Wichita State Athletics

Kirk Hunter is in his fifth season as Head Cross Country and Assistant Track Coach at Wichita State University, but brings more than 27 years of coaching experience to the WSU Track and Field staff, including 10 years at Butler County Community College.

His resume includes many outstanding Olympic distance runners, including Diane Nukuri, a two-time Olympic Marathoner with a time of 2.29.25. She won nine NJCAA national championships and 17 NJCAA All-American honors while Hunter was coach at BCCC. 

At WSU, he also coached Aliphine Tuliamuik-Bolton, the Shockers' most-decorated student-athlete in history, to 13 All-America honors and several school records during her time as a Shocker.  Tuliamuk Bolton holds the current WSU school records in the indoor 5k, (15:25), indoor 3k, (9:07), the Outdoor 5k, (15:18), and the Outdoor 10k, (32:07).  In addition, Hunter coached successful NCAA athletes Tonya Nero and Tomas Cotter.

He coached Tuliamuk to a 12th place finish at the 2011 NCAA Cross Country Championships,. Tuliamuk earned USTFCCCA All-American status with the finish. She was named USTFCCCA Midwest Region Women's Athlete of the Year after winning the NCAA Midwest Regional 6K in 20:40.68. Hunter also coached Tuliamuk to the individual 2011 MVC 5K title in 17:16.6.

In 2012, Hunter guided Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton  to fourth place at the 2012 NCAA Cross Country Championships, which marked the highest individual finish in Wichita State cross country history and to the Missouri Valley Conference XC individual Championship that year. In the 2012 outdoor season, Hunter helped Tuliamuk-Bolton claim second place in the NCAA 10,000m run and MVC championships in both the 5,000m and 10,000m races.  

In 2011, Hunter coached Tuliamuk, who finished in fifth place in the 10K and eighth in the 5K at the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Tuliamuk received first team All-America recognition for both performances.  Tuliamuk also won a conference title in the indoor 3K and was named an All-American by placing eighth in the 5K at the NCAA Indoor Championships. 

In Hunter's first season with the Shockers, the women's cross country team continued its tradition of winning Missouri Valley Conference titles. Hunter was named 2010 MVC Cross Country Women's Coach of the Year as the women claimed their sixth-straight MVC cross country crown in the fall of 2010. Senior Tonya Nero won the MVC Championships, earning MVC Women's Athlete-of-the-Year honors. Nero went on to place 16th at the NCAA Championships and was named an All-American.

Wichita State won the women’s indoor and outdoor MVC titles during the 2011 track and field season when Hunter coached Nero to an indoor MVC title in the mile and outdoor MVC title in the 10,000-meter run.

Nero set a then WSU record in the 10K with a time of 33:11.71, qualifying her for the outdoor NCAA West Preliminary round. She won the 10K there, and advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, where she finished seventh overall in the same event. Nero received USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field first team All-America recognition in 2011.

Cotter is third all-time on the WSU Steeplechase top 10 list and represented his country at back-to-back European Team Championships, as well as representing both WSU and Ireland at the 2013 World University Games in Russia were he finished 10th.  In addition, Cotter also won the 2012 MVC Indoor 3000m and the 2012 Outdoor 3000m Steeplechase.  In 2013 Cotter won both the 1500m and the 3000m Steeplechase races, earning him the honor of being awarded the 2013 MVC Men’s Most Valuable Athlete award.  Cotter went on to earn All-American honors at the 2013 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the Steeplechase.

Most recently, in Hunter’s fifth season as Head Cross Country coach, his teams ended with a 12th place and 15th-place finish by the women’s and men’s teams, respectively, in the 2014 NCAA Midwest Regional.

In all, he has coached 25 individual Missouri Valley Conference champions, while three student-athletes under his watch have won 17 All-America honors. In addition, student-athletes have won 60 All-MVC honors in his five years at WSU.