Jeff Petersmeyer - Track & Field Coach

Jeff Petersmeyer

Title:
Assistant Coach, Jumps & Multi-Events
Email:
petersme@usc.edu

Veteran coach Jeff Petersmeyer is in his second season as an assistant coach for jump and multi-events with the USC track and field program. He was named to the position by Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Quincy Watts on July 6, 2023.

Petersmeyer is a 27-year veteran jumps and multi-events coach who has guided his athletes to numerous All-America honors, NCAA titles, conference titles and Olympic berths.

In his first season as the leader of the jumps program, Petersmeyer’s athletes earned five first-team All-America honors, one NCAA individual title, one USATF Indoor title, set two school records, posted six Trojan all-time top five marks, won two Pac-12 individual titles and his athletes set 20 indoor and outdoor personal bests. He was named the USTFCCCA West Region Men's Assistant Coach of the Year.

Petersmeyer guided JC Stephenson to the 2024 NCAA outdoor long jump title, winning on his final jump with a personal-best jump of 26-11.75 (8.22m) which moved him to tied for third on USC’s all-time list. He became the first Trojan men’s long jump champion since Larry Doubley in 1977. Johnny Brackins Jr. was also All-America honors in the event by placing fourth with a jump of 26-4.25 (8.03m). Brackins Jr. set the USC indoor long jump record of 27-0.00 (8.23m) in winning the USATF indoor long jump title and outdoors he placed fourth at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the long jump.

Petersmeyer also helped lead Temi Ojora to All-America honors in the triple jump at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships, placing fifth indoors and sixth outdoors. She also won the Pac-12 triple jump title and set the school record in the event with a jump of 45-7.25 (13.90m) at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Ojora also had the second-farthest women’s indoor triple jump in school history of 45-2.25 (13.77m) at the Razorback Invitational. High jumper Elias Gerald set his indoor and outdoor PRs, won the Pac-12 title (which was contested indoors) with a clearance of 7-1.75 (2.18m) and earned second-team All-America honors by placing 11^th in the high jump at the NCAA Championships.

During the indoor season, Petersmeyer helped guide Allie Jones to a fourth-place finish in the pentathlon at the NCAA Championships, where she set her long jump PR of 20-8.00 (6.30m) which ranks tied for fifth on USC’s all-time list. Earlier in the season, he helped guide her to the school record with 4,528 points in the pentathlon at the Razorback Invitational.

Petersmeyer spent the year before joining USC as the Director of Athletics at American International University in Jahra, Kuwait.

From 2018-2022, Petersmeyer was an assistant track and field coach at Louisville, where he also worked as a speed and power consultant for the men’s basketball program during the Fall of 2022. He developed several All-ACC performers and NCAA Championships competitors. He also developed three athletes which competed at the 2020 Olympics, including Shelby McEwen who went on to place fifth in the high jump at the 2022 World Championships. Petersmeyer served as Louisville’s international recruiting coordinator.

In 2022, Petersmeyer coached Trey Allen to first-team All-America honors in the high jump at both NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. He also coached 10 athletes to All-ACC honors, including seven medalists. At the ACC Indoor Championships, Luke Nichols earned took second and Allen third in the men’s high jump while Synclair Savage took third in the women’s long jump. Under Petersmeyer’s guidance, the Cards won 2022 ACC Outdoor titles in men’s and women’s high jump. Emily Scott cleared a personal-best and facility-record mark win the women’s title, while Allen captured the men’s gold. Additionally, Savage won the women’s long jump. Allen and Willis qualified to compete at the USA Track & Field Championships in the high jump and long jump respectively.

Petersmeyer guided Allen to All-America honorable mention in the high jump at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships. He coached Allen and Jonah Hyde to fourth and fifth respectively at 2021 ACC Indoor Championships. Renate Van Tonder placed fourth in the women’s long jump at th 2021 ACC Outdoor Championships. He helped Alivia Ash earn first team All-ACC honors at the 2020 ACC Championship while van Tonder (High Jump), Alexis Gibbons (Long Jump), Cayden Spencer-Thompson (High Jump), Allen (High Jump) all earned second team All-ACC honors. He also coached Ash to the high jump title at the 2019 ACC Indoor Championships. He finished his first season with six All-ACC indoor selections and four All-AC outdoor selections. His 2019 event squad in the women’s long jump was ranked No. 1.

From 2013-18 Petersmeyer was the head track and field coach at San Jose State. During his stint at San Jose State, he guided Destiny Longmire to 14th in the long jump to earn second-team All-America honors in 2018. She was the first San Jose State woman athlete to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the five-year history of the program. The San Jose women’s triple jump crew was ranked No. 1. He also coached a record six San Jose women’s athletes to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Four of his athletes won Mountain West individual titles and in 2015, distance runner Rebecca Garcia was named a Capital One Academic All-America third-team honoree.

He served as an assistant coach at Boise State from 2009-13. Petersmeyer coached three All-Americans, 17 conference champions and guided Kurt Felix to the 2012 NCAA decathlon title.

Petersmeyer was an assistant coach at TCU from 2006-09. He coached Jonathan Jackson to become the first TCU athlete to win league titles in both the long jump and triple jump. Jackson was a back-to-back All-American in 2007-08 under Petersmeyer with a pair ot third-place finishes at the NCAA Championships. He also coached Whitney Gipson and Neidra Covington to All-America honors in 2009. Gipson went on to place third at the 2009 USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships and Covington became a three-time All-American under Petersmeyer. Gipson later went on to set the NCAA women’s indoor record in the long jump.

From 1999-2006 he served as an assistant coach at Baldwin Wallace (2004-06), Columbia (2002-04) and Northern Arizona (1999-02). At Baldwin Wallace he guided his team to an indoor and outdoor conference title, at Columbia he coached the school’s first women’s field event Ivy League champion and at Northern Arizona he helped guide the team to seven Big Sky championships and to five Top 12 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. He was a graduate assistant from 1998-99 at Allegheny College.

Petersmeyer has a long history of coaching athletes to international success. He guided Shelby McEwen to a fifth-place finish in the high jump at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, after claiming the USA high jump title. Petersmeyer coached Roderick Townsend to the gold medal and a world record in the high jump at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. Townsend also earned the silver medal in the long jump. In 2019 he guided Ty Butts to an eighth-place finish in the women’s high jump at the World Championships. In 2017 he was an assistant coach for Team USA at the Para World Championships and led Townsend to a gold in the high jump. He and Townsend teamed up in 2016 at the Rio Paralympic Games and Townsend set an International Paralympics Committee (IPC) world record in the high jump. Petersmeyer was a coach for Grenada at the 2012 London Games and the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, Russia. He coached Kurt Felix to a bronze medal in the decathlon at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland.

Petersmeyer is originally from Delphos, Ohio. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Baldwin Wallace in 1996. He was a two-time NCAA All-American and a nine-time Ohio Athletic Conference champion and the Baldwin Wallace school record-holder in the 400m hurdles. He was inducted into the Baldwin Wallace Athletic Hall of Fame. Petersmeyer also earned a Master’s degree from Northern Arizona in 2002, MBA with Distinction from Manchester Metropolitan in 2022, a Master's of Arts in International History with Distinction from Staffordshire, a Master's of Science in Sports Administration from Louisville and is working on a PhD in History from Southampton.