Eastern Kentucky University Athletics

Tito Medrano is in his fourth year as a cross country/track and field assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky University. He also serves as EKU's recruiting coordinator for the men's and women's cross country/track and field programs.

Medrano helped guide the EKU men's and women's cross country teams to another sweep of the OVC Championships in 2019. Following the conference championships, freshman Ezekiel Rop qualified for the NCAA Championships as an individual by placing eighth at the Southeast Regional in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In 2018-19, Medrano helped lead the EKU men's cross country team back to the NCAA Championships. The Colonels earned an automatic bid by placing second at the NCAA Southeast Regional. They followed that up by taking 16th at the national championship meet, the second-best finish ever by an EKU team.

Redshirt freshman James Sugira led the way for EKU all season, earning All-America honors by finishing 14th at the NCAA Championships. He was also the NCAA Southeast Regiona and OVC individual champion.

Medrano helped guide the EKU men to another OVC indoor title in 2019. Several of his distance athletes played key roles in the championship, including gold medals from Sugira (mile, 3,000 meters) and Jaime Romo (5,000 meters). During the indoor season, Medrano helped Sugira break the EKU indoor 5,000m record with an NCAA-qualifying time of 13:37.8. Sugira also ran a converted time of 7:52.69 in the 3,000m during the indoor season.

In 2017-18, Medrano coached Jamaine Coleman to an NCAA runner-up finish in the men's 3,000-meters steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Coleman clocked a personal-best time of 8:33.5 in the finals, and missed a national championship by less than two seconds.

Medrano also helped guide the EKU men to their first-ever OVC triple crown in 2017-18 -- meaning conference titles in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. The Colonels were the first OVC men's team to achieve the OVC triple crown since Eastern Illinois in 2003-04.

Several Colonels excelled under Medrano's tutelage during EKU's banner year of 2017-18. Coleman, Samuel Abascal and Jakob Abrahamsen swept the men's steeplechase at the OVC Outdoor Championships, helping the Colonels win their first conference outdoor title since 1957. Abascal also won the 1,500 meters at the OVC Outdoor Championships, and the native of Spain ended up running a personal-best time of 8:49.1 in the steeplechase at the NCAA East Region Preliminaries, just missing out on a trip to the NCAAs.

During the indoor season, Jaime Romo, Zak Kirk and Addison Monroe swept the OVC 3,000 meters to secure EKU's first conference indoor title since 2008.

In the summer of 2017, Medrano coached Coleman to a historic bronze medal at the U-23 European Championship in the steeplechase final for his native Great Britain. It was the country's first medal ever in the event for a U-23 athlete.

During the 2017 season, Medrano led the steeplechase group of Coleman, Abrahamsen, and Abascal to all qualify for the NCAA East Regional Preliminary.  It was the most regional qualifiers in that event of any program in the eastern half of the country. Coleman went on to run a personal best of 8:34.1 and finish second team All-America at the NCAA Championships.

The trio of Coleman, Abrahamsen, and Abascal swept the Ohio Valley Conference steeplechase with a 1-2-3 finish in May of 2017.  Coleman followed that up with a 1,500 meter gold medal at the meet.

In 2016, Medrano guided Abrahamsen to a personal-best time of 8:34.0 at the NCAA East Regional Preliminary to qualify for the NCAA Championships.  He also earned second team All-America honors in the NCAA steeplechase final. His time of 8:34.0 also qualified him for the Senior European Steeplechase Championships, representing his native country of Denmark.

Prior to EKU, Medrano spent time at the University of Illinois. During the 2015 fall season, the Fighting Illini finished second at the Big Ten Cross Country Championships, earning their highest finish since 1986.  Dylan Lafond went on to finish 29th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships and was named an All-American.

Prior to Illinois, Medrano worked with IUPUI.

At Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, Medrano assisted with day-to-day training.  He focused primarily on the distance athletes.  IUPUI had their first Summit League Conference champion in the 10,000 meters and posted school records for both the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters while Medrano was there.

Medrano competed collegiately for Syracuse University.  He was part of a rising program and was Syracuse's first cross country All-American since 1959.  With Medrano on the roster, the Orange won their first ever Big East Conference team title and first NCAA Championships team appearance since 1974.  He finished his career as a cross country All-American, two-time Big East Conference 10K champion and two-time second team 10K All-American. He also competed for Team USA at the 2009 World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan.

Medrano holds a bachelor's degree in public health from Syracuse and a master's degree in intercollegiate athletics administration from Western Kentucky University.