Tim Servis will enter into his fifth season as the head coach of Southern Arkansas’ Men’s and Women’s Track & Field programs when the calendar turns to 2019.
Southern Arkansas revived its once relevant and historically successful Men’s and Women’s Track & Field programs in May of 2014 and the university tabbed Servis, the school’s Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach, to lead the programs in authoring its next chapter.
Servis spent the fall semester following the announcement recruiting and he brought in 47 freshman athletes and four transfers for SAU’s first full season of outdoor track & field competition in the spring of 2015; four years after the programs’ last outdoor track & field competition and more than ten years since the university last produced full squads.
Since its rebirth, Servis has consistently raised the standards of both programs in his previous four years as head coach and last spring his efforts culminated in the SAU Men claiming their first Great American Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championship in dominate fashion; the program’s first conference title since 1985. In the team’s previous two GAC Title Meets, the SAU Men placed second in both 2016 and 2017, before literally running away with the title on their home track in 2018.
For his efforts in leading the SAU Men to their first conference title in 33 years, Servis was named the Great American Conference’s Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Coach of the Year.
Under Servis, the SAU Women claimed hardware in their first two GAC Championship Meets as they finished as league Runner-Up in both 2016 and 2017, before registering a third-place showing this past season in Magnolia.
With the team success that Southern Arkansas has experienced behind Servis’ leadership, several Muleriders and Lady Muleriders have garnered conference and national honors both on the track and in the classroom.
Servis has been responsible for coaching 125 All-GAC performers, including 14 individual champions (10 men, 4 women). Of the 125 All-GAC performers, 66 (35 men, 31 women) of those have garnered First-Team accolades and 59 (36 men, 23 women) have received Second-Team plaudits. In terms of weekly honors, nine different athletes (4 men, 5 women) have combined to win 11 GAC Track/Field Athlete of the Week awards.
Additionally, Servis has had a pair of athletes claim the GAC’s High Point Award (Most Valuable Athlete) as freshman Lady Mulerider Claudine Blancaflor (28 points) took home the honor at the 2017 championships, while junior Mulerider Karonce Higgins (33 points) snagged the award at the 2018 championships.
Five athletes, including Lady Muleriders Claudine Blancaflor (1500 Meter), Kenisha Bryant (400 Meter Hurdles) and T’Keyah Crockett (Discus Throw) and Muleriders Quincy Flowers (100 Meter) and Karonce Higgins (200, Long Jump), have garnered All-Central Region recognition from the United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) under Servis’ watch, with Bryant claiming the honor in both 2017 and 2018.
Bryant, a member of Servis’ first Track & Field recruiting class, capped her junior year of 2017 by becoming the SAU Women’s first Division II All-America selection since 1995 after earning a Second-Team nod by the USTFCCCA. That season, Bryant became the first Lady Mulerider in the school’s Division II Era (1995-present) to compete at the NCAA DII Outdoor Track & Field National Championships. She was impressive in the 400 Meter Hurdles as she logged a fifth-place finish in her heat and an 11
th-place showing overall with a time of 1:00.46.
Bryant joined Higgins, who competed in a pair of events (200 Meter, Long Jump) at the 2016 NCAA DII Outdoor Track & Field Championship, as the first female and male track & field athletes, respectively, to compete nationally for Southern Arkansas in the school’s Division II Era. This past spring, Bryant returned to the National Championships and was joined by Crockett.
Academically, Bryant received All-Academic honors from the USTFCCCA in 2017 and highlighted a Lady Mulerider squad that was named an All-Academic Team by the same outlet after sporting a team-GPA of 3.09 during the 2016-17 school year. Servis has also seen a handful of athletes from both teams earn All-Academic honors from the GAC as a dozen athletes (6 men, 6 women) have captured the honor since 2016.
Men's Cross Country Bio
