Vanderbilt Men’s XC and Track Find New Associate Head Coach: The Anchor
Justin Byron has been promoted to associate head coach Althea Thomas, director of Vanderbilt cross country and track and field, announced Tuesday.
“It’s a privilege to announce the promotion of Coach Byron to associate head coach,” Thomas said. “His dedication, expertise and leadership have been instrumental to our success over the past four years. I’m truly looking forward to the impact he will have in his expanded role as we continue to push Vandy track and field and cross country in the SEC and NCAA.”
The 2025 season was Byron’s fourth at Vanderbilt. In those four years, he served as assistant coach for jumps and multi-event student-athletes, recruiting coordinator and director of player development. Byron has produced five NCAA qualifiers, including 2023 NCAA runner-up and SEC champion in the heptathlon Beatrice Juskeviciute. He has helped his athletes at Vanderbilt achieve court All-America selections.
Under Byron, Vanderbilt athletes broke two school records and recorded 24 program all-time top 10 performances during the 2025 indoor and outdoor seasons. Byron led 60- and 100 meter hurdle teams that ranked top 5 in the USTFCCCA Even Squad ranking.
Falon Spearman broke school records in the 60- and 100-meter hurdles with Byron as the coach as Spearman advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 100-meter hurdles.
At the NCAA East First Round, all four Dores under Byron advanced to the quarterfinals in the 100- and 400-meter hurdles.
Byron also has past experience, serving as the associate head coach at Cornell from 2019-2021 after being promoted from an assistant coach. At Cornell, he helped lead a team with two All-Americans, set five school records and achieved 19 spots on the school’s all-time top 10 lists.
Today’s Commodores Schedule
No games scheduled.
Did You Notice?
Vanderbilt pitcher Austin Nye was named as a second team Freshman All-American by D1baseball. It is his fourth Freshman All-America recognition. In June, Nye received his first three nods from Perfect Game, NCBWA and Baseball America.
As a freshman, Nye had a 2-1 record in 15 appearances and posted a 3.55 ERA in 50.2 innings thrown along with his 58 strikeouts. Nye most notably started the SEC Tournament Championship game against Ole Miss, where he gave up just two hits over 4.2 innings of work and only allowed one run en route to the Commodores’ conference title that earned them the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Countdown to Vanderbilt’s 2025 Football Season Opener
58 days
Commodores Quote of The Day
“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”Grantland Rice
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.