13th while Alex VanDelft finished 16th.

Two school records have fallen while Hardesty has been in charge Both indoor weight throw records are now owned by Ashley Colon (17.89m – in 2007) and Eric Ruzicka (16.33m in 2008).

Hardesty comes to Truman after serving the three previous years as the head men’s and women’s track coach at Dakota Wesleyan University (S.D.).

While at Dakota Wesleyan, she coached the men to school records in the weight throw and hammer throw and she coached the women’s team to school records in the weight throw, javelin, hammer throw, 100m hurdles, triple jump and heptathlon.

Ten athletes on her squads were national qualifiers and she coached four all-conference throwers and two all-conference jumpers.

Her athletes also excelled off the track as she coached six NAIA scholar all-Americans and both squads had an average GPA above 3.00.

Prior to being at Dakota Wesleyan, she was an assistant coach for five years at North Marion High School in Farmington, W.Va.

At North Marion, she coached 17 state qualifiers, eight conference champions and one regional champion.

Hardesty graduated from Seton Hall in 1996 with a bachelor of arts in communications.

While at Seton Hall, she was a four-year member on the women’s track and field team. She earned all-conference honors in the weight throw, discus and hammer throw and was the 1996 Seton Hall female track and field athlete of the year.

While in school, she set school records in the indoor and outdoor shot put, the weight throw and the hammer throw. Hardesty was a member of the 1993 indoor and 1994 outdoor Big East championship teams.

Hardesty also received a bachelor of science in physical education from Fairmont State University in 1999 and completed continuing education courses in sports psychology at Cal State, Hayward during the 2002 Olympics.

She received her masters of arts in education from Dakota Wesleyan.