NEW ORLEANS, La. – Jerry Baltes has been named the 2020 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Women's Coach of the Year, released by the league headquarters on Friday (March 27).  Coach Baltes entered his 21^st year at the helm of the Grand Valley State track and field program at the start of the 2020 season.
 
Under his guidance, the Laker women stayed atop the USTFCCCA Indoor National Team Rankings as the No. 1 team in the division each week of competition.  Additionally, Baltes coached 22 women to qualify for the NCAA DII Indoor National Championships, the most by any team of either gender. 
 
Earlier this season, Baltes received the USTFCCCA Midwest Regional Women's Coach of the Year honor after leading the team to capture the 2020 GLIAC Indoor Championship.  In his 21 years as head coach, Baltes hones a perfect conference record, having won all 21 GLIAC indoor championships.  Baltes and the rest of the GVSU staff were named the GLIAC Coaching Staff of the Year on the women's side, marking his 63^rd time receiving the honor in his career. 

Over the course of the two-day championships, the women captured an impressive nine first-place finishes, accounting for a total of 242.50 points.  
 
In the final week of the indoor season, the women held the top results in the USTFCCCA Event Squad in three different events (800m, mile, weight throw).  Nicole Sreenan and Bobbie Goodwin earned the titles of USTFCCCA Midwest Regional Track and Field Athletes of the Year, respectively.  Sreenan led the division in the 400m dash with a GVSU record of 52.80 seconds and ranked second in the 60m dash with a GVSU and Kelly Family Sports Center record time of 7.41 seconds.  Goodwin led the leaderboard in the weight throw by more than five feet and etched her name in the DII history leaderboard as the ninth-best thrower with a distance of 21.12m. 

Baltes coached three women to break six school records, including Sreenan (60m, 200m, 400m), Allie Ludge (mile, 3,000m) and Anna Obi (triple jump) in the 2020 indoor season.  The Grand Valley State women were the second-most represented team to earn USTFCCCA All-Region honors with 18 individuals claiming 29 honors.