Jacob Yowell - Assistant Coach - Women's Track & Field Coaches

Photo by: Braden Villanueva

Jacob Yowell

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
jacob.yowell@csun.edu
Phone:
2228

Jacob Yowell enters his seventh season as an assistant coach on the CSUN men's and women's track & field staff in 2025-26. He serves as the program's sprints, hurdles and relays coach.

In his time with Northridge, Yowell has coached Matador sprinters to three All-American awards on the men's side. CSUN has won nine individual conference titles on the men's team and four on the women's team. In all, CSUN has posted 11 total school records in sprint events between the men's and women's teams.

In 2025, Yowell coached newcomer Tibyasa Matovu to breaking both the indoor and outdoor 400m school records. Matovu would win CSUN's third consecutive MPSF 400m title on the year. In addition, CSUN broke the school records in the 4x400m relay during the indoor and outdoor seasons.

Yowell helped CSUN post a banner 2024 year where CSUN was represented in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m events at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. James Crawford (100m) and Chase Mars (200m) each finished in the top-20 at nationals while the 4x100m relay team (Tosh Black, David Phillips, Jr., Crawford and Mars) earned All-America Second Team honors, finishing 11th at the event. Both Phillips and Mars qualified at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials with each advancing to the 200m semifinals, finishing 14th and 17th, respectively.

In 2024, Yowell guided the Matador sprinters to four conference titles. Phillips won the indoor 200m and 400m titles at the MPSF Championships while Mars claimed the outdoor 200m title and Chris Pitts won the 400m title at the Big West Championships. Among the team's seven school records set in 2024, Mars broke the 100m and the 200m outdoor records in his first season with CSUN. In addition, Mars broke the 60m indoor record and Phillips set a new indoor 200m mark.

During the 2023 indoor season, Yowell coached CSUN to its first individual MPSF titles in 15 seasons. Phillips won the 200m title while Logan Davis collected the 60m championship at the 2024 MPSF Championships. On the women's side, Arianna Alexander broke the school record in the 60m dash. In the outdoor season, Logan Davis was victorious in the 400m at the Big West Championships while he went on to become 2023 Big West Freshman of the Year. On the women's 4x100m relay team, CSUN's quartet of Charne-Lee Olkers, Kailyah Poston, Jada Reese, and Alexander took home the Big West crown.

The 2022 campaign was Yowell’s first full outdoor season while at CSUN and it was highlighted by some all-time great performances. On the women’s side, Yanla Ndjip-Nyemeck set a CSUN and Big West Conference record in the 100m hurdles posting a time of 13.02 at the NCAA West Region Preliminaries. Ndjip-Nyemeck won the 100m hurdles at the Big West Championship, making her the fourth woman in consecutive years to win the event for the Matadors. Yowell also guided Alexander to the 2022 conference championship in the 100m in a time of 11.59, becoming the first Matador to win the event since 2017.

On the men's side in 2022, Yowell would help Pitts to break a 23-year-old CSUN record in the 400m running a time of 46.42 at the Willie Williams Classic in Tucson, Ariz.

Despite the 2021 season being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Yowell led senior Brisa Guzman-Sanchez to a Big West championship in women's 100m hurdles, marking the third consecutive season in which a Matador woman won the title.

Yowell joined the Matadors after spending 2017-19 at Baker University (Kan.) where he served as a graduate assistant coach in sprints, hurdles, and relays. While at Baker, Yowell mentored 35 NAIA National Qualifiers, 10 Heart of America Athletic Conference Champions, 9 NAIA All-Americans, 4 school records, and one HAAC Athlete of the Year.

On the men’s side, Yowell helped Kwan Brooks and Logan Lamb to the NAIA National Championship. Yowell led Brooks to a new personal best in the 100m with and time of 10.52, and in the 200m with a school record time of 21.27. Lamb took seventh in the decathlon at the NAIA Outdoor Championship with a score of 6,388 points.

On the women's side, Yowell also mentored Kaycee Mayfield and Gloria Mares to multiple NAIA National Championships. Mayfield, a two-time conference champion, set a lifetime best in the indoor 600m in a school record time of 1:38.90; Mayfield also anchored the women’s NAIA Indoor All-American 4x400m relay team. Mares was an eight-time NAIA National Qualifier and 2019 HAAC Track Athlete of the Year. Both were members of the school record-setting NAIA Outdoor Championship All-American 4x400m relay team.

Before Baker, Yowell spent five years coaching at North Torrance High School. The 2007 North High graduate served three years as the head cross country and track & field coach, and two years as a track and field assistant, coaching the sprints, hurdles, and relays.

Yowell received his master’s degree in 2019 in business administration and graduated in 2012 with a bachelor's degree in Sociology from UC Irvine. While at UCI, Yowell served two years as the NCAA Division I SAAC representative for the Big West Conference. As a student-athlete at UC Irvine, Yowell was a six-time NCAA West Regional qualifier, three-time Big West Conference Champion, and sits on the university’s all-time top 10 list in multiple events.