Back to where it all started
Former Chico State star Medina returns as assistant coach
CHICO >> For Kyle Medina, Chico was always home. It took him four hours after his first visit to Chico in high school to know that it was the place he would spend the next four years of his life as a student-athlete, and along that journey he learned he could see himself in Butte County longer than that.
After three semesters as an assistant coach at San Bernardino Valley
College and one year at Azusa
Pacific as an assistant coach, Medina has returned home to Chico State and has been named the assistant coach for the cross country and distance runners for the Wildcats under head coach Gary Towne. The hiring became official Sept. 1.
Medina graduated from Chico State in 2018 with his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology after running for the Wildcats from 2014-18. He was a three-time All-California Collegiate Athletic Association honoree, and in 2017 won the conference’s cross country championship en route to being named the CCAA Runner of the Year. Medina was a three-time All-West Region selection and had All-American performances at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
In track and field Medina was a six-time All-CCAA athlete, won the conference’s 1,500-meter championship three times and was named the CCAA Men’s Track & Field Athlete of the Year twice. Medina earned six All-America efforts at the NCAA Track & Field Championships, finishing as the national runner-up in the 1,500-meter (2016, 2017) and the 3,000-meter steeplechase (2018).
After graduating Chico State Medina then ran professionally with Tinman Elite in Colorado, helping