Linh Nguyen enters his fifth year as the head coach of the women’s track and field program at the University of Toledo. Since assuming his position in the 2013-14 season, Nguyen has seen his team improve its finish at the Mid-American Conference Outdoor Championships every year.
Nguyen and the Rockets have sent four athletes to the NCAA East Regionals in each of the past two years. In 2016, two of Nguyen’s athletes advanced to the NCAA Championships. Kyesha Neal finished 17th in the discus and Liz Weiler placed 18th in the 3000-meter steeplechase to earn honorable mention All-America honors.
Nguyen also coaches the men’s and women’s cross country programs.
After finishing runner-up by four points in 2013, Nguyen led the 2014 UT women’s cross country team to its sixth Mid-American Conference championship in school history. The title was the Rockets’ fourth in the previous five years, and helped Nguyen earn MAC Women’s Coach of the Year honors.
He also led the Rockets to an upset of No. 8 Michigan and No. 19 Ohio State at the 2014 NCAA Regional Meet. UT placed a program-best third at the regional meet and earned the Midnight Blue & Gold a No. 21 national ranking. The Rockets placed 30th at the NCAA Championships.
Nguyen and the Rockets came close to winning the MAC in 2017, finishing in second place.
Nguyen also holds his teams to high standards in the classroom. His track and field team landed 12 athletes on the outdoor Academic All-MAC team in 2016 and combined to have 16 academic all-conference track & field selections in 2017.
Prior to coming to Toledo, Nguyen coached for 12 seasons at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, seven as the head coach of the men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams.
The Spartans became a perennial contender in the Southern Conference under Nguyen, culminating in one of the best years in program history in 2011-12. Nguyen was named the conference Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2011 after leading both the men’s and women’s teams to titles. Paul Chelimo earned All-America honors under Nguyen’s guidance, the first runner in school history to earn that distinction.
In the 2012 outdoor track season, Nguyen coached Chelimo to a national runner-up finish in the 5,000-meter run, while Paul Katam finished first in the 10,000-meter run at the NCAA Regional Meet. Nguyen mentored Chelimo and Katam to NCAA runner-up finishes in the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter runs at the NCAA meets, respectively, as the men’s team finished 15th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Nguyen began his coaching career in 2000 as a volunteer assistant at his alma mater, Lynchburg College, before accepting an assistant position at UNCG in 2002. He spent four years as an assistant before taking over head coaching duties for the Spartans at the start of the 2006 outdoor track and field season. In 2007, his first season as head coach of the UNCG cross country team, the Spartans saw immediate success. Nguyen led the men’s team to their highest finish in school history at the championship meet, placing third out of 11 teams.
As a student-athlete at Lynchburg, Nguyen earned eight all-conference selections and helped lead the cross country team to an Old Dominion Athletic Conference title in 1999. He graduated from in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in sports medicine, and earned his master’s degree in exercise physiology from UNCG in 2007.
Nguyen and his wife Christina have a five-year-old son, Khoi, and three-year-old twins, a boy, Liem and a girl, Vy Lan.
