Six-time Horizon League Track & Field Coach of the Year, Andrew Basler, returns for his eighth season leading the Milwaukee track & field and cross country programs for the 2025-26 season.
Basler has had an impressive start to his time at Milwaukee, bringing home 23 team trophies in his first seven seasons with the Black & Gold.
In the most recent season, 2024-25, Basler helped lead the women's cross country team to fifth-place finish at the Horizon League Championships with 111 points. The Panther men claimed the Runner-Up Trophy at the indoor season's league championships, while the women finished in third place. Anelise Egge was named the Alfreeda Goff Indoor Track & Field Women's Athlete of the Year, as well as earning Outstanding Running Performer of the Meet at the league championships. For the men, Bryant McLaughlin won Co-Outstanding Field Performer of the Meet and Anthony Buford was selected as the Field Freshman of the Year.
The outdoor season wrapped up with both teams taking home second-place hardware, and had multiple award winners after the meet. Jaelyn Reeves-Lile took home Men's Outstanding Running Performer of the Meet, Anna Szepieniec was the Women's Outstanding Field Performer of the Meet, and Anthony Buford was again named Field Freshman of the Year. Four Milwaukee athletes qualified for the NCAA West Regional Preliminary Rounds, with Natalie Block, Divine Aniamaka, Olivia VanZeeland, and Jaelyn Reeves-Lile all making the cut. There, Block advanced to the quarterfinal round in both the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles, eventually making it through to the NCAA Championships in the 400m hurdles. Aniamaka competed in the triple jump, VanZeeland in the high jump, and Reeves-Lile in the 100m and 200m dash.
In 2023-24, Basler helped guide the women's cross country team to a third-place finish at the Horizon League Championship meet with 116 points. The indoor track & field season saw the women's team crowned Horizon League Champions for the tenth time in program history and the first time since 2012, while the men finished as Runners-up. Following the meet, Basler was named Women's Coach of the Year. Natalie Block was named the Alfreeda Goff Indoor Track & Field Women's Athlete of the Year for the third consecutive season, while also being named Championship Outstanding Runner of the Meet along with Anelise Egge. Milwaukee's newcomers also enjoyed success, as Anna Szepieniec and Liam Richards were both selected as the conference's Field Freshmen of the Year.
The outdoor season brought continued success, as the women were again crowned conference champions and the men placed second. Basler was named outdoor Women's Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season, and Milwaukee collected multiple individual awards on both sides. Natalie Block was named the Alfreeda Goff Outdoor Track & Field Women's Athlete of the Year, as well as the Championship Outstanding Women's Runner of the Meet. Golden Cotton mirrored her accolades on the men's side, as he was named Alfreeda Goff Outdoor Track & Field Men's Athlete of the Year and Championship Outstanding Men's Runner of the Meet. Anna Szepieniec and Liam Richards repeated as Field Freshmen of the Year, as they both topped the podium in the multi-events.
Milwaukee sent four athletes to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, as Natalie Block, Anthony Campbell, Golden Cotton, and Tabitha Wechlo all used program-record-breaking performances to qualify for the meet. Block advanced to the second round in both the 100mH and 400mH, eventually qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the 400mH before withdrawing due to injury. Campbell competed in the long jump, Cotton in the 100m dash, and Wechlo in the shot put.
In 2022-23, Basler helped guide the women’s cross country team to its third consecutive Horizon League Championship as the team scored 47 points for the second consecutive season. During the indoor season the women’s track & field program narrowly finished in second place missing the team title by five points, while the men’s team also took third at the Horizon League Championship meet. As the team shifted to the outdoor campaign, Milwaukee finished second in both men’s and women’s track & field resulting in nine individual champions, and Basler earning Coach of the Year honors with both programs.
Milwaukee had four individuals qualify for the NCAA West Preliminaries as Anthony Campbell and Austin Wallace both qualified in the long jump, while Golden Cotton had a mark in the 200m dash and Annie Guerrero also reached the regionals in the high jump. Other individual accolades during the 2022-23 season included Natalie Block being selected as Women’s Indoor Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive season, while Lauren Lietzke and Caleb Rogalski were both named Most Outstanding Field Performer during the indoor season. Austin Wallace earned Outstanding Field Performer and Golden Cotton was named Outstanding Running Performer during the outdoor season.
In 2021-22, Basler and company once again put together an impressive campaign. He helped lead the women's cross country team to its second straight team title and third in the last four seasons. Additionally, Basler led the men to runner-up finishes in both the indoor and outdoor season while the women captured second place during the indoor season. Under Basler, Natalie Block was named Horizon League Indoor Athlete of the Year while Austin Wallace was named Most Outstanding Field Performer.
In the shortened 2020-21 season, he led Milwaukee to an unprecedented amount of individual success, turning in 25 top-three finishes, including five league champions. The team was also recognized with 15 Horizon League Athletes of the Week and turned in 33 top-10 finishes in program history.
Academics continues to be of high importance as both the men's and women's cross country teams were named to USTFCCCA All-Academic Teams, while Meg Swietlik earned Milwaukee's first ever USTFCCCA All-Academic Individual in 2020. Additionally, the Black & Gold were honored with Horizon League All-Academic statuses 23 times in 2022-23, with six student-athletes earning Academic All-District honors from College Sports Communicators.
During his first season at the helm in 2018-19, Basler led the cross country program to a team title on the women’s side, while the men’s team finished as runner-up at the Horizon League Championships. The Milwaukee men also earned a regional ranking during a memorable cross country season for the Panthers.
He then capped year one with a pair of runner-up trophies at the league outdoor championships and most notably, a pair of Panthers earned their way to the NCAA West Regionals, narrowly missing out on berths to the NCAA Championships.
In the classroom during Basler’s first year as head coach, Peter Andrew capped his career as a Second-Team Academic All-American. The Panther men's cross country program posted a perfect APR score, while the men's track & field team also earned public recognition from the NCAA for its Academic Progress Rate.
Basler came to Milwaukee following five years as the assistant men’s and women’s track & field coach at Central Michigan University. He also served as a graduate assistant coach at CMU from 2005-07.
Most recently at CMU, Basler assisted the head coach with all administration of the program while also writing and implementing training programs for jumps and combined events. He helped in recruiting and planned and budgeted for all team travel. During his first stint at CMU, Basler was in charge of sprints, jumps, hurdles and combined events with the Chippewas.
Under his watch, the program achieved a pair of USA Olympic Trials Qualifiers, three USA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships Qualifiers and three USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships Qualifiers.
At the NCAA level, the list included three NCAA Division I Outdoor National Championships participants, 10 NCAA Division I Outdoor East Prelims/Regional participants, two NCAA Division I Indoor National Championships participants and an NCAA Division I Indoor All-American.
At the conference level, the program claimed seven Indoor/Outdoor Mid-American Conference (MAC) champions, 14 Indoor/Outdoor MAC All-Conference selections, three Indoor/Outdoor MAC record-holders, one Outdoor MAC Championship record-holder and 16 Indoor/Outdoor school record-holders.
From 2007-13, Basler was the associate head women's track and field coach and the assistant men’s coach at UC Riverside, where he worked directly with the sprints, hurdles, jumps, javelin and combined-events.
Administratively, Basler managed the program's travel and equipment budgets while also serving as meet director for home track and field and cross country meets, including the Big West Conference Championships from 2008-12.
At UC Riverside, Basler coached six USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships qualifiers, five USA Junior National Championships qualifiers, two USA Indoor National Championships qualifiers, five NCAA All-Americans (combined indoor and outdoor), 19 NCAA Division I Outdoor West Prelims/Regional participants, 12 Big West outdoor conference champions and 37 school record holders (combined indoor and outdoor).
During Basler's years of coaching, he has also coached multiple post-collegiate athletes on the national and international stages. Highlights of his post-collegiate coaching include guiding Riverside alum Ted Hooper (long jump) to the 2016 Indoor World Championships, as well as second-place finishes at the 2015 Indoor USA Championships, 2015 Taiwan Open Athletic Championships, and the 2015 Asian Athletic Championships. In addition, Basler helped guide Riverside alum Allison Wilder (triple jump) to a third-place medal at the 2016 British Indoor Championships.
Under the tutelage of coach Mark Guthrie at Wisconsin-La Crosse, Basler won the 2002 NCAA Division III indoor national title in the long jump. He was a three-time NCAA Division III All-American and was the captain of La Crosse's teams that swept the indoor and outdoor NCAA team championships in 2001 and 2002.
Basler earned a Bachelor of Science degree in art from La Crosse in 2002 and a Master’s of Arts in Sport Administration degree from Central Michigan in 2014.
