RADFORD, Va. – Radford Athletics has announced Tuesday afternoon that Shelli Sayers has resigned as the director of track & field and cross country. Assistant coach Paul Zalewski will serve as the interim director.
"Thank you to Radford University and President Bret Danilowicz for the opportunity to lead the men's and women's track and field and cross country programs," added Sayers. "It has been a joy watching the program grow into one of the best programs in Radford history. It has been an honor to re-write the record books while improving our team GPAs, graduating outstanding student-athletes, and being a part of the reintroduction of the men's track and field program. The student-athletes made this job incredibly rewarding. My favorite memories are not the records or champions, but the conversations, life lessons, and post-college relationships with the young men and women I coached. All of them challenged me to be a better person, coach, and leader."
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Sayers has been a staple with the Radford track & field and cross country program since joining as an assistant coach in 2015. She was promoted as the director of the program on July 31, 2019.
On the track & field side, Sayers helped coach four different Highlanders to a total of 10 Big South women's track and field individual championships. Women's track and field athletes broke a total of 20 school records under Sayers' tutelage and saw Hannah Moran (2022, 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter), Jeylah Hamrick (2026, 400 meter), and Jaelynn Joiner (2026, long jump) qualify for the NCAA outdoor regional meets.
The former assistant coach at Northern Iowa and Roanoke College was instrumental in getting the return of the men's track and field program in 2025-26. Dormant since 2014, Sayers led the Radford men to solid finishes at the 2026 Big South Outdoor meet, including Tyrique Taylor's second-place finish in discus.
In cross country, both the men's and women's teams saw success on the course and in the classroom. Both programs set new program records on the men's side (Joshua Daggett in 6K and Maxton Sowers in 8K) and the women's side (Sophie Magson in 4K and Moran in 5 & 6K). Two men's runners (Liam McDonald in 2024 and Hayat Khan in 2025) and two women's runners (Annsley Eckert in 2020 and Natalie Preston in 2023) were honored as Big South Scholar-Athletes of the Year under Sayers' guidance. The program also piled up 15 all-conference honorees, including Moran's winning performance in the 2021 Big South Championship Meet, Radford's first individual conference champion in cross country since 1993.
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