Steven Rajewsky enters his 11th season as an assistant coach for the University of Michigan track and field team in the 2024-25season, overseeingthe Wolverine sprinters and hurdlers.
Rajewsky by the Numbers
• Has coached twoWorld Championships finalists
• Has coached one NCAA champion
• Has coached 15different student-athletes to a combined 31NCAA All-America honors along with two relays.
• Has coached 55conference champions, including 11at Michigan
• Has coached 27school record-holders, including nineat Michigan
• Has coached his athletes to 120all-conference honors, including 25at Michigan
• Has coached 14 NCAA Preliminary Round qualifiers at Michigan
• Has helped student-athletes advance to the NCAA Championships on 27occasions at Michigan
• Has been a member of 18conference title-winning teams as an athlete and coach
AT MICHIGAN
• In 2024, he coached Aasia Laurencin and Savannah Sutherland to NCAA Championships appearances in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, as well as Dubem Amene to an NCAA Indoor Championship appearance. Sutherland won a pair of Big Ten titles in the indoor 400-meter dash and the outdoor 400-meter hurdles, defending her 400-meter hurdles title from 2023. She finished on the podium at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships, earning First Team All-America honors for each performance. Sutherland's NCAA Outdoor Championship run saw her finish second and set the program and Candian national record in the semifinals (54.04) and the finals (53.26). Laurencin took home the 60-meter hurdle Big Ten title and defended her 100-meter hurdles title, earning podium finishes and First Team All-America honors at the Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Championships. In the 60-meter hurdles semi-finals at the NCAA Indoor Championships, she ran a 7.99 as just the third Wolverine to break eight seconds. Amene finished third in the 400-meter dash at the Big Ten Indoor Championships before claiming the Big Ten Outdoor Championship title in the event to cap his career at U-M, also setting the indoor (45.75) and outdoor (45.36) 400-meter dash programs records. Sutherland and Amene both qualified for the 2024 Olympics, with Amene representing Nigeria in the 4x400-meter relay and Sutherland representing Canada in the 400-meter hurdles.
• In 2023, Rajewskycoached Savannah Sutherland to a Big Ten title, NCAA title, Canadian title, and World Championships berth in the 400-meter hurdles. Named Big Ten Women's Track Athlete of the Year, Sutherland excelled throughout the season,ending with school records in five events, twoCanadian Records, and an additional Big Ten title in the indoor 4x400 relay. Rajewsky coached Ziyah Holman through a record-setting season as well, where she won back to back indoor and outdoor 400m Big Ten titles and left the Big Ten outdoor championships with three school records, a meet record (400m), and a 22.6 point contribution to the team score. Holman went on to compete for Team USA at the NACAC U23 Championships where she returned home with a silver medal in the 400 meters and gold medal from the 4x400 relay. Under Rajewsky, Aasia Laurencin won her first Big Ten title in the 100-meter hurdles, continuing on to a seventh place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships for first-team All-American honors. Josh Zeller and Dubem Amene saw success in 2023 as well, with Zeller earning a silver medal at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in the 110-meter hurdles and Amene winning the indoor 400 meter title, followed by a third place finish outdoors.Rajewsky coached his athletes to a combined five individual Big Ten titles and two relay Big Ten titles. He contributed massively to the women's back to back indoor and outdoor Big Ten team titles, with his athletes contributing46.5 of the team's 109 points indoors, scoring in all sprints and hurdle events. Rajewsky was also named the Great Lakes Region Women's Assistant Coach of the Year following both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
• In 2022, Rajewsky guided both Joshua Zeller and Dubem Amene to the finals of the World Athletics Championships, with Zeller representing Great Britain in a fifth-place result in the 110-meter hurdles and Amene running a leg of the Nigerian mixed-gender 4x400 relay team. Both men excelled all year long under Rajewsky's tutelage, with a combined four All-America honors, three school records, two Big Ten titles and two Big Ten silver medals between them. Zeller's road to Worlds also included a third-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, two Big Ten titles, a Big Ten-record 13.19 (+1.6m/s) and a second-team All-America honor indoors. Amene's breakthrough campaign included silver medals both indoors and out in the Big Ten 400 meters, school records indoors at 400 meters and in the distance medley relay, an indoor first-team All-America honor in the DMR, an indoor second-team honor at 400 meters, and a berth to the NCAA Outdoor Championships at 400 meters.
• In 2021, Rajewsky coached Joshua Zeller and the 4x400 relay team of Roland Amarteifio, Dubem Amene, Austin Lin and Vail Hartman to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Zeller finished fifth for the Wolverines in the 60-meter hurdles final at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, and he followed that outdoors with a fourth-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles, and ultimately represented Michigan at outdoor nationals and his home country of Great Britain at the European U23 Championships. His top finisher at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships was 400-meter hurdles bronze medalist Amarteifio, and he also mentored Job Mayhue to eighth in the 110 hurdles. Rajewsky also assisted in coaching sprint techniques for the Wolverines' combined-event corps, including multiple-time All-American, Big Ten champion and school record-breaker Ayden Owens.
• In a 2020 season cut short by the novel coronavirus COVID-19 global pandemic, Rajewsky was in the midst of leading one of the most successful hurdles/sprints corps in recent program history. Rajewsky guided three men to the finals of the Big Ten Indoor Championships 60-meter hurdles, and his top four hurdlers (Roland Amarteifio, Josh Zeller, Job Mayhue and Sierra Hendrix-Williams) were ranked the fifth-best quartet in the country in the final USTFCCCA Event Squad Rankings. he also mentored Ian Davis to a sixth-place finish at 400 meters in a season that saw him break into the all-time U-M top-10 list at 200, 400 and 600 meters.
• In 2019, he helped Taylor McLaughlin close out his decorated career with a fifth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 48.85 -- the fastest-ever time run by a Michigan man during the collegiate season. The time also met the qualifying standard for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials, and his finish was the third First-Team All-America showing of his career. Rajewsky also coached the 4x400 relay team of Desmond Melson, Ian Davis, Alex Schwedt and Vail Hartman to Second-Team All-America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, after qualifying as the second-to-last seeded team in the meet. Under Rajewsky's tutelage, the 400-meter hurdles quartet of McLaughlin, Amarteifio (who also made it to the NCAA Championships), Noah Caudy and Sean Marshall were ranked No. 3 in the USTFCCCA Event Squad rankings in the event.
• In 2018, he coached Taylor McLaughlin to his second Big Ten title in the 400-meter hurdles, his second fifth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and a new career-best at 49.10 to qualify for the USATF Outdoor Championships final. Not only did McLaughlin win a conference title in Michigan's fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Outdoor meet, Rajewsky also coached Roland Amarteifio to points in both the 400-meter and 110-meter hurdles (where he was a finalist with teammate Sierra Hendrix-Williams), and both relays to points. McLaughlin and Amarteifio were part of a 400-meter hurdles quartet that was ranked No. 6 nationally by the USTFCCCA, with Amarteifio and Hendrix-Williams leading a 110-meter hurdles quartet ranked No. 14 nationally. Indoors, McLaughlin was third at 400 meters and Khoury Crenshaw was a finalist at 60 meters.
• In 2017 he coached McLaughlin to a Second-Team All-America finish in the 400 meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in an 11th-place finish. He was fourth at Big Tens in the 400-meter hurdles and notched a pair of scoring efforts at the Big Ten Indoor meet with sixth-place finishes at both 200 and 400 meters. He also guided Khoury Crenshaw to a fifth-place finish at the Big Ten Indoor Championships over 60 meters and to an NCAA East Prelims berth outdoors at 100 meters.
• In 2016, Rajewsky helped lead U-M to the best season of the Jerry Clayton Era and the best since 1997, as the team earned a runner-up finish at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships and finished fourth during the indoor conference meet, just two points shy of second place before tying for 13th during the NCAA Outdoor Championships. He coached McLaughlin to All-American honors in the 400-meter hurdles (5th place) as a true freshman, and McLaughlin went on to win the American Junior (U-20) title in the same event before finishing as the world junior runner-up in a personal-best time of 49.45. Rajewsky worked with Kevin Stephens Jr. as well, helping the Texan native earn a Big Ten runner-up finish in the triple jump indoors with U-M's No. 4 all-time performance in the event. He also scored at the outdoor meet (fifth) and landed No. 7 on the all-time performance list for the outdoor season.
• In 2016, during the conference outdoor meet, U-M totaled 90.5 points, its highest program scoring performance since 2008. Rajewsky helped Taylor McLaughlin to his first career Big Ten gold medal when he ran 49.80 to win the 400-meter hurdles out of lane one, the fastest time by any freshman in the NCAA in 2016. That came just months after he coached McLaughlin to a new program record in the indoor 400-meter dash (46.42) during his conference championships debut, and Rajewsky also helped U-M break its 12-year old Distance Medley Relay (DMR) record during the indoor season. The squad of Chase Barnett (1,200m), Phil Washington III (400m), Brennan Munley (800m) and Mason Ferlic (1,600m) timed 9:27.67 to break the record at Notre Dame's Alex Wilson Invitational (Feb. 20), and with Washington III, switched for McLaughlin, went on to have its first All-American DMR since 2007, placing eighth at the NCAA Championships as the Wolverines secured five All-American honors overall.
• While multi-events athlete Steven Bastien rewrote the U-M combined events record books, Rajewsky has been right by his side, helping to guide Bastien to one Big Ten title (indoor heptathlon, 2016) and three All-American honors (first team twice both indoors and outdoors, in addition to a second-team indoor). He steadily improved Bastien's sprinting and hurdling events while helping him break and re-set Michigan records in both multi-event competitions.
• In 2015, Rajewsky helped U-M to its best performance at the Big Ten Indoor Championships since 2009, featuring a pair of individual conference champions and a fifth-place finish. Rajewsky guided Chris Maye to the 60m title, helping him become Michigan's first conference champion in the event since 2009. The Maize and Blue went 1-2-5 in the event, supplying Rajewsky with a pair of all-conference performers in Maye (first-team) and runner-up Codie Nolan (second-team).
• In 2014, Rajewsky helped Ali Arastu break the 28-year old indoor program record in the 400m dash, formerly held by Omar Davidson, and under his direction, five of the top six times in U-M indoor history were recorded in the 60m dash, including the second-fastest mark (6.70) ever, by John Spooney. During the outdoor season, Rajewsky guided a trio of Wolverines to the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds, all of whom competed in the 100m dash, giving U-M the most entries in that event in the entire east region, and tied for most in the nation.
BEFORE MICHIGAN
He joined the U-M staff after spending the previous six seasons (2008-13) as an assistant coach at Kent State University, working with their men's and women's sprint and hurdles groups. During his time at KSU, he helped lead the Golden Flashes to eight Mid-American Conference (MAC) championships, including four straight women's outdoor titles (2010-13), three women's indoor crowns (2010, 2012-13) and the 2009 men's indoor championship. Under Rajewsky's guidance, his student-athletes garnered three MAC Athlete of the Year citations and three MAC Indoor Track Performer of the Meet awards. In addition, he coached 28 MAC champions, 64 All-MAC performers, 11 school-record holders, 12 NCAA East Preliminary qualifiers, one NCAA Championship qualifier and three USA Junior Championship participants.
Prior to his stint at Kent State, Rajewsky spent two seasons at Ball State University as a graduate assistant coach (2006-08), working with the Cardinals' jumps, hurdles and multi-event student-athletes. Throughout the Fall of 2006, Rajewsky also gained valuable experience as the interim head coach during a coaching staff transition. Under his watch, Rajewsky's student-athletes recorded nine MAC individual titles, five school records, 19 All-MAC performances, seven NCAA Mid-East Regional qualifying performances and four NCAA Championship qualifying performances. Rajewsky guided two-time MAC record-holder Amber Williams to All-America honors in the 100-meter hurdles, a fourth-place finish at the USA Indoor Championships and participation at the 2007 USA Championships. During his time at Ball State, Rajewsky also earned his Master of Arts in sports administration for higher education in 2008.
Rajewsky is no stranger to Big Ten track and field, earning his start in Division I coaching as a volunteer assistant coach with the women's track and field program at the University of Minnesota from 2004-06. He concentrated on the Gophers' sprints, jumps, hurdles and multi-event groups. In 2006, he helped lead Minnesota to the Big Ten Outdoor championship, guiding six student-athletes to individual conference titles. He also assisted in coaching three Big Ten Freshmen of the Year, five school record-holders, seven NCAA Championship qualifiers, six NCAA All-Americans and one NCAA champion (800-meter run).
The Blue Earth, Minn., native was hired to U-M's staff on Sept. 18, 2013. In his own athletic career, Rajewsky was a six-time All-MIAC performer and 2004 team captain of the University of St. Thomas men's track and field program. Rajewsky was a 2003 Provisional NCAA Championship qualifier and helped lead St. Thomas to eight MIAC team titles (indoor and outdoor championships from 2000-04). He graduated from St. Thomas in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in sociology and a teaching licensure in social studies.
Rajewsky has spoken at, and helped direct, several camps and clinics across the country in both track and field and basketball.
Rajewsky resides in Ann Arbor with his wife Ellanneeand their two children. Ellanneewasa 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials semifinalist in the 400-meter hurdles, two-time NCAA runner-up in the heptathlon and five-time All-American in the heptathlon and sprints. Ellannee went on to become a successful sprints coach at Washington State University (2004-2014), her alma mater.
