Kate Bucknam is entering her seventh year as an assistant Cross Country and Track & Field coach for Belmont.
Bucknam assists Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jeff Langdon in overseeing the training of the men's and women's cross country teams as well as the distance events for track, but primarily works with the women's teams.
During her time at Belmont, Bucknam has helped both programs achieve success on the course and track. As the Bruins made the switch from the OVC to the Missouri Valley Conference in 2022, Bucknam assisted in the seamless transition. The Bruins earned top 10 finishes in five of their first six meets. In their MVC Championship debut, Belmont claimed second place under Bucknam as Kaitlyn Vanderkolk earned All-MVC First Team honors and Katie Flaherty claimed an all-conference honorable mention.
At the indoor track and field championships, Bucknam’s distance medley relay team set a program record at (11:56.13). As the Bruins turned to outdoor, the distance squad continued to hold their own in the new conference as Vanderkolk claimed the individual championship in the 10k with a conference record, and a silver medal in the 5k, while Grace Litzinger notched a new program record in the 3k steeplechase.
In Bucknam’s first four years, the women’s cross country team posted four top-three finishes at the OVC Championship led by Litzinger who earned All-OVC honors and OVC Freshman of the Year after finishing runner-up.
Bucknam coached a total of nine All-OVC athletes in cross country. The women's track and field team has also made huge strides by placing 4th and 2nd at the Indoor and Outdoor Conference Championships (2020, 2021), their best finish since joining the OVC. She’s coached three individual Conference Champions on the indoor track: Courtney Alama in the 3k (9:44.27) and 5k (16:52.50), and Lily Hallum in the 800 (2:12.96), both of which were in the 2020 season.
Kate comes with a wealth of experience and knowledge in the sport having run at both the University of Minnesota and Lipscomb University. While at Minnesota, Bucknam was instrumental in helping the Gophers qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championship for just the 10th time in program history. She finished sixth on the squad in her NCAA debut as a redshirt junior. She was an Academic All-Big Ten selection and earned the NCAA Sportsmanship Award following the 2014 cross country season. On the track, she most commonly competed in the 1,500 and 3,000-meter steeplechase during her outdoor campaigns and the mile and 3k during her indoor seasons. She placed 11th at the 2015 Big Ten Championship in the steeplechase. She had also previously won the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award during the 2015 track season.
She earned her undergraduate degree in kinesiology at Minnesota.
Bucknam resides in Nashville.
