Sarah Oprondek enters her seventh season coaching for the Denison University track & field programs in 2024-25. Oprondek works with the jumps and combined events. Oprondek earned a promotion to Associate Head Track & Field Coach in August 2024. She served as an assistant cross country coach at Denison for five seasons.
In addition to her coaching duties, Oprondek has served as a Coaching Mentor for the Female Coaches Mentorship Program through the USTFCCCA for the past three years.
During the 2023-24 academic year, Oprondek helped several Denison University athletes to success. One of those athletes was Jacob Brown, who captured the Decathlon title at the NCAC Outdoor Championships and participated in the NCAA Outdoor Championships. During the indoor season, Brown claimed the Heptathlon at the NCAC Championships. Brown competed and finished 18th in the event at the NCAA Championships. Brown earned All-Region and set school records in both events. Additionally, Oprondek helped coach Anaya Jolivette to the Long Jump Title at the NCAC Oudoor Championships. The DU men's team finished in third place at the NCAC outdoor championships and the women finished fourth at the event.
The Denison men's track & field team finished first overall at the 2023 North Coast Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championship, bringing home the seventh conference title for outdoor track & field in program history but the first since 1991. Denison scored in all 21 events and finished with 162 points, 33 points in front of second-place Wabash College with 129 points. As a team, Denison earned five individual conference championships and 12 total All-NCAC performances throughout the conference championship meet while Coach Oprondek and the rest of the Big Red coaching staff were awarded the NCAC Men's Outdoor Track & Field Coaching Staff of the Year award. It was the second NCAC Coaching Staff of the Year award for the Big Red in 2023 after closing out the NCAC Indoor Track & Field Championship in second place. Oprondek helped coach junior Jacob Brown to NCAC Titles and All-Region honors in both the heptathlon (indoor track & field, school record 4,669 points) and the decathlon (outdoor track & field, 6,163 points). In additon, Oprondek saw sophomores Jack Blais (indoor track & field, long jump, 6.53 meters), Catelyn Gagnier (outdoor track & field, pole vault, 3.38 meters) and Tyler Miller (outdoor track & field, high jump, 1.96 meters) each win an NCAC Championship.
In 2021-22, Oprondek helped coach the Denison men's cross country team to a third-place finish in the NCAC, its best finish at the conference meet since 2008, while senior Keanan Ginell won the NCAC Individual Championship, was named NCAC Runner of the Year, made the All-Region team, and became the first Big Red men's cross country runner to compete at the NCAA Championships since 2011, where he ran a new personal record and finished 93rd in all of NCAA Division III. On the women's side, the Big Red placed seventh as a team while senior Emily Willson earned both first-team all-conference and all-region honors. On the track, Oprondek helped coach the Big Red men's track & field team to a fourth-place finish at the NCAC Indoor Track & Field Championship, followed by a second-place finish at the NCAC Outdoor Championship, the best finish at the outdoor championship for Denison since winning its sixth conference title in seven years in 1991. The 10 All-NCAC performances Denison collected between both days of the outdoor championship and the decathlon were the most by the Big Red in a single outdoor championship since also earning 10 all-conference honors in 1998. Additionally, the Big Red men also won the 2022 All-Ohio Outdoor Track & Field Championship meet for the first time in program history. On the women's side, Denison finished fifth at the NCAC Indoor Championship and was fourth in the outdoor championship.
In 2019-20, Oprondek helped lead both track & field programs to seven combined All-NCAC finishes during the indoor season, including the third-straight all-conference performance for senior Ryan Fleming in the high jump. The Denison men's team also left the 2020 NCAC Indoor Championships with a third-place finish, their best since 2009. She also helped the men's cross country team garner three All-NCAC performances, including a first-team honor for Adam Cromwell who placed fourth overall at the 2019 NCAC Championships.
During the 2018-19 season, the Big Red claimed 10 All-NCAC selections across the indoor and outdoor seasons, including indoor NCAC titles from James Dixie (long jump) and Ryan Fleming (high jump) and an conference championship from Esteban Sainz (javelin) during the outdoor season.
Oprondek came to Denison from NCAA Division II Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, where she was a graduate assistant for the Bulldogs’ track & field and cross country programs from 2016-18. During her time at Truman State, the men’s and women’s cross country teams set program-best finishes at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Cross Country Championships in 2017, with the women placing fourth out of 12 teams and the men finishing fifth overall. Across both sports, Oprondek coached the Bulldogs to nine GLVC All-Conference honors and four USTFCCCA All-Academic teams during the 2016-17 seasons (men’s and women’s cross country and track & field).
Before her time at Truman State, Oprondek was three-year captain for the women’s track & field team at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. As a member of the Eagles track & field team, Oprondek was a three-time All-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference selection in javelin (Outdoor – 2016) and pole vault (Outdoor – 2015; Indoor – 2014) while also earning All-NACC honorable mention recognition on four different occasions in her career (Outdoor – 2013, 2016; Indoor – 2014, 2016).
A native of Fairbury, Illinois, Oprondek received her bachelor’s degree in Exercise and Sport Studies from Benedictine University in May 2016 before earning her master’s in leadership from Truman State in the spring of 2018.
