Women’s Cross Country

• Finished 6th at the Conference Carolinas Championships.
• Ermay Vazquez Adame earned All-Conference Carolinas honors with an 18th-place finish.
• Three Tornado athletes competed at the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional, led by Vazquez Adame in 82nd place

Men's Cross Country

• Finished 8th at the Conference Carolinas Championships
• Jordan Keith earned First Team All-Conference Carolinas (5th place) and was named Conference Carolinas Scholar-Athlete of the Year presented by HUDL. Keith also earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors
• Josh Booher earned Second Team All-Conference Carolinas (11th place)
• At the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional, Booher placed 54th and Keith placed 61^st

Women’s Track & Field

• Finished 11th at the Conference Carolinas Indoor Championships and improved to 10th at the Outdoor Championships.
• Annah Blankenship earned the Conference Carolinas Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Elite 23 Award and College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors.

Men’s Track & Field

• Finished 11th at both the Indoor and Outdoor Conference Carolinas Championships.
• Multiple school records were shattered in the first indoor meet of the season, including Lance Hatcher’s 1000m record (2:38.29).
• Three athletes (Clathon Henfield, Skyler Miller, and Matthew Henfield) broke the 300m school record.Jordan Keith, Clathon Henfield, Matthew Henfield, and Mason Sanders earned Academic All-Conference Carolinas honors, with Keith also named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team.

Prior to King University

Brunecz served as Director of Cross Country and Track & Field at Methodist University since 2019 (head cross country coach and track distance coach since 2015). Over seven years, he led the Monarchs to five top-three USA South finishes in men’s cross country and one in women’s, including a USA South East Division Championship in 2020 with a perfect score.

His teams achieved the best NCAA South/Southeast Regional finishes in school history (18th for women in 2018, 15th for men in 2017). He coached 35 all-conference performers in cross country (17 first-team, 4 conference champions) and produced five all-region athletes, including two national qualifiers. On the track, he guided seven school records in mid-distance and distance events, the first USA South champions in the 5,000m and 10,000m (2019), 117 all-conference honorees (46 first-team), four USA South Athletes of the Year, and six All-Americans.

Before Methodist, Brunecz was head cross country coach and assistant track & field coach at Pine Forest High School. He was named 2011 Mid-South Athletic Conference Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year and led the program to its first state qualification since 1987. In track & field, he coached 12 conference champions, 10 regional champions, three state champions, one national champion, and guided numerous athletes to state and national meets while setting five school records.

Personal

A 2006 graduate of the State University of New York at Fredonia with a bachelor’s degree in education, Brunecz holds USATF Coaching Education Level 1 and Level 2 certifications with a distance events focus. He is also an accomplished competitive runner with personal bests including:

• Mile: 4:37 (June 2022)
• Marathon: 2:38:38 (February 2023)
• 12-Hour Run: 86 miles (December 2022)

Brunecz brings a wealth of experience in distance running development, academic excellence, and program building to the King University athletic department.