Jeshua Anderson - Track & Field Coach - University of Washington Athletics

Jeshua Anderson

Title:
Assistant Coach, Sprints/Hurdles/Relays
Email:
jeshua@uw.edu

A three-time NCAA hurdles champion and the 2011 U.S. Champion in the 400-meter hurdles, Jeshua Anderson heads into 2025-26 for his eighth season leading the Husky sprinters, hurdlers, and relays. Anderson has coached the fastest man and woman in UW history in in the 400m hurdles, helping both reach the podium at NCAAs.

The 2025 season was highlighted by an excellent freshman season by Bodi Ligons, and an impressive senior campaign from Matthew Wilkinson. Ligons earned Big Ten All-Freshman Team honors with a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in the 400m hurdles, while Wilkinson ran his first PR since his freshman season, going to seventh in school history with a time of 50.61, and joining Ligons in the Big Ten hurdles final. Ligons also was the 400m leg on the men’s DMR that ran the fastest time in world history at the Husky Classic, and Anna Terrell earned First Team All-America on the women’s DMR, which finished eighth at NCAAs.

Anderson’s 400m hurdle group was one of the NCAA’s best in 2024, as Jonathan Birchman made his second NCAA Outdoors, and Jonathan Frazier broke the UW Freshman Record in 49.87 to take second at the Pac-12 Championships, with Birchman third. Frazier also was fifth in the Pac-12 110m hurdles final, becoming one of the heroes for the Dawgs as they defended their Pac-12 team championship. Birchman lowered his PR to 49.98 to mark the first season UW ever had two sub-50-second hurdlers in the same season. Birchman made the semifinals at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials. Freshman Kapiolani Coleman made West Prelims in the 400m hurdles, and was fifth at the USATF U20 Championships.

The Husky men’s hurdlers had a banner year in 2023, quite literally. Senior Cass Elliott won his second-consecutive Pac-12 400-meter hurdles title as the Huskies went 1-3-4 to score 21 points in that event, which proved crucial in helping the Huskies win their first team Pac-12 Championship. Elliott would break the 17-year-old School Record during the season (49.13), and would advance to his first NCAA Outdoor finals, placing seventh to earn First Team All-America. Birchman, third at Pac-12s, would also reach his first NCAA Outdoor final site. Elliott became the first Husky to win back-to-back Pac-12 titles in the hurdles.

Elliott’s seventh-place NCAA finish was just a few years after Darhian Mills also took seventh in the NCAA 400m hurdles final on the women’s side in Anderson’s first season in 2019. Mills also broke the School Record that year with a time of 57.02. Mills was the first Husky women's sprinter in an NCAA Outdoor final since 2007.

Anderson coached Elliott to his first Pac-12 Championship in 2022, winning the 400m hurdles title that Anderson himself won four times. Elliott was joined in the Pac-12 final by Jonathan Birchman and freshman Matthew Wilkinson. All three went on to NCAA West Prelims, where Elliott advanced to a second-straight NCAA Outdoor semis. Also in the 2022 season, Anthony Smith tied the freshman record in the 200-meters at 20.70, and he ended his season competing at the World U20 Championships for Turkey, where he made the 200-meter final. On the women's side, Vicotria Gersch went to third in school history in the 400-meters, running 54.20, and she made All-America on the women's DMR indoors.

Elliott and Mills both reached the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2021, for Mills her second-straight, and for Elliott his first of three in a row. Both would earn All-America honorable mention. Mills was part of a Husky women’s 4x400m relay that peaked for an upset third-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships, and the quartet would place 20^th at NCAA Prelims. Julian Body, a senior transfer, made NCAA Prelims in both the 110m and 400m hurdles. Elliott was third at Pac-12s in the 400m hurdles and Birchman made both the 110m and 400m hurdles finals. Olivia Ribera and Evan Mafilas also advanced to NCAA Prelims in the women’s and men’s 200-meters.

The Huskies had eight sprinters qualify for NCAA West Preliminaries in 2019, and the top-ranked women's 400m hurdles group in the NCAA as Mills (57.02), Morganne Hill (58.14), and Carly Lester (58.29) all finished top-16 at West Prelims and all climbed the Husky top-10 lists. Anderson also coached Cass Elliott to a UW freshman record in the 400m hurdles of 50.38 and Elliott went on to take second at the 2019 USATF U20 Championships and compete in the Pan American U20 Championships.

Jeshua Anderson 2023

Anderson spent the better part of three years as a Volunteer Assistant at Washington from 2016-18 before transitioning into the full-time coaching role when Director of Track & Field Maurica Powell and Head Coach Andy Powell took the reins of the program in the summer of 2018.

Competing for Washington State, Anderson was the 2011 Pac-12 Men’s Track Athlete of the Year as a senior. He joined the elite ranks of the four-time conference champions, as he won the 400-meter hurdles title every year from 2008-11, and won the 2008, 2009, and 2011 NCAA Championship titles. Anderson was a finalist for the Bowerman Award in 2011.

Anderson also went on to win the 2011 U.S. Outdoor Championship title in the 400m hurdles and he then competed for Team USA at the 2011 World Championships. At the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, Anderson reached the 400m hurdles finals. He also won the 2008 World Junior Championship gold medal in the 400m hurdles.

"Jeshua's reputation as a fierce competitor with extraordinary work ethic provides him a unique platform from which to impact our student athletes," said Maurica and Andy Powell. "He is passionate about developing and mentoring collegiate men and women to achieve at the highest level."

Anderson is a native of Woodland Hills, California and attended Taft High.