Plymouth State University

Will Tifft completed his first season as head track & field coach in 2024-25 after spending the previous eight seasons as the throws coach.
 
Under his guidance, Dylan Flewelling '25 was named LEC Men's Indoor Track Athlete of the Year last winter after winning conference titles in the 3,000m and mile run. The Panthers finished fifth at the LEC Championships, with Eli Roth '25 also claiming an individual title (800m). PSU's men combined for five individual medals and three relay medals, while the team set six new program records. 
 
Tifft led a trio of women to LEC titles during indoor season, as Paige Hurst '25, Rose Karow '27, and Ani Flynn '28 claimed victories in the 400m, 800m, and high jump, respectively. The threesome anchored the squad to a sixth place team finish, also helping the Panthers to silver medals in the 4x200m and 4x400m relays. Karow was part of three of the four program records the team set during the winter in the 800m, 4x400m relay, and 1600m SMR.
 
Flewelling continued his success during outdoor season, claiming the LEC title in the 5,000m as the Panthers finished sixth as a team. Eleven athletes combined for 15 postseason honors. PSU set program records in the 100m, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, and 1600m SMR last spring.
 
Karow and Flynn took home gold medals at the LEC Outdoor Championships, winning the 800m and high jump, respectively. Tifft's squad combined for eight medals, including a silver medal from Kylie Taylor '25 in the hammer throw. Taylor would go on to set the program record in the event at the New England Regional Championship - one of six program records established by the women last spring.
 
Since he has been with the program, Plymouth State throwers have combined for eight Little East Conference titles and six All-New England honors, while Jacob Rigoli ’23 appeared at three NCAA Division III National Championships becoming the first PSU thrower to both qualify for NCAAs and attain All-America status.
 
Rigoli demolished the school record in the weight throw at the 2021-22 NCAA Indoor Championships when his heave of 19.28 meters launched him into the lead, a spot he held until the fifth round before he slipped to third after the sixth and final throw. Tifft guided Rigoli back to indoor championships again the following winter where his throw of 19.00 meters was good enough for fifth place and another All-America honor. Rigoli also appeared at the outdoor championships that spring where he competed in the hammer throw.
 
Tifft helped Selena Baillargeon capture the first individual LEC title for the women’s program, when she won the shot put at the 2016-17 LEC Championships. Baillargeon would repeat the effort during the LEC Outdoor Championships that spring, while Jillian Edwards would win the conference title in the discus throw the following year.
 
Baillargeon still owns the program records for the shot put in both indoor and outdoor season, while Tifft mentored Libby McIntyre ’24 to a school-best mark in the weight throw during the 2023-24 season. In fact, every Plymouth State track & field throws record for both genders has been sent under Tifft’s watchful eye.
 
Tifft also served on the Panthers’ cross country coaching staff in 2022, helping the men’s team to its first LEC title while being honored as Coaching Staff of the Year. All five of Plymouth State’s point-scorers would place in the top 15 at the championship meet, with three finishers in the top six including the race winner.
 
Tifft, a 2014 graduate of Hamilton College, was a three-year letter winner for the Continentals’ indoor track & field team and competed in the hammer throw and discus during outdoor season. He claimed New York State Collegiate Track Conference (NYSCTC) Outdoor All-Conference honors as a junior and finished seventh in the weight throw at the NYSCTC Indoor Championships his senior year. Tifft eclipsed the 15-meter mark in the weight throw in three separate meets that winter, nearly reaching the then-25-year-old school record mark of 15.31 meters. He served as a captain for both indoor and outdoor seasons as a senior, also earning the team’s Most Valuable Athlete and Coaches Award that year.