Mike Bartolina

Nebraska track and field head coach Justin St. Clair announced the addition of Mike Bartolina to the coaching staff on Aug. 23, 2023.

In his first season with the Huskers, Bartolina coached Jessica Gardner and Kylie Clark to NCAA West Preliminary Round qualifications. Gardner placed sixth at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships with a 13-4 1/4 (4.07m).

Bartolina comes from Illinois State, where he served as an assistant coach over pole vault and the horizontal jumps for two seasons.

Through 24 years of coaching experience at the Division I level, Bartolina has coached 13 athletes to All-America honors and over 50 qualifiers to the NCAA Preliminary Championships.

“Mike is a well-established coach and mentor with a long history of success,” St. Clair said. “We are excited to have him join our program and look forward to welcoming him and his family to Lincoln.”

Prior to his time at Illinois State, Bartolina spent two years at Louisiana Tech, coaching Denzel Harper to a C-USA Championship and All-America honors in the long jump.

From 2016-2018, Bartolina coached at the University of Alabama, highlighted by Lakan Taylor becoming Alabama’s first NCAA women’s pole vault champion in 2017. On the men’s team, he helped coach them to its first SEC Track and Field Championship in 46 years, while capturing the USTFCCCCA Men’s Program of the Year award.

Bartolina spent 2005-2016 as an assistant coach for Southeastern Louisiana University. The Lions captured a trio of Southland Conference Championships and a 13th-place men’s team finish at the 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships while Bartolina was coaching.

Bartolina took on a head coaching role at Ranger College from 1999-2000. His team collected two runner-up finishes at the 1999 NJCAA indoor and outdoor track and field championships and 16 athletes won NJCAA individual events throughout his head coaching stint.

On the national level, Bartolina has coached three Olympic-qualifying athletes, with multiple U.S. Olympic Trial qualifiers in the pole vault, long jump, javelin and decathlon.

Bartolina earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1992 and 1996, respectively. He was a pole vaulter on the track and field team from 1987-90.

Mike and his wife, Janna have three children, Ethan, Molly and Max.