Assistants Added

STANFORD, Calif. – J.J. Clark, the Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field, announced the addition of three assistant coaches on Wednesday. They are Nate Arnold (jumps), Jarius Cooper (sprints and hurdles) and Ricardo Santos (distance).
 
"All three are very familiar with the academic rigor that our team will experience," said Clark, who took over the Cardinal program last month. "They understand the well-being of our student-athletes is paramount. I look forward to seeing us work homogenously toward giving our student-athletes the best experience possible."
 
Arnold has been an assistant coach at Cornell since 2017, overseeing jumps, the pole vault and multi-events. The previous two years, he assisted at William & Mary with sprints, jumps and the pole vault, and spent one year as a volunteer assistant at Duke.
 
A 2013 graduate of the University of Memphis, where he earned a degree in liberal studies, Arnold was a multiple-time scorer at the Conference USA Championships indoors and outdoors in the pole vault. In 2013, he reached the NCAA East Preliminaries by clearing a personal best 16-4.
 
"Nate's knowledge on all of the horizontal and vertical jumps is well respected among his colleagues," Clark said. "He has developed student-athletes to All-America status and conference titles and is one of the most diverse coaches in the NCAA."
 
Cooper has assisted the women's track and field team at Connecticut the last two years, helping the program produce three American Athletic Conference crowns, one All-American and three all-conference performers. From 2012-18, he was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State.
 
"Jarius is a very talented sprints and hurdles coach," said Clark. "He has developed several All-Americans – male and female – and has shown his talents by coaching a male sprinter to under 10 seconds in the 100 meters and a female sprinter to under eight seconds in the 60-meter hurdles. He has had 4x400 meter teams and 4x100 meter teams compete at the final round of the NCAA meet."
 
Cooper received a B.A. degree in criminology from Florida in 2011, graduating cum laude. He also earned a masters in sports administration from Arkansas State in 2014.
 
At Florida, Cooper competed in sprints and hurdles and was a member of the 2010 and 2011 SEC championship teams, and 2010 and 2011 NCAA indoor champions.
 
Santos comes to The Farm from Boston Athletic Association, where he has coached the high performance team since March of 2018. Prior to that, he was Director of Cross Country and Track and Field at Iona College from 2008-18, helping the men place second at the 2008 NCAA Championships, and eight other top-10 finishes. He also coached Kate Avery to the 2014 NCAA cross country title.
 
Santos also spent three years (2005-08) as an assistant cross country and track and field coach at Harvard and was the recruiting coordinator.
 
"Ricardo brings 15 years of coaching knowledge and experience," Clark said. "He has had multiple male and female NCAA champions in cross country and on the track. I am thrilled to have Ricardo on board to assist with our distance programs."

Santos attended Iona, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in social work in 2000 and received a Master of Science in social work from Columbia in 2001. In 1998, he received All-America honors in cross country and was a two-time MAAC cross country champion, three-time IC4A champion and 11-time All-MAAC recipient.