UW Oshkosh Athletic Director Darryl Sims sent an email to UW Oshkosh students on Monday inviting them to attend open forums this week and next as the athletics department continues to search for a men’s and women’s track and field coach for next spring.

Four candidates were selected to be interviewed by Sims and assistant director of athletics Victoria Stimac.

Mary Theisen is currently both the men’s and women’s head coach. Theisen has been the interim head coach since the resignation of former head coach Ben Dorsey on October 5.

The first candidate, Jessica Devine, had her open forum Monday afternoon.

Devine was first hired as an assistant track and field coach at Minnesota State Mankato in 2010, where she stayed until 2012. Devine was named the Minnesota Morris Track and Field head coach in 2015 after just over three years serving as an assistant.

Devine was named the Upper Midwest Athletics Conference Women’s Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year in 2016.

On Wednesday, Chelesa France, the second candidate, was interviewed in Kolf.

France enters her third season as an assistant coach for George Washington men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams.

In the 2015-16 season, France helped lead the Colonial cross country team to its best-ever team finish in the Atlantic-10 Conference Championships after finishing in fifth.

On Monday, Benedictine University Assistant Coach Justin Kinseth will be interviewed. Kinseth has served as an assistant for Benedictine University since the spring of 2015.

Kinseth helped lead the men’s track and field team to their first-ever Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Indoor championship, which featured eight male conference champions on the team.

On Wednesday, May 10, UW Oshkosh will interview Eric Bennett, head coach of the Alvernia University Track and Field team.

Bennett began serving at Alvernia as the head track and field and cross country coach in the fall of 2013.

Bennett previously served as an assistant coach for the University of Rochester and worked with the Yellowjackets pole vaulters, horizontal jumpers and multi-event athletes.

After deliberation, both Sims and Stimac will come together and name the fourth head coach in the history of the men’s track and field program and the fifth head coach in the history of the women’s track and field program.
The track seasons continue through the end of May, as both the men’s and women’s squads run in five invitationals, ending with the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship.