After 33 conference championships across men\u2019s and women\u2019s track and field and cross country, John Sauerhage, UTA\u2019s longest-standing head coach, is set to retire this year. <\/p>\n
UTA Athletics announced the \u201clegendary\u201d coach’s departure in a press release Thursday, which stated Sauerhage will retire from coaching at the end of the 2026 outdoor track season. <\/p>\n
Sauerhage has been an Arlington local since the start of his career. He grew up, learned, competed and coached \u2013 and now, retired in Arlington. He became UTA\u2019s head coach after six years of assistant coaching under then-head coach Monte Stratton, according to the press release. <\/p>\n
Since then, his teams have earned over 100 individual league track titles and four \u201ctriple crowns,\u201d which only scratch the surface of his impact. He coached 45 athletes who earned All-America honors, five athletes who earned International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships bids and 63 qualifiers for the NCAA Championships. <\/p>\n
Medals and hardware aside, Sauerhage was a traditional head coach who took his passion and ran with it. He laid his success in the hands of his pupils, some of whom have moved on to bigger stages than even he stepped on. <\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I’m very proud of all the conference championships we’ve won, but it’s really about the relationships with the student-athletes and colleagues over the years,\u201d Sauerhage said in the press release. \u201cGetting to be a part of the student-athletes’ lives and watch them succeed at UTA, graduate, grow up and live fulfilling lives is the thing I truly cherish.\u201d <\/p>\n
In his season finale across the three sets of teams he oversees, cross-country placed fourth in men\u2019s and third in women\u2019s Western Athletic Conference championships, and both teams placed 10th place in the NCAA South Central Regional. Indoor track and field placed third in the conference championships, while outdoor track and field will have its championships May 14- 16. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe culture he built at UTA is more than a program \u2014 it\u2019s a family that has shaped so many lives over the years,\u201d Mishael Berger, a former UTA track athlete, said in a UTA Athletics Instagram post. \u201cHis impact extends far beyond the track, and his legacy will continue to live on through the countless lives he has touched.\u201d <\/p>\n
@kaleivie_<\/p>\n