The 2021-22 season begins Matt Vining's 12th season of coaching at Arkansas State. His coaching duties include overseeing those A-State athletes who compete in the pole vault, high jump and multi events. Vining holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and is a U.S. Track and Field (USATF) certified Level 1 coach. Over his tenure, Vining has coached 33 Sun Belt Conference Individual Champions, 78 All-Sun Belt Medalists, 31 NCAA West Regional Qualifiers and seven All-Americans.
Vining has been instrumental in a stellar A-State multi events group that has won back-to-back pentathlons, with Camryn Newton-Smith winning with a school-record 4,071 points in 2020 before Allie Hensley kept the crown in Scarlet and Black in 2021 (3,875 points - 2nd in school history). Newton-Smith qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the event before it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hensley also earned the league's Most Outstanding Women's Field Performer after also placing third in the high jump at the 2021 indoor championships. Outdoors, Hensley earned bronze in the heptathlon and qualified in the high jump for the NCAA West Prelims.
In his first five years at A-State, Vining coached four-straight Sun Belt Conference (SBC) Decathlon Champions in Ethan Turpen (2011, 2013 and 2014) and Will Oliver (2012). Those two also rank as the top two athletes in A-State's men's program history in the indoor heptathlon as well as the top female indoor multi eventer in school history in Samone Thompson (2016). Thompson won both the indoor and outdoor female multi events in the Sun Belt in 2016. He coached Turpen to the SBC Decathlon meet record in 2014 (7294 points) and Oliver to the SBC Heptathlon overall record (5423 points).
Vining has coached two different All-American pole vaulters in Ethan Sandusky (2015), and Stephanie Foreman (2013). Sandusky jumped to the Sun Belt record (17-10.5) in 2015 and was a three time Sun Belt Champ. Foreman graduated with the Sun Belt meet records both indoor (13-8.25) and outdoor (13-8.5) and as the first vaulter in Sun Belt history to jump 14 feet. Other Sun Belt Champions include Alexandra Pevtsova, who was a two time conference champion (2013, 2015) with a personal best of 13-1.5. In 2018 Michael Carr became the first A-State vaulter to jump 18 feet in over 2 decades when he eclipsed 5.50m (18-0.75) during the outdoor season. Carr went on to place fifth in the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2019, during which he broke Earl Bell's school record with a clearance of 5.70m (18-8.25). In 2021, Bradley Jelmert qualified for the NCAA West Prelims as a freshman, while 2021 Sun Belt outdoor and 2020 indoor champion Lauren Beauchamp became the first regionals qualifier since Foreman in 2013 on the women's side.
Vining's high jumpers have had great success in recent years. Kashef Daniel won a Sun Belt title in 2014 while also qualifying for two straight NCAA prelims in the event. Daniel set the Trinidad and Tobago national high jump record in 2014 both indoors and outdoors (7-1) under Vining. Darragh May had the highest jump in the Sun Belt both indoor and outdoor in 2015 and jumped to a personal best 1.80m in 2017. She qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary round three times in her career. Tiaan Steenkamp joined the list of NCAA West Preliminary Qualifiers making the trip in 2016 & 2017, while earning all-American honors in 2017 with a personal best of 7-2. In 2021, Hensley and Frank Massey made the regional field.
In addition to coaching at A-State, Vining ran track and field for Arkansas State from 2003-08. He competed in the decathlon and heptathlon as well as being an All-Sun Belt Conference performer in the pole vault, javelin and high jump. He was a two-time indoor and outdoor champion in the multi events. He also graduated with the school and Sun Belt conference overall records in the indoor heptathlon (5193 pts).
A third generation coach, Vining has worked with both high school and college-aged athletes.
A graduate of Lake Hamilton High School in Hot Springs, Ark., Vining was the 2003 Arkansas decathlon state champion. He has had the privilege of working under several distinguished coaches such as Karl Koonce (Lake Hamilton High School), Lon Badeaux (former A-State head coach and current Louisiana-Lafayette head coach), Joe Cebulski (former top five USA Decathlete) and Earl Bell (world renowned pole vault coach and former world record holder).
Coach Vining is married to Kelli McKesson Vining, and the couple has two children, Levi and Lexi.
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| Coaching Record |
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College
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Coaching Experience
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| Arkansas State, Assistant Coach |
2009-present |
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