OXFORD, Ohio Miami University Track & Field/Cross Country director Willy Wood made his first staff hire when he added Taylor Miller as an assistant coach on Tuesday.
Miller will serve as a cross country and distance coach for the newly combined program. She will also handle recruiting duties for her distance group.
“I am so excited that Taylor Miller is joining our staff,” Wood said. “She came highly recommended by many of the nation's top collegiate coaches. She is fully committed to helping us develop one of top distance programs in the country and I have no doubt that we are well on our way toward achieving that with her arrival.”
A native of Kentucky, Miller spent the past two years as Western Kentucky’s distance coach during track and field and cross country. During her first season at WKU, Miller’s distance squad contributed 34 points to the Hilltoppers’ point total at the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships and tallied 36 more outdoors.
During her two years in Bowling Green, Miller oversaw nine all-time top-five performances and coached WKU’s record-setting distance medley relay team in 2015. Individually, she mentored 2015 Conference USA steeplechase champion Jodi Miller. She also helped mold five-time All-Sun Belt performers Katie Lever and Lindsey Hinken, with Lever earning a trip to the NCAA preliminary meet in 2014 en route to Academic All-America honors that season.
Hilltopper student-athletes also succeeded away from competition thanks to Miller’s efforts as an academic coach. She monitored the academic progress of WKU’s distance runners as well as the women’s sprinters.
Miller joined the WKU coaching staff after spending the 2012-13 season directing the distance program at Murray State as an assistant. Under Miller's guidance the Lady Racers track and field team finished runner-up at the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships, aided by four point-scoring performances in the distance events. Miller directed Carolyne Tanui to a runner-up finish in the 10,000 meter run and All-OVC honors.
During the cross country season, Miller led the Lady Racers to a fourth-place finish at the OVC Cross Country Championships. Miller helped guide Abigail Ashbee-Simmonds to a school-record performance in the 6,000-meter run at the NCAA Southeast Regionals while aiding two other athletes to personal records at regionals.
A native of Owensboro, Ky., Miller graduated from the University of Kentucky where she was a standout runner for the cross country and track and field teams. She earned All-Southeastern Conference accolades in the 10,000 meter run and holds the fifth-fastest time in Lady Wildcats history in the event at 35:45.