MENOMONIE (August 21, 2021) – Abigail Fouts and Patrick Keyes have joined the UW-Stout cross country and track and field coaching staffs.
Fouts will be an assistant coach with the cross country team and will be an assistant distance coach with the track and field team. Keyes will be an assistant track and field coach and will work with the sprints and relays. Both come to UW-Stout after stints as assistant coaches at the University of St. Thomas and both competed as student-athletes in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), Fouts at UW-River Falls and Keyes at UW-Eau Claire.
Fouts was an assistant at St. Thomas for four seasons and seven of her athletes qualified to the 2021 MIAC Outdoor Championship meet, and two athletes earned all-conference honors. In 2020, she coached Martha Hubbell to a NCAA Indoor Track qualifying mile time of 5:04 in 2020 before the meet was cancelled due to COVID. Sara Ness qualified to the NCAA Cross Country Championship in 2019 and returned to run lifetime personal records in the 5,000 (17:58) and the 3,000 (10:18). Fouts coached nine individuals to qualify to the MIAC Indoor Championship, garnering multiple all-conference awards and personal bests.
During her competitive career at UW-River Falls, Fouts was the 2017 UW-River Falls Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year after winning the 2017 WIAC Outdoor 10,000-meter championship and individually advancing to the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship. Fouts received her bachelor's in Health and Physical Education and her master's in Sports Performance at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Fouts started her coaching career as an assistant coach at UW-River Falls for the 2018 track and field season.
Keyes efforts helped both the St. Thomas men's and women's track and field programs claim eight straight indoor and outdoor MIAC Championship team titles. During that same span, athletes under his direction have won 19 individual MIAC Championship titles and a combined 10 individual NCAA indoor and outdoor championship qualifiers. Katie Murray earned All-American honors in the indoor 200m (2018) and Mallory Adamson earned All-American honors in the 400m hurdles (2019). From 2013-15, Keyes was an assistant track and field coach at Edina, Minn., High School.
Keyes was a four-year track and field student-athlete at UW-Eau Claire, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in marketing. Keyes served as team captain and capped off his career by qualifying for the 2011 Indoor NCAA Division III Championships in the 55-hurdles. Keyes is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Leadership in Student Affairs from the University of St. Thomas.
Fouts is a native of Eagan, Minn., and Keyes is a native of Ham Lake, Minn.
