Brendon Kelso is in his third year as an assistant track & field coach at North Texas after serving two years as a volunteer assistant coach. Kelso works primarily with the throwers.
Last season, Kelso helped the Mean Green throwers to two school records. Senior Ngozi Nweke broke the weight throw mark with a throw of 17.70 meters at the Houston Indoor invite. Nweke also threw the second best discus mark in school history at 49.15 meters at the John Jacobs invite during the outdoor season.
Sophomore Kevone Kennedy became a conference champion in the men's discus. Senior Riley Donovan has a breakout season finishing top-10 in three events (discus, hammer throw, shot put) at the Conference USA championships. Donovan's personal best hammer throw mark of 56.42 was second best in school history. During the indoor season, Donovan finished fourth in the weight throw at the C-USA championships.
Senior Victoria Clark improved her school record in the hammer throw at 55.52 meters, earning second at the C-USA championships. Kelso guided freshman javelin thrower Javier Lopez to a seventh place finish in conference and his personal best throw of 60.26 meters was third best in school history.
During the 2015 season, Kelso guided the Mean Green throwers to two school records. The first of which occurred during indoor competition when Deja McKnight launched a throw of 17.27 meters (56’8”) in the weight throw at the New Mexico Classic to solidify the furthest throw in North Texas history.
McKnight also posted the No. 3 throw in the shot put at North Texas with a toss of 14.69m (48’ 2.5”), which was good for third place at the Conference USA Championships.
The second school record fell during the outdoor season when Victoria Clark unleashed a massive hammer throw measuring 55.14 meters (180’ 11”).
In 2014, Kelso helped coach Tom Kalisky to qualify to NCAA West National Championships Preliminary Rounds in the javelin throw with a monster throw of 64.02 meters (210’), the second-furthest throw in school history with a new rules javelin.
In his first year at North Texas, Kelso helped coach Deja McKnight to a second-place finish at the Indoor Sun Belt Conference Championships. McKnight, Victoria Clark and Ngozi Nweke claimed three of the eight scoring places in the shot put, adding 17 points to the women’s team score tying the 200 meter dash for the most points scored in a single event and paved the way for the women’s team to win the 2013 Women’s Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championship.
In that same year, Aaron Sirles broke the school record in the hammer throw and took third place in the shot put at both the Indoor and Outdoor Sun Belt Conference Championships. Sirles capped his senior year with a personal best discus throw, qualifying him for the NCAA West Prelims.
Kelso also helped coach Charleston Lewis to break the school record in the 35lb weight throw. Solidifying a fourth-place finish in men’s weight throw during the Sun Belt Conference Championships, John Garrish threw a personal best and school record of 18.56 meters (60’ 10.75”), surpassing Lewis’ mark set earlier that season. Garrish also set the current school record in the hammer throw with a launch of 58.34 meters (191’ 5”), surpassing Sirles’ mark set earlier that year.
As a student-athlete at Hardin-Simmons University, Kelso competed in the 2009 DIII National Championships in the javelin throw and holds the school record in the event. He was a four-time American Southwest Conference Champion in multiple throwing events, including the javelin, shot put, and discus and was once named American Southwest Conference Championships Outstanding Field athlete and twice won the Conference Championships High Point Award.
While earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Hardin-Simmons, Kelso was named the American Southwest Conference Men’s Track and Field Distinguished Scholar Athlete three times and was a member of the USTFCCCA DIII Men’s All-Academic Track and Field team in 2009.
Kelso and his wife, Alyssa, have a one-year old daughter, Karsyn.