LSU Gold

Khadevis Robinson Season 2024

LSU
Khadevis Robinson
Title
Cross Country Coach
Email
kd@lsu.edu

Twitter: @Khadevis

The LSU Track & Field program welcomed one of the nation’s rising stars in the coaching ranks on Aug. 13, 2013, when head coach Dennis Shaver announced that two-time Olympian Khadevis Robinson was appointed an assistant coach to lead the men’s and women’s middle distance and distance groups and cross country teams.

Robinson joined Shaver’s staff following an impressive 2013 season at Ohio State University where he also served as head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach.

Robinson boasts a distinguished pedigree as one of the all-time great middle distance runners in the history of USA Track & Field as a two-time Olympian and eight-time U.S. Champion in the 800-meter run before joining the coaching ranks with stints as a head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach at UNLV in 2012 and Ohio State in 2013.

The Tigers and Lady Tigers have shown tremendous progress in three seasons under Robinson’s leadership, but perhaps none moreso than Lady Tiger All-American Morgan Schuetz as she returns for her senior season in 2017 as one of the NCAA’s leading 800-meter runners.

Following a breakout sophomore season in 2015 as an NCAA Championship semifinalist during both the indoor and outdoor seasons, Schuetz helped the Lady Tigers solidify a top-10 team finish at the 2016 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships where they finished sixth nationally last June. Schuetz earned All-America honors as an NCAA scorer for the first time with a seventh-place finish in the women’s 800-meter final at the University of Oregon to finish off her junior season.

2016 also saw Schuetz crowned an SEC Champion for the first time in her collegiate career as she captured the indoor title in the 800 meters before defending her title as the SEC Outdoor Bronze Medalist to add another All-SEC honor to her resume. The Baton Rouge native and Parkview Baptist High School product is now a five-time All-SEC performer in her time with the Lady Tigers.

One of the leading 800-meter runners in the history of the LSU program, Schuetz dropped her lifetime personal best to 2 minutes, 2.29 seconds at the LSU Alumni Gold last April to become the No. 5-ranked performer outdoors in school history. She also set her indoor PR of 2:04.05 as a junior a year ago to rank No. 6 on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list in the event.

Schuetz’s success wasn’t limited to the 800 meters as Robinson helped coach her to personal bests of 4:20.21 in the 1,500 meters, 4:40.07 in the mile and 9:44.41 in the 3,000 meters that all rank as top-10 performances in program history.

The Lady Tigers also fielded a historic distance medley relay team under Robinson’s leadership a season ago as Schuetz anchored a team that featured Hollie Parker, Travia Jones and Hannah Deworth that lined up at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the first time in team history. LSU earned a 10th-place finish in the women’s DMR final at the NCAA Championships to close the book on a season in which the squad won All-SEC honors as the SEC Indoor Silver Medalist for the second year in a row.

LSU’s women’s DMR set the indoor school record twice during the 2016 season as it dropped its time to 11:16.92 at the Razorback Invitational before solidifying NCAA qualification with a seasonal-best time of 11:05.34 at Notre Dame’s Alex Wilson Invitational.

Those following the program have also seen the emergence of Las Vegas native Dajour Braxton as one of the top young distance runners in the Southeastern Conference in recent seasons.

Within months of arriving in Baton Rouge for his freshman season, Braxton made history during the 2015 fall semester as LSU’s first cross country runner to receive one of the SEC’s major postseason awards when he was honored as the SEC Men’s Freshman Runner of the Year that fall. He followed with his sophomore cross country season in 2016 by earning All-South Central Region honors after finishing in 11th place individually at the NCAA South Central Regional.

It marked the second-straight season in which an LSU runner secured all-region recognition after Schuetz did so in her final cross country season in 2015 as the 12th-place finisher on the women’s side at the NCAA South Central Regional.

The 2015 track and field season witnessed Julian Parker become the fifth Tiger in history to be crowned the SEC Outdoor Champion in the 800 meters with a truly improbable victory in the SEC final.

After clocking a best of 1:47.33 during the regular season, Parker dropped his personal best by more than one full second as he crossed the finish line in 1:46.17 to strike gold as the SEC’s 800-meter champion in his senior season. That performance made Parker the third-fastest half-miler in the school’s history and earned him a place in the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career.

Sophomore Blair Henderson also cracked LSU’s all-time Top 10 performance list in 2015 when he posted a lifetime best of 1:47.03 to rank seventh in school history in the event. The Lake Charles native has advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals in the 800 meters in each of the last two years while also highlighting his junior season with three SEC finals appearances in the 800 and 1,500 meters in 2016.

In his one season at Ohio State, Robinson coached sophomore Katie Borchers to school records with PRs of 2:06.95 indoors and 2:05.56 outdoors while also earning a place in the national semifinals at the 2013 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

He also coached a young Buckeye squad to great success during the 2012 cross country season as Ohio State claimed a pair of sixth-place team finishes at the Big Ten Championships and the NCAA Great Lakes Regional. That included junior Meredith Wagner and sophomore Michelle Thomas earning all-region honors and Wagner adding a Second-Team All-Big Ten selection for her performance.

The Ohio State women’s cross country team earned a 2012 NCAA Division I All-Academic Team honor by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association with a cumulative team grade-point average of 3.31 through the 2012 fall semester.

Prior to joining the Buckeye staff, Robinson guided the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels to a successful 2012 campaign in which standout Kelsey Williams swept Mountain West Conference championships in the women’s 800 meters during the indoor and outdoor seasons. Brett Zorich, the 2012 Mountain West Indoor bronze medalist, also qualified for the 800-meter semifinals at the NCAA Outdoor Championships while earning a 13th-place finish nationally with a personal record of 2:04.54 in the event.

UNLV’s relay teams were also impressive under Robinson’s direction as the Rebels earned All-Mountain West honors with a silver-medal-winning second-place finish in the women’s distance medley relay (11:52.41) at the 2012 MWC Indoor Championships and won the 4×800-meter relay (8:39.22) at the 85th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays during the 2012 outdoor season.

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, and 1998 graduate of TCU, Robinson was crowned the NCAA Outdoor Champion in the men’s 800 meters during his senior season with the Horned Frogs in 1998.

He would go on to a distinguished professional career as one of the world’s premier 800-meter runners in which he represented the United States at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and London in 2012. Robinson also earned his spot on Team USA at the IAAF World Championships a total of seven times while setting a lifetime personal best of 1:43.68 in his specialty event.

Robinson is one of the most accomplished middle distance runners in USA Track & Field history while winning four U.S. Indoor titles in 1999, 2005, 2006 and 2007 and four U.S. Outdoor titles in 1999, 2006, 2008 and 2009. He is also a six-time silver medalist in the 800 meters at the USA Outdoor Championships, including a pair of runner-up finishes at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in 2004 and 2012.

He has also helped foster the careers of some of USA Track & Field’s rising stars while coaching the likes of 2012 U.S. Olympian Duane Solomon early in his professional career.

Robinson graduated from TCU in 1998 with an undergraduate degree in social work before earning his master’s degree in public administration from Cal State Los Angeles in 2004.

Robinson has spent the past decade training and competing as one of the world’s top runners while coaching athletes from all age groups. He’s also served as a public speaker and as an educator in the Santa Monica Unified School District. He also co-founded a 501c3 called The Youth Track & Running Club of which he remains an active board member.

The Robinson File

Athletic Experience
2-time U.S. Olympian (2004, 2012)
7-time IAAF World Championships Qualifier
4-time USA Indoor Champion (800 Meters)
4-time USA Outdoor Champion (800 Meters)
2-time U.S. Olympic Trials Silver Medalist (800 Meters)
1998 NCAA Outdoor Champion (800 Meters)
4-time NCAA All-American

Collegiate Coaching Records
1 All-American
2 SEC Champions
9 All-SEC Athletes earning 12 All-SEC honors
19 NCAA Championships Qualifiers
2 Mountain West Conference Champions
1 LSU School Record
2 Ohio State School Records