Nebraska Wesleyan University Track and Field Assistant Coach Kurt Nielsen has been named the 2009 United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Central Region Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year. 

Nielsen was named the USTFCCCA Central Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year in 2008.

Nielsen, who is in his seventh season at Nebraska Wesleyan, coaches the horizontal jumps for the Prairie Wolves.  During his tenure at NWU, Nielsen has coached athletes to five school records, 16 All-American awards, and one national champion.

This season Nielsen led three horizontal jumpers to NCAA provisional qualifying marks during the indoor and outdoor track & field seasons.  NWU went 2-3-5 in the long jump at the GPAC Indoor Championships and 1-4-5 in the outdoor championships. 

A 1975 graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan, Nielsen holds the NWU school record in the indoor and outdoor high jump, was a 10-time conference champion, and is the outdoor conference record holder in the high jump.  The Lincoln Journal Star and the Omaha World Herald named Nielsen the State College Athlete of the Year in 1974, the same year in which he won the NCAA outdoor high jump championship.

Nielsen came to Nebraska Wesleyan after coaching stops at Gering High School and Lincoln Northeast High School.  He currently teaches at Pound Middle School in Lincoln, Neb.