Althea Thomas was appointed Vanderbilt’s director of cross country and track and field on July 8, 2021. Among Vice Chancellor for Athletics and University Affairs and Athletic Director Candice Storey Lee’s earliest coaching hires following the launch of the historic Vandy United campaign to reimagine Vanderbilt Athletics, Thomas has raised the bar for what is possible in Nashville by mentoring SEC and NCAA champions and Olympians.
Under Thomas, Commodores have stood atop the podium with increasing frequency.
Veronica Fraley won the 2024 NCAA discus championship and was named that year’s SEC Field Athlete of the Year. Her title marked Vanderbilt track and field’s first individual national championship in 27 years. Fraley also went on to represent the United States in the 2024 Olympics, becoming the first Dore to compete in track and field in the Olympics.
Fraley won SEC outdoor titles in discus (2023) and shot put (2024), while also finishing second in discus in 2024. Beatrice Juskeviciute won the 2023 SEC heptathlon title en route to a second-place finish in the same event in the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The three SEC titles are just one shy of the program’s entire 21st century total prior to Thomas’ arrival.
In 2026, Janie Ford won the SEC pentathlon title, the first freshman pentathlon champion in SEC history and Vanderbilt’s first conference indoor champion in any event since 1998.
Success at the highest level runs deep under Thomas. Including Allyria McBride’s 2025 first-team honors in the 400-meter hurdles, Thomas’ student-athletes have earned 14 outdoor All-America honors, including six first-team honorees. And with three indoor All-Americans in 2026, including first-team honors for pentathletes Ford and Marta Sivina, Thomas has mentored seven indoor All-Americans at Vanderbilt.
Thomas has helped Commodores excel internationally. Most recently, Juskeviciute (Lithuania), Divine Oladipo (Great Britain) and Brooke Overholt (Canada) came close to joining Fraley in the Paris Olympics, while four Dores competed in the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Dores have excelled in events including the World Athletics Championships, European Athletics Championships, Pan American Games, Pan American U20 Athletics Championships and USATF U20 Outdoor Championships.
Vanderbilt student-athletes broke 32 indoor and outdoor program records in Thomas’ first five seasons.
Helping individuals reach the full heights of their potential starts with a strong collaborative culture that fuels team success. Under Thomas, Vanderbilt tied a program record with an eighth-place finish in the 2024 SEC Outdoor Championships and recorded two top-25 finishes in the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The 20th-place finish in the 2023 Championships was the program’s best mark since 1997. The Dores scored in each of Thomas’ four NCAA Outdoor Championships, the first four-year streak in program history.
On the fall side of the ledger, Vanderbilt women’s cross-country runners placed ninth or better in their first five SEC Championships under Thomas, even as the conference expanded to 16 schools. After another strong SEC showing, they placed fifth at the 2025 NCAA South Region Championships, the program’s best finish since 2016. Bria Bennis, Claire Petersen and Tyla Lumley earned all-region honors. Bennis’ 13th-place finish is the best individual placement by a Commodore since 2016.
Committed to growth beyond athletics, Thomas has leveraged Vanderbilt’s academic excellence to recruit student-athletes driven to succeed across a lifetime. Santana Spearman, for example, was nominated for the first-ever Allstate NACDA Good Works Winter Team, while Fraley earned two graduate degrees. More than 20 cross country and track and field student-athletes have been honored on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team with over 100 on the SEC Academic Honor Roll.
Vanderbilt NCAA Outdoor Championships individual scorers under Thomas
- 2025: Allyria McBride, 400-meter hurdles, 8th
- 2024: Veronica Fraley, discus, 1st
- 2024: Sarah Omoregie, shot put, 7th
- 2023: Beatrice Juskeviciute, heptathlon, 2nd
- 2023: Brooke Overholt, 400-meter hurdles, 4th
- 2022: Divine Oladipo, shot put, 6th
Vanderbilt NCAA Indoor Championships individual scorers under Thomas
- 2026: Janie Ford, pentathlon, 4th
- 2026: Marta Sivina pentathlon, 8th
- 2024: Giavonna Meeks, weight, 6th
- 2023: Beatrice Juskeviciute, pentathlon, 6th
Vanderbilt SEC Indoor Championships podiums under Thomas
- 2026: Janie Ford, pentathlon, 1st
- 2026: Marta Sivina, pentathlon, 2nd
- 2024: Giavonna Meeks, weight, 3rd
- 2023: Veronica Fraley, shot put, 3rd
- 2023: Beatrice Juskeviciute, pentathlon, 2nd
- 2023: Taiya Shelby, 800 meters, 3rd
- 2023: Allyria McBride, Kaira Brown, Brooke Overholt, Taiya Shelby, 4×400-meter relay, 3rd
- 2022: Divine Oladipo, shot put, 2nd
Vanderbilt SEC Outdoor Championships podiums under Thomas
- 2024: Veronica Fraley, shot put, 1st
- 2024: Veronica Fraley, discus, 2nd
- 2023: Beatrice Juskeviciute, heptathlon, 1st
- 2023: Veronica Fraley, discus, 1st
Thomas came to Vanderbilt after serving as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Georgia (2017–21), where she was an integral part of two NCAA championship teams. She helped numerous Bulldogs rewrite the program record books, including Matthew Boling, Elijah Godwin, Lynna Irby, Michael Nicholls and Amber Tanner.
Prior to Georgia, Thomas was an assistant coach at Clemson (2013–17), where the women’s team swept the ACC indoor and outdoor titles in 2015. She coached three individual and four relay ACC champions.
She also served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Purdue and assistant coach at Kentucky, where she mentored Olympian Jenna Martin, as well as UAB. She began her collegiate coaching career as a volunteer student assistant at LSU, her alma mater. Part of an esteemed Alabama track and field family, she also served as an assistant coach at Huffman (Ala.) High School and head coach of the Alabama Striders Track Club.
As an LSU student-athlete, Thomas was a two-time NCAA outdoor team champion (2000, 2003). She was a provisional NCAA qualifier in the 800 meters and a national qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles in 2003. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she earned her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from LSU in 2004.
Coaching Highlights
• 3 NCAA individual titles
• 44 All-America selections
• 2 Olympians
• 3 World Athletics Championships qualifications
• 1 Pan American Games selection
• 3 SEC Athlete of the Year awards
• 8 SEC individual champions (3 at Vanderbilt)
• 2 individual NCAA regional titles
• 6 All-South Region cross country selections
• 1 NCAA East Region record
• 1 SEC freshman record
• 1 Pan Am U20 champion
• 2 USATF U20 champions
• 1 All-SEC Freshman team selection – women’s XC
• 2021 USTFCCCA South Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year
• 2 SEC Scholar-Athletes of the Year
• 3 CSC Academic All-America selections
Coaching Experience
• Director of Cross Country and Track & Field, Vanderbilt (2021–present)
• Associate Head Coach & Recruiting Coordinator, Georgia (2017–21)
• Assistant Coach, Clemson (2013–17)
• Assistant Coach & Recruiting Coordinator, Purdue (2012–13)
• Assistant Coach, Kentucky (2010–12)
• Assistant Coach & Recruiting Coordinator, UAB (2008–10)
• Head Coach, Alabama Striders Track Club (2005–10)
• Assistant Coach, Huffman High School (2004–06)
• Volunteer Student Assistant, LSU (2003–04)