Kansas State University Athletics
Track & Field
Godfrey, Ryun
Ryun Godfrey
- Title:
- Head XC Coach/Assistant T&F Coach
- Phone:
- (785) 532-6567
The Godfrey File
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Hometown: Racine, Wisconsin
Education: North Dakota State '96
Running Experience: North Dakota State
COACHING HISTORY
2014-2022: K-State Track and Field Assistant Coach/Cross Country Head Coach
1999-2014: North Dakota State Head Coach
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
2002 Division II NCAA Indoor Track and Field Champions
Coached two individuals to Olympic qualifying standard (800 meters)
30 Conference Titles (Cross Country - 4, Indoor Track - 13, Outdoor Track - 13)
2014 USTFCCCA Midwest Region Indoor Coach of the Year
2014 USTFCCCA Midwest Region Outdoor Coach of the Year
Ryun Godfrey, a seasoned veteran of track and field and cross country with a resume that boasts 30 conference titles and numerous Coach of the Year awards, enters his eighth year with the Wildcats as the head cross country and assistant track and field coach.
Godfrey’s resume features 15 years at North Dakota State University as the head women’s track and field and cross country coach, where he swept the USTFCCCA’s Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Year awards for the Midwest Region in in 2014. Godfrey led the Bison to a total of 30 conference titles, including four cross country titles, 13 indoor track and field titles and 13 outdoor track and field titles.
Specializing in the sprints/mid-distance/distance events, Godfrey coached two individuals, Christine Schmaltz (2:01.18) and Laura Hermanson (2:01.24) to the Olympic standard in the women’s 800 meters. In addition, Godfrey has coached eight All-Americans in indoor track, 11 All-Americans in outdoor track, and two Academic All-Americans in cross country.
During his first four seasons at the helm of the K-State cross country program, Godfrey has seen much success. During the 2017 cross country season, Godfrey led the Wildcat men to their best finish in Big 12 Conference history, finishing fourth with 142 points. The Wildcat men went on to earn their best finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional since 2004, finishing 10th overall, earning the team’s top USTFCCCA ranking in program history.
On the women’s side, Godfrey has led three athletes – Jaybe Shufelberger (2019), Morgan Wedekind (2015) and Laura Galvan (2014) to earn All-Big 12 Cross Country honors. The pair Wedekind and Galvan also earned All-Midwest Region honors during his time with the program, while Galvin qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships during the 2014 season.
As an assistant track coach for the Wildcats, Godfrey coached Wedekind to the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, where she finished 21st overall. Wedekind’s season was highlighted by the second-fastest time in the steeplechase in K-State outdoor history, running 9:56.26 at the NCAA West Preliminary; she is only the third Wildcat woman to break 10 minutes in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
In the 2021-22 indoor track and field season, Kassidy Johnson highlighted the distance crew by setting the school record in the women's 800-meter run. Johnson advanced to the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships and finished fifth in the national with a school record time of 2:03.93, earning First Team All-American honors. At the Iowa State Classic, Cooper Schroeder ran a time of 13:55.58 in the 5,000-meter run, clocking in a school record finish. Hadley Splechter finished the 3,000-meter run at the Husker Invitational with a record time of 8:05.51, beating a school record time set in 1994.
Godfrey’s coaching also had a great impact on the K-State women’s Big 12 Outdoor Championships in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, the women’s distance crew accounted for 15 points in three events, including a sixth-place finish by Sydney Collins in the 1,500 meters and a trio of scorers in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, including Wedekind, Kayla Doll and Cara Melgares.
During the 2021 cross country season, Godfrey coached four male runners and three female runners to the top-30 at the Big 12 Cross Country Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Stephen Kielhofner finished in 24th (25:30.5), Kerby Depenbusch in 25th (25:30.9), Hadley Splechter in 27th (25:34.1) and Mike Rohlinger in 29th (25:40.5). On the women's side, Hannah Stewart clocked in at 21:43.33 (17th), Kassidy Johnson recorded a time of 22:02.4 (23rd) and Jaybe Shufelberger founded out the Wildcats with a time of 22:16.0 (26th).
Highlighting the 2020 cross country season was the Big 12 Championships. The Wildcats completed the meet with Top 5 finishes for both teams, marking the first time both squads finished among the Top 5 at the conference meet since 1998. Cooper Schroeder clinched a spot on the All-Big 12 Conference Team as he he crossed the finish line at 23:54.6 to claim the 15th overall spot. Schroeder's pace is the fastest 8k time in school history. Jaybe Shufelberger also earned a spot on the All-Big 12 Conference Team after finishing in ninth place with a time of 21:22.6.
In 2019, Godfrey coached several individuals to top-three finishes at the Big 12 Conference Championships, including a runner-up finish for freshman Kassidy Johnson in the 1,000 meters and freshman Alex Ferguson in the 600-yards. Godfrey also coached a number of Wildcats into the K-State record books, including the second-fastest 1,000 meter time (Kassidy Johnson, 2:45.69) second-fastest 600-yard time (Alex Ferguson, 1:30.35), third-fastest 800 meter time (Kassidy Johnson, 2:04.45) and fifth-fastest 10,000 meter time (Ethan Powell, 29:55.00), among others.
In 2017, Godfrey coached Wedekind to the second Big 12 women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase title in K-State history and the first since 2013. Godfrey also guided Sonia Gaskin to her first conference title of her career in the 600 yard run at the 2016 Indoor Big 12 Championship.
Nationally, Godfrey helped coach eight athletes who qualified for the NCAA First Round Championships at K-State. In addition, Godfrey has coached 12 athletes who have gone on to compete at the USA Championships, four of which competed at the Olympic Trials.
In 2018, Wedekind qualified for the USATF Outdoor Championships, where she competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while he also coached Melgares to the USATF Junior Championships in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
While at North Dakota State, Godfrey was named the Summit League Women’s Coach of the Year in cross country and indoor track and field, an honor he has won a combined 17 times including sweeping the award from 2011-2014.
Under Godfrey’s guidance, the Bison won 18 league titles since joining the Division I Summit League in 2007 and became the first school in league history in 2012 to win five straight conference titles in both indoor and outdoor track. In addition, the program claimed the league’s “Triple Crown” from 2011-2014 – a cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field conference title sweep.
On the national level, Godfrey brought the women’s track and field program at NDSU to prominence during the 2014 season with his athletes accumulating five total entries in the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships - including the 4x400 relay team that earned second team honors both indoors and outdoors.
Of Godfrey’s successes at North Dakota State, he helped guide Laura Hermanson to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 800 meter in NDSU’s first year of eligibility for the Division I Championships. She would go on to finish seventh and earn the Bison’s first ever All-America honors. In that same year, Hermanson was the runner-up in the 800 meter at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Bison captured their second straight indoor and outdoor Summit league title in the 2008-09 season, and Godfrey earned his third and fourth career Summit League Coach of the Year honors.
His student-athletes experienced considerable individual success in conference competition as well, combining for 191 All-Summit League selections and 116 All-Summit League individual titles spanning across three different sports - cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field.
In the classroom, the Bison women totaled 37 Academic All-American accolades under Godfrey’s watch since 1999. Most notably, Whitney Carlson, coached by Godfrey’s long-time assistant Stevie Keller, was a 16-time Summit League Champion and three-time Summit League Women’s Track and Field Athlete of the Year, was awarded the NCAA Elite 88 Award in 2011 - given to student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade-point average in his or her respective sport’s championship.
Prior to the Bison joining DI competition in 2007, Godfrey led the Bison, most notably, in 2002 to the NCAA DII Indoor Track and Field title and a runner-up at the national outdoor meet. Godfrey was named to six different coaching awards that season: USTFCCCA Division II and North Central Region Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Year, NCC Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Year, and North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association’s Female Team Coach of the Year.
As a part of the North Central Conference, Godfrey led the Bison women to 13 overall conference titles and helped coach student-athletes to 20 school records in 20 different events.
As a student, Godfrey spent five years as part of the men’s program - one year as a graduate assistant and four as a student-athlete. In his time as a student-athlete, Godfrey, who graduated with a B.A. in physical education, was an All-North Central Conference performer and a member of seven NDSU league champion track and field squads.
He is the son of Vic and Ruth Godfrey of Watertown, South Dakota. Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Godfrey grew up in Bahrain, an island off the coast of Saudi Arabia, where his father, a South Dakota track and field coaching legend with over 50 years of experience, was the country’s Olympic coach for 12 years.
Godfrey’s resume features 15 years at North Dakota State University as the head women’s track and field and cross country coach, where he swept the USTFCCCA’s Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Year awards for the Midwest Region in in 2014. Godfrey led the Bison to a total of 30 conference titles, including four cross country titles, 13 indoor track and field titles and 13 outdoor track and field titles.
Specializing in the sprints/mid-distance/distance events, Godfrey coached two individuals, Christine Schmaltz (2:01.18) and Laura Hermanson (2:01.24) to the Olympic standard in the women’s 800 meters. In addition, Godfrey has coached eight All-Americans in indoor track, 11 All-Americans in outdoor track, and two Academic All-Americans in cross country.
During his first four seasons at the helm of the K-State cross country program, Godfrey has seen much success. During the 2017 cross country season, Godfrey led the Wildcat men to their best finish in Big 12 Conference history, finishing fourth with 142 points. The Wildcat men went on to earn their best finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional since 2004, finishing 10th overall, earning the team’s top USTFCCCA ranking in program history.
On the women’s side, Godfrey has led three athletes – Jaybe Shufelberger (2019), Morgan Wedekind (2015) and Laura Galvan (2014) to earn All-Big 12 Cross Country honors. The pair Wedekind and Galvan also earned All-Midwest Region honors during his time with the program, while Galvin qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships during the 2014 season.
As an assistant track coach for the Wildcats, Godfrey coached Wedekind to the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, where she finished 21st overall. Wedekind’s season was highlighted by the second-fastest time in the steeplechase in K-State outdoor history, running 9:56.26 at the NCAA West Preliminary; she is only the third Wildcat woman to break 10 minutes in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
In the 2021-22 indoor track and field season, Kassidy Johnson highlighted the distance crew by setting the school record in the women's 800-meter run. Johnson advanced to the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships and finished fifth in the national with a school record time of 2:03.93, earning First Team All-American honors. At the Iowa State Classic, Cooper Schroeder ran a time of 13:55.58 in the 5,000-meter run, clocking in a school record finish. Hadley Splechter finished the 3,000-meter run at the Husker Invitational with a record time of 8:05.51, beating a school record time set in 1994.
Godfrey’s coaching also had a great impact on the K-State women’s Big 12 Outdoor Championships in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, the women’s distance crew accounted for 15 points in three events, including a sixth-place finish by Sydney Collins in the 1,500 meters and a trio of scorers in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, including Wedekind, Kayla Doll and Cara Melgares.
During the 2021 cross country season, Godfrey coached four male runners and three female runners to the top-30 at the Big 12 Cross Country Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Stephen Kielhofner finished in 24th (25:30.5), Kerby Depenbusch in 25th (25:30.9), Hadley Splechter in 27th (25:34.1) and Mike Rohlinger in 29th (25:40.5). On the women's side, Hannah Stewart clocked in at 21:43.33 (17th), Kassidy Johnson recorded a time of 22:02.4 (23rd) and Jaybe Shufelberger founded out the Wildcats with a time of 22:16.0 (26th).
Highlighting the 2020 cross country season was the Big 12 Championships. The Wildcats completed the meet with Top 5 finishes for both teams, marking the first time both squads finished among the Top 5 at the conference meet since 1998. Cooper Schroeder clinched a spot on the All-Big 12 Conference Team as he he crossed the finish line at 23:54.6 to claim the 15th overall spot. Schroeder's pace is the fastest 8k time in school history. Jaybe Shufelberger also earned a spot on the All-Big 12 Conference Team after finishing in ninth place with a time of 21:22.6.
In 2019, Godfrey coached several individuals to top-three finishes at the Big 12 Conference Championships, including a runner-up finish for freshman Kassidy Johnson in the 1,000 meters and freshman Alex Ferguson in the 600-yards. Godfrey also coached a number of Wildcats into the K-State record books, including the second-fastest 1,000 meter time (Kassidy Johnson, 2:45.69) second-fastest 600-yard time (Alex Ferguson, 1:30.35), third-fastest 800 meter time (Kassidy Johnson, 2:04.45) and fifth-fastest 10,000 meter time (Ethan Powell, 29:55.00), among others.
In 2017, Godfrey coached Wedekind to the second Big 12 women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase title in K-State history and the first since 2013. Godfrey also guided Sonia Gaskin to her first conference title of her career in the 600 yard run at the 2016 Indoor Big 12 Championship.
Nationally, Godfrey helped coach eight athletes who qualified for the NCAA First Round Championships at K-State. In addition, Godfrey has coached 12 athletes who have gone on to compete at the USA Championships, four of which competed at the Olympic Trials.
In 2018, Wedekind qualified for the USATF Outdoor Championships, where she competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while he also coached Melgares to the USATF Junior Championships in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
While at North Dakota State, Godfrey was named the Summit League Women’s Coach of the Year in cross country and indoor track and field, an honor he has won a combined 17 times including sweeping the award from 2011-2014.
Under Godfrey’s guidance, the Bison won 18 league titles since joining the Division I Summit League in 2007 and became the first school in league history in 2012 to win five straight conference titles in both indoor and outdoor track. In addition, the program claimed the league’s “Triple Crown” from 2011-2014 – a cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field conference title sweep.
On the national level, Godfrey brought the women’s track and field program at NDSU to prominence during the 2014 season with his athletes accumulating five total entries in the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships - including the 4x400 relay team that earned second team honors both indoors and outdoors.
Of Godfrey’s successes at North Dakota State, he helped guide Laura Hermanson to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 800 meter in NDSU’s first year of eligibility for the Division I Championships. She would go on to finish seventh and earn the Bison’s first ever All-America honors. In that same year, Hermanson was the runner-up in the 800 meter at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Bison captured their second straight indoor and outdoor Summit league title in the 2008-09 season, and Godfrey earned his third and fourth career Summit League Coach of the Year honors.
His student-athletes experienced considerable individual success in conference competition as well, combining for 191 All-Summit League selections and 116 All-Summit League individual titles spanning across three different sports - cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field.
In the classroom, the Bison women totaled 37 Academic All-American accolades under Godfrey’s watch since 1999. Most notably, Whitney Carlson, coached by Godfrey’s long-time assistant Stevie Keller, was a 16-time Summit League Champion and three-time Summit League Women’s Track and Field Athlete of the Year, was awarded the NCAA Elite 88 Award in 2011 - given to student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade-point average in his or her respective sport’s championship.
Prior to the Bison joining DI competition in 2007, Godfrey led the Bison, most notably, in 2002 to the NCAA DII Indoor Track and Field title and a runner-up at the national outdoor meet. Godfrey was named to six different coaching awards that season: USTFCCCA Division II and North Central Region Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Year, NCC Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Year, and North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association’s Female Team Coach of the Year.
As a part of the North Central Conference, Godfrey led the Bison women to 13 overall conference titles and helped coach student-athletes to 20 school records in 20 different events.
As a student, Godfrey spent five years as part of the men’s program - one year as a graduate assistant and four as a student-athlete. In his time as a student-athlete, Godfrey, who graduated with a B.A. in physical education, was an All-North Central Conference performer and a member of seven NDSU league champion track and field squads.
He is the son of Vic and Ruth Godfrey of Watertown, South Dakota. Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Godfrey grew up in Bahrain, an island off the coast of Saudi Arabia, where his father, a South Dakota track and field coaching legend with over 50 years of experience, was the country’s Olympic coach for 12 years.
K-State T&F | Gear Reveal
Saturday, August 30
K-State TF | NCAA Championship Recap
Tuesday, June 17
K-State Track and Field | Coach Geopfert Post Meet Comments - NCAA Championships / Women's Finals
Monday, June 16
K-State Track and Field | Coach Geopfert Post Meet Comments - NCAA Championships / Men's Finals
Saturday, June 14
