Marcia Mansur-Wentworth begins her 13th season at Cal State Bakersfield in Fall of 2024 as Director of Track and Field and 12th season at the helm of the women's cross country program. Mansur-Wentworth joined the Roadrunner staff in 2012 as the Director of Track and Field, adding cross country responsibilities in the summer of 2013.
In Mansur-Wentworth’s thirteen seasons at Bakersfield, the ‘Runners have made impressive strides both in competition and in the classroom. Since taking over the program, the track and field and cross country teams have earned 88 All-Conference awards, combined for nine Conference Champions, and garnered nine women and three men U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association honors.
In 2022, Mansur-Wentworth helped coach the women's track and field team to new heights. Miranda Miller set a conference and school pole vault record earning the program's first Big West Championship. Miller was named Big West Scholar Athlete of the Year and Big West Field Athlete of the Year. She then went on to become the first Division I female track and field athlete to qualify for the NCAA West Regional.
The women had nine athletes post a Top 20 rank in 2022. For the eighth straight year, the women’s track and field team earned All-Academic Team honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association while Miller was awarded the program's first individual USTFCCCA honor.
Mansur-Wentworth had added eight conference titles in eight seasons with the Roadrunners. She helped bring three Western Athletic Conference titles back to Bakersfield in 2019 alone. Corbin Chronister placed first in hammer throw and discus while Curtis Threlkeld won his second-straight 800-meter title.
Angel Valdez was chosen as one of two WAC NCAA Woman of the year nominees in 2018. She ran the second and fastest track and field program times in the 10,000 and 5,000 meter races, respectively, and ended her Bakersfield cross country career with top times in the 6k, 5k, and 4k distances. Threlkeld won his first WAC 800m title in 2018.
In 2017, the women's cross country team posted its best WAC Championships finish and had three qualify for the NCAA West Regional. Valdez earned the program's highest conference and regional finish.
The 2017 men’s track and field squad had its highest conference finish since moving to NCAA Division I competition in 2008. Tim Van Horn and Joselito Flores highlighted the team's success qualifying for the NCAA West Regional in high jump.
A pair women’s records were set during the 2016 cross country and 2017 track and field seasons. Valdez broke the 6k cross country record while Julianne Finch reset the pole vault record, which had stood for 15 years.
Bryan Wilmert won his second WAC hammer throw title in 2015 while Karnell Grimes won a WAC title in the men’s javelin. Both Grimes and Wilmert represented Bakersfield at the NCAA Division I Regional Championships and left the program with Top 10 all-time performances in their respective events.
The 2014 season saw Wilmert become CSU Bakersfield’s first ever WAC Champion when he claimed the men’s hammer throw title. Wilmert went on to place 28th at the NCAA West Regional Qualifier in the event in a season which saw him move up to seventh all-time on the program’s Top 20 list.
Mansur-Wentworth's 2014 4 x 400 meter relay team posted the school's fastest time in the event since 1996, sprinting to a 10th best program mark all-time.
In 2013, Thomas Judge repeated as Great West Conference champion in the hammer throw and qualified for the NCAA Division I Regional Championships in the event.
Mansur-Wentworth brings a wealth of experience to the program as she guided the University of Central Florida (UCF) to 10 Atlantic Sun Conference (ASC) Championships before the Knights moved to the Conference USA. She won 10 ASC Coach of the Year awards during her 12-year tenure with the Knights. During that time, she also coached six conference athletes of the year, 50 individual conference champions and saw her student-athletes win 194 all-conference honors before stepping down in 2007.
Mansur-Wentworth, who grew up in Colts Neck, N.J., was an eight-sport athlete at Marlboro High School, where she was the first female to run for the MHS cross country team. She then went to the University of South Carolina and played volleyball for one year. Since the Gamecocks didn’t have women’s track and field or cross country teams until 1988, she competed for the Carolina Track Club until she completed her degree in political science and philosophy. After college, Mansur-Wentworth continued her competitive running career as a member of Team Adidas from 1985-89 and the Reebok Racing Club from 1990-95 as a distance runner.
Her coaching resume includes being an assistant coach at the University of South Florida as well as for Brooks Johnson’s Training Group for post-collegiate athletes. She’s also worked with USA Track and Field as the executive director of the Florida division of the organization. Also, Mansur-Wentworth served as the director of administration and co-owner of Steeple Timing and Event Management, a company started up by her late husband that helped organize, promote and run 300 events a year including cross country and track meets.
