Katie McGregor and Ok. State’s Dave Smith named coaches for Team USA for 2023 World XC

Press Releas via USATF
January 12, 2023

INDIANAPOLIS — USATF has announced the coaching and medical staffs for the 2023 World Athletics Cross Country Championships and World Athletics U20 Cross Country Championships, to be contested February 18 in Bathurst, Australia.

The USATF Cross Country Championships on January 21 will serve as the selection event. Up to 28 athletes across the two teams will be selected to represent Team USATF in the men’s and women’s senior, U20, and mixed relay races. USATF will announce its team rosters following the Championships.

Selection procedures for the team can be found here.

Katie McGregor: Women’s Head Coach

Dave Smith at the Press Conference

Katie McGregor has served as a staff member on four international teams since 2014. Most recently, McGregor joined Team USATF as the U20 Women’s Head Coach for the 2019 IAAF Cross Country Championships. During her career as an elite athlete, McGregor saw three IAAF World Championships 10,000m finals and represented the U.S. at five World Cross Country Championships. During her time at the University of Michigan, McGregor was a three-time NCAA Champion, earning the individual title at the 1998 NCAA Cross Country Championships and two titles at the 1998 NCAA Indoor Championships with her 3,000m crown and Distance Medley Relay gold.

Dave Smith: Men’s Head Coach

Longtime Oklahoma State Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Dave Smith has coached eight NCAA individual track champions and was honored in 2009, 2010 and 2012 as the USTFCCCA men’s cross country national coach of the year. He has also been named Big 12 Conference men’s coach of the year for cross country on 10 occasions. At the NCAA Cross Country Championships last November, Smith’s men were second in the team standings, losing out on a tiebreaker for the title to Northern Arizona as both teams tallied 83 points. Smith won the Big Ten men’s 10,000m crown for Michigan State in 1993 and was a four-time all-Big Ten cross country runner.

Kathy Butler: Women’s U20 Head Coach

The women’s distance coach for Team USATF at the 2022 NACAC Senior Championships in the Bahamas, Kathy Butler is a USATF Level 3 certified coach who has also gained the highest coaching certification offered by World Athletics. She served on the U.S. team staff for the 2019 Great Stirling Cross Country event in Scotland and coaches the Run Boulder Athletic Club in Colorado. Butler is the chair of USATF Coaching Education and has taught coaching education across the country. She was named the Terry Crawford Distinguished Female in Coaching award recipient in 2021. Butler was an Olympian and World Championships team member for Great Britain and earned bronze in the long race team competition at the 2004 World Cross Country Championships. She was the NCAA 3,000m champion for Wisconsin in 1997.

Rick Rothman: Men’s U20 Head Coach

A veteran of more than 30 years of high school coaching in Florida, Rick Rothman served as the men’s coach for Team USATF at the 2014 NACAC cross country championship meet in Trinidad & Tobago, where the senior and junior teams came away with convincing wins and U.S. runners captured both individual titles. His high school teams won seven Florida girls state cross country titles and Rothman was named coach of the year more than 100 times. He is certified at Level 3 as an instructor by USATF and has served as a national-level official in the past. Rothman has been inducted into four Halls of Fame as a coach and spent seven years as a volunteer assistant coach at Florida Atlantic University.

Darrell Barnes: ATC

Owner of Aspire Performance Rehab in Carmel, Indiana, Darrell Barnes has more than 25 years of experience providing athletic performance rehabilitation services to athletes from all ages and backgrounds, including extensive experience with track and field and cross country athletes. Barnes is a certified athletic trainer and strength and conditioning specialist with expertise in injury assessment, active release manual therapy, Graston, Hesch, muscle energy, Mulligan joint mobilizations, Kinesio tape, FMS/SFMA, Functional Fitness and running mechanic analysis. He also served as a Performance Medical Coordinator for St. Vincent Sports Performance for more than 20 years after graduating from Indiana University.

Anne Marie Letko: LMT

Two-time Olympian and four-time World Championships team member Anne Marie Letko finished 10th in the Olympic marathon at Atlanta in 1996. She currently owns and operates Sacred Space Massage & Bodywork in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and is board certified in therapeutic massage and bodywork, with more than 25 years of clinical experience. Letko is a member of the American Massage Therapy Association, as well as the American Craniosacral Therapy Association and International Association of Healthcare Practitioners.

For more information about Bathurst23, including a timetable, click here.

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