Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Track and Field
- Title:
- Assistant Coach (director of operations)
- Email:
- ashley.caldwell@siu.edu
- Phone:
- 618-453-5452
Caldwell assists Richard Jones with coaching Southern’s sprinters and hurdlers and serves as SIU’s director of operations.
In her first season as a Saluki, Caldwell's sprinters won six MVC titles, tallied 12 top-3 finishes at conference meets and totaled an impressive 14 top-eight finishes. While doing so, her sprinters broke five school records and tallied an additional six top-10 school marks.Â
At the 2019 MVC Indoor Championships, Tyjuana Eason was the Saluki women’s top-point scorer and won three MVC titles, which included the program’s first-ever women’s 60m dash title. In doing so, she became just the 15th woman in MVC history to win both the 60m and 200m dashes at the same conference meet.Â
At the 2019 MVC Outdoor Championships, Bri’Anna Branch became just the second individual in program history to nab MVC Most Outstanding Athlete honors after she won the 100m and 200m dashes and also helped SIU to a win in the 4x100 relay. Under Caldwell and Jones’ tutelage, Branch went on to clock the first sub-23 second 200m in school history at 22.74 and became the first Saluki women's sprinter since 1986 to qualify for the national meet in the 200m dash. Southern’s women’s 4x100 relay team also made school history, as it broke the school record with a time of 44.27 at the NCAA West Regional to become the first Saluki women’s quater-mile relay team to qualify for the national meet. It was SIU’s first appearance in a relay event of any distance at a national meet, men’s or women’s, since 1986.
Caldwell spent four years with USA Track and Field, where she was the Coordinator for USATF's youth programs for three years before being promoted to Youth Programs Manager in January of 2018. In her role with USATF, Caldwell coordinated conference calls, vendors, logistics and promotional activities at all championships.
As a student-athlete at Ohio State, Caldwell was a four-time All-Big Ten honoree and an All-American as part of OSU's 4x400 relay team. During the outdoor season of her junior year, Caldwell helped OSU’s 4x400 relay team win the Big Ten title and advance to the NCAA Championship meet, where they finished 13th.
Caldwell earned her bachelor’s degree in strategic communication from Ohio State in 2010 and graduated with a master’s degree in sport management from Xavier in 2012.
