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Ohio State Alum Rosalind Joseph Named New Director Of Track And Field, Cross Country

The two-time All-American returns to Columbus after four seasons as the head coach at Southern Illinois.

On Tuesday, just one day after longtime coach Karen Dennis announced her retirement, Ohio State named alum Rosalind Joseph its new director of track and field and cross country.

“I am thrilled to introduce Rosalind Joseph as our new director of track and field and cross country,” athletic director Gene Smith said in a press release. “She has head coaching experience overseeing a dual men’s and women’s program at Southern Illinois, and now she is coming back home to Ohio State.”

Joseph graduated from Ohio State in 2006 after a highly decorated career in which she earned two-time outdoor All-American honors in the triple jump. She was also a six-time Big Ten champion, winning the triple jump and long jump competitions three times apiece.

Joseph holds multiple program records, including the outdoor long jump (6.30 meters) and indoor triple jump (13.37 meters), and qualified for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. She finished ninth at the 2005 U.S. Track and Field Championships and was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.

Joseph began her coaching career as an assistant coach at Auburn in 2006. She then returned to Columbus as an assistant in 2008 before being promoted to associate head coach in 2013, where she remained until 2018.

The Buckeyes won multiple Big Ten titles with Joseph coaching the jumpers and multi-even athletes, as well as numerous All-Americans and All-Big Ten performers. That includes the first men’s national champion in 25 years in the long jump.

After being named the Great Lakes Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year, Joseph became the head coach at Southern Illinois. She led the Salukis women’s team to multiple runner-up finishes in the Missouri Valley Conference and helped seven women and three men earn All-American honors during her time in Carbondale.

“This is a dream come true,” Joseph said. “It is not often one gets to return to their alma mater to lead. Ohio State is a place that has given me so much as a student-athlete and as a young professional, so to come full circle as director is almost unbelievable.

“Thank you to Mr. Gene Smith and his administration for entrusting me with this role. These are big shoes to fill in following Karen Dennis, but so would be the case for anyone in the country. I feel poised and prepared to come back to my second home and take on the task of continuing the tradition of greatness with this historic program.”

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