Lex Butler, a former All-American at the University of Colorado and a former assistant coach with the Buffs and the U.S. Naval Academy, was hired on September 16, 2014 and has since led both the Women's Track & Field and Men's and Women's Cross Country Programs.
At its starting mark in 2015, track and field was only offered at the club level at Southern New Hampshire but was offered as an outdoor program in 2016. Finally, in 2017, track and field saw the start of its indoor and outdoor teams. In 2018, SNHU opened its doors to a brand new state-of-the-art track and field facility located at Penmen Stadium and the team hosted its first meet that season.
The Track & Field program has made tremendous strides in a short period of time. The 2023-24 season saw the Penmen finish third indoor and second outdoor at the Northeast-10 Championships. Hope Sinclair set a new program record at 60m and senior Laila Bunnitt was named Co-Outstanding Field Athlete of the Meet at the Indoor Championship. Senior Ava Gravell set the program record for the 400m while running second at the Outdoor Championships. Also, Kelsey Seamans was honored as the NE10 Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
For the first time in 2022-23, SNHU swept the Northeast-10 Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the same season. The Penmen won the Indoor for the first time with Ashley Corcoran named Most Outstanding Track Performer and Most Valuable Athlete. Corcoran won the mile, 3,000m and 5,000m to lead the Penmen. SNHU hosted the Outdoor Championships, repeating as Northeast-10 Champs. Corcoran again was named Women's Track Athlete of the Meet and Most Outstanding Performer. For the second consecutive season Corcoran earned a trip to the NCAA Division II Championships and earnd First-Team All-American status with a seventh-place finish in Pueblo, Colorado.
After a second place finish at the Northeast-10 Indoor Track & Field Championships in 2021-22, the Penmen won its first-ever conference title with the Outdoor Track & Field Championship on May 6-7 at Stonehill College. The Indoor performance was a program-best and Ashley Corcoran was named track athlete of the meet and MVP for recording the highest point total. She also competed in the mile run at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships in Kansas. Corcoran and Laila Bunnitt were both honored as the Penmen won the NE10 Outdoor title with 176.5 points, well ahead of runner-up AIC (135). Corcoran won the 1500m and 3000 Steeplechase, and was named Track Athlete of the Meet and Most Valuable Athlete. Bunnitt was named the Field Athlete of the Meet with a win in the discus, a runner-up in the shot put, and fourth in the hammer.
The program has a history of producing Northeast-10 Champions, including five at the Indoor Championships in February of 2020. Ashley Elder joined Sahara Brown (javelin) as the first two Penmen to earn All-American status. Elder won the shot put and weight throw at the NE-10’s, and qualified for the NCAA Indoors, which were canceled before the competition took place. Maura Coakley took the 3,000 meter and 5,000-meter titles at the conference championships. The SNHU 4x800 relay team won the race in Boston.
As a team, SNHU wound up in fourth-place at the 2020 NE10 Indoor Championships, missing second place by just two points. The Penmen had advanced from 12th place to 8th, to 7th, and fourth over just a few seasons. Similar progress has been made outdoors, with the Penmen improving from ninth place, up to fifth place at the 2019 championship.
The SNHU Men’s Cross Country team earned its first trip to the NCAA Division II National Championships in Pittsburgh in November of 2018. That followed a fourth-place finish at the NCAA East Regionals. Four individual runners, Nacho Hernando-Angulo in 2015 and 2016, Tyler McLaren in 2017, Micah Hewitson in 2019, and Jacob Logan in 2022 have qualified individually for the NCAA Championship since Coach Butler arrived on campus. Hernando and McLaren were named All-Region in both 2015 and 2016 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), McLaren and Micah Hewitson were named All-Region in 2017, and Hewitson was joined on the team by Cedric Joslin and Michael Moreno in 2018, and with Joslin again in 2019. Logan and Carter Sylvester earned All-Region in 2022 and Sylvester and Eric Sekyaya were named All-Region in 2023. Sekyaya and Dillon Labonte were All-Region in 2024.
For the first time in school history, the SNHU Women’s Cross Country team participated in the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships in November 2019. The Penmen received an automatic bid when they finished third at the NCAA Division II East Regional in Philadelphia, the best-ever finish for the SNHU Women. The young squad was paced by a pair of talented sophomores, Ashley Corcoran and Grace Henson, and by a freshman Lydia Mathson. Corcoran recorded the highest finish ever by an SNHU runner at the 2019 NE10 Championships by finishing in second place. She also became the first Penmen to be named a Cross Country All-American with a school-record 20:52 at the NCAA Division II Championship. Corcoran qualified for the NCAA Championship in 2021 and helped lead the Penmen to the Northeast-10 title in 2022 by winning the race. The 2022 team also won the NCAA East Region Championship and qualified for the NCAA Nationals in University Place, Washington. SNHU made a third appearance at the NCAA Nationals in 2023, where they were led by Kelsey Seamans. Among the program’s All-Region honor recipients under Coach Butler is Laura O’ Hanlon in 2015 and 2016, Jill Couto in 2017 and 2018, Grace Henson and Ashley Corcoran in 2019, Corcoran, Couto, and Kelsey Seamans in 2021, Seamans, Kaitlyn O'Rourke, Corcoran, and Hannah Bradbury in 2022, Seamans, O'Rourke, and Corrina Obernesser in 2023. Obernesser and Paige McInerney were honored in 2024.
Butler has transitioned from a Division I track and field All-American to a nationally-respected coach. He has an extensive list of Pac-12 and Patriot League champions that he has coached, as well as multiple NCAA regional and national qualifiers. He had a highly-decorated career at Colorado 1998-2002 and still holds the program record in the indoor 60-meter hurdles, set at the 2000 Big 12 Indoor Championship to capture the conference title.
Butler’s coaching career began at the United States Naval Academy from 2003-2007, where he worked as an assistant coach working with sprints and short and long hurdles. While in Annapolis, he coached six Midshipmen to nine Patriot League hurdles titles, five athletes to jump championships, and coached Navy student-athletes to 13 school records for sprints, hurdles, jumps, and relays.
A native of Mansfield, Texas, Butler graduated from Colorado in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and earned his master’s in Sport Management/Event Management from George Washington University in 2008.
