Elisha Brewer

Position: Assistant Coach - Sprints/Hurdles Experience: Eighth season at KU College: Arkansas '98

Elisha Brewer is in her eighth year on the Kansas track & field coaching staff. In her first seven seasons as the sprints and hurdles coach at KU, Brewer has tutored her athletes to 14 All-American honors.

Under Brewer's guidance, Kansas athletes have rewritten the record books in the indoor 60-meter hurdles, 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash and the outdoor 100-meter hurdles, 400-meter hurdles, 110-meter hurdles and the 400-meter relay.

In her first seven seasons, Brewer has tutored 14 All-Americans as the sprints and hurdles coach at KU: Paris Daniels (2012), Michael Stigler (2012), 2011 indoor and outdoor 4x400m relay team (eight), Nickesha Anderson (four times), Ashley Brown (2007) and Julius Jiles (2007). Twenty-twelve saw Brewer mentor Paris Daniels to a Big 12 200-meter championship as well as first team All-America honors with her rookie hurdle star, Michael Stigler, also winning a Big 12 championship in the 400-meter hurdles, earning him the Big 12's freshman track athlete of the year award.

In the 2011 outdoor season, Kendra Bradley was a Big 12 finalist in the 400m. Brewer also helped mentor the 4X400m relay team of Denesha Morris, Kendra Bradley, Taylor Washington and Diamond Dixon to new school record, a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships and coached Bradley, Morris, Dixon, and Wilson to a new school record and an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships (3:33.00).

In 2010, Brewer helped mentor the Kansas women's 4x400-meter relay team to an appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The quartet of Kendra Bradley, Taylor Washington, Shayla Wilson and Taissa Makhmayeva turned in the third-fastest time in school history (3:37:04).

Freshman Keith Hayes was a 2009 Big 12 finalist in the 60-meter hurdles, finishing fifth. In the outdoor season, Hayes finished second at the Midwest Regional Championships in the 110 hurdles (13.71), and also took fourth at the USA Junior National meet (13.46).

Brewer oversaw Anderson to one of the best seasons of any Jayhawk ever as she broke both the 60 and 200-meter dash records on numerous occasions in 2008. Her career-best time of 7.22 in the 60 meters earned her the Big 12 championship in the event. Anderson became the first woman in KU history to win two All-America honors in both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Anderson would end her KU career with a runner-up finish in the 200 meters at the NCAA Championships (22.67). Brewer also coached Sha'Ray Butler to her best season in 2008. Butler was a part of the school record-breaking 4x400-meter relay team (Butler, Anderson, Charity Stowers, Crystal Manning - 3:35.86) that qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships. Butler was also a Big 12 finalist and an NCAA Midwest Regional top-five finsher in the 400-meter hurdles.

Brewer saw her pupil, Ashley Brown, become the first 400-meter All-American hurdler in school history in 2007. Also during the 2007 indoor season, Jiles was the Big 12 runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles (7.85) while Brown broke the school record in the 60-meter hurdles (8.32), finishing third at the conference meet.

At Cincinnati, Brewer coached two-time All-American David Payne in the 110-meter hurdles. Payne ran a personal record of 13.42 and was a 2004 automatic qualifier in the Olympic Trials. Brewer mentores several athletes to the NCAA Championships in both the sprints and hurdles. In 2003 and 2004, Brewer coached athletes to the Mid East regional meet in the 400-meter relay, 1,600-meter relay, 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles, 400-meter dash and the 400-meter hurdles.

Brewer graduated from Arkansas in 1998 with a degree in communications and served as a graduate assistant strength coach for the next two years while competing professionally as a Reebok-sponsored athlete. She served as an academic counselor for a year while earning her master's degree in counselor education from Arkansas in May 2001.

Brewer and her daughter Asjah (10) currently reside in Lawrence.

PROMINENT PUPILS

• Paris Daniels (Kansas) - 2012 Big 12 Champion (200 Meters), 2012 First Team All-American (200 Meters), 2012 First Team All-American (Indoor & Outdoor 4x400 meters)
• Michael Stigler (Kansas) - 2012 Big 12 Champion (400-meter hurdles), 2012 First Team All-American (400-meter hurdles), School Record Holder in the 400-meter hurdles, 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials Finalist
• Nickesha Anderson (Kansas) - 2008 Olympian, Jamaican National Team - Four-time All-American in 2008 (60 meters, 200 meters - indoor) (100 meters, 200 meters - outdoor) - 2008 Big 12 Champion (60 meters) - 2008 NCAA Runner-up (200 meters, indoor) - School record holder in the 60 meters, indoor and outdoor 200 meters, 100 meters, 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays
• Julius Jiles (Kansas) - School-record holder in the 110-meter hurdles - 2007 All-American (110-meter hurdles) - 2008 Big 12 Runner-up (110-meter hurdles) - Midwest Regional Finalist in the 110-meter hurdles (2005, 2007, 2008) - NCAA Qualifier in the 110-meter hurdles (2005, 2007, 2008)
• Ashley Brown (Kansas) - 2007 All-American (400-meter hurdles) - 2007 Big 12 Champion (100-meter hurdles) - 2007 Big 12 Runner-up (400-meter hurdles) - School-record holder in the 60-meter hurdles, 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles - Member of the 4x100-meter relay team that set the school record at the 2008 Big 12 Championships - NCAA Qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles (2007, 2008)
• David Payne (Cincinnati) - 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist (110-meter hurdles) - Two-time All-American - Four-time Conference USA Champion (110-meter hurdles, 400-meter hurdles) - 2004 Mid East Regional Runner-up