Abilene Christian track and field / cross country head coach Lance Bingham is at the start of his third year with the Wildcats. He was named to his current position in May of 2016 following 18 years at Liberty University.
Bingham is the 19th head coach of a program that has won more team national championships (54 at the NCAA level) than any other single track and field program in intercollegiate athletics history. ACU is fifth in NCAA history in total number of team national championships won (57), trailing only UCLA (114), Stanford (109), USC (100) and NCAA Division III swimming and diving powerhouse Kenyon College (58).
Through two full cross country and track and field seasons with the Wildcats, Bingham and his coaches have mentored 52 All-Southland Conference selections, including 13 league champions, plus 14 NCAA West Prelim qualifiers, three XC all-region honorees and two NCAA Championship participants.
Additionally, three student-athletes have won the title of Southland Conference Student-Athlete of the Year while 23 have been named academic all-conference. And 135 of his competitors – both male and female – have been listed on the Southland Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll.
Bingham's student-athletes also have rewritten a sizable chunk of the ACU record book with 67 performances cracking the school's all-time top-10 list between the indoor and outdoor seasons. There also have been six new varsity records established or tied since the start of 2017: Michaela Hackett in the indoor 3K (9:30.75) and 10K (33:50.99), Kenzie Walker in the pole vault (4.05m), Kayla Melgar in the discus (55.51m) and hammer (58.00m), and Lonnie Smith in the weight throw (18.95m).
The Wildcats men's and women's track and field teams had their best combined showing at the 2018 Southland Conference Outdoor Championships in San Antonio. The men went from sixth (51) to second with 117 points, while the women went from ninth (37) to fourth with 92 points.
Twenty All-Conference citations were earned by the Wildcats at the meet hosted by Incarnate Word with gold medals bestowed upon Avery Williams (400m), Ryan Cleary (steeplechase), the men's 4x400m relay, Kai Schmidt (SP, DT), Michaela (5K) and Alexandria Hackett (10K), and Kayla Melgar (DT).
Bingham's men's 1600m relay also reached the medal stand at the 2017 and 2018 conference indoor meet with consecutive second-place showings, while the 2017 outdoor edition finished third along with then-senior Kimone Green (400m).
Blaze Brownlow also is a proven 400m competitor of Bingham's who finished second to Avery Williams at the 2018 Southland Conference Outdoor Championship.
A member of the National Junior Collegiate Athletics Association and South Plains College halls of fame, Bingham is no stranger to West Texas. He grew up in Meadow (southwest of Lubbock) and competed at South Plains College before graduating from Texas Tech where he participated in football as well as track and field. He was a junior college all-America decathlete at South Plains, finishing second at nationals in 1982 and 1983 with a personal best of 7,510 points.
Bingham served two stints on the Liberty staff (assistant coach from 1995-2001 and associate head coach from 2004-2016), leaving only for three seasons from 2001-04 when he returned to Levelland as the head coach at South Plains College.
In his last five seasons at Liberty, Bingham helped guide the Flames men's and women's track and field teams to a combined 14 conference titles.
Bingham helped coach senior decathlete Daniel Newell to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in one of his final seasons at Liberty, marking a fifth consecutive year the Flames had been represented in the decathlon at the NCAA national meet.
Bingham, who primarily works with the field event and multi-event athletes, saw three of his athletes qualify for the 2008 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. As a result, Bingham was recognized as the 2008 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Southeast Regional Men's Assistant Coach of the Year.
At South Plains, Bingham's athletes won 13 individual national championships and earned 33 all-America honors in track and cross country, while the 2002 women's marathon squad won the national championship. On two separate occasions, his men's teams earned a third-place finish at the national championship meet. In 2004, he was named the 2004 National Junior College Outdoor Coach of the Year.
Prior to his tenure at South Plains, he served as an assistant coach at Liberty for six seasons, where he was primarily responsible for assisting with multi-event athletes and field events. As an assistant coach for the Flames, he coached seven NCAA Division I all-America athletes.
Bingham graduated cum laude from Texas Tech (1985) with a bachelor's degree in physical education and earned his masters of education from Sul Ross State University in Alpine.
