ANDREA BLACKETT

Andrea Blackett, named 2023 Indoor National Assistant Coach of the Year, joined the coaching staff of Azusa Pacific track and field after spending 2017 coaching at UCLA, coaching sprints and hurdles for the Cougars.

Blackett previously coached at her alma mater Rice, where she was one of the most successful women's track and field athletes in program history. She coached at Rice for 10 years, serving as a volunteer assistant her first five years.In 2021, Blackett was named the national women’s assistant coach of the year by the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as the Cougars won the 2021 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field national championship, the school’s first NCAA national team title in any sport. She coached two individual national champions in Mechaela Hyacinth (100m) and Jaylah Walker (400m hurdles).

During the 2020 indoor season, Blackett was the West Region Assistant Coach of the Year qualified a total of five student-athletes for the 2020 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships. Two Cougars qualified in individual events, Mechaela Hyacinth and Jaylah Walker. Hyacinth was an automatic qualifier in the 60 meters, as she ran a time of 7.39 in early December that was the second-fastest time ran in Division II this season. Walker qualified for Nationals in the 400 meters, after running a provisional time of 54.98 that was fast enough to make the field of competitors.

In addition to the individual events, Blackett also coached the 4x400 relay team that qualified for Nationals competition. The relay team of Walker, Kiayra Holmes, Ki'Ana Thomas, and Meagan Warwick ran a provisional time of 3:46.62 to make the field.

Blackett was a two-time Olympian, competing for Barbados in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games during an 11-year professional career. She represented Barbados in six IAAF World Championships between 1997 and 2007, competing individually in the 400m hurdles as well as the 4x400 relay, and she qualified for the final four times in the 400m hurdles with a career-best fourth-place finish in 1999. She competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, qualifying for the semifinal of the 400m hurdles, and she competed in the 400m hurdles at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Blackett has a personal best of 53.36 in the 400m hurdles, which is also a national record for Barbados. She also set the Barbados 100m hurdles record of 13.39 in 2003.

In 2008, Blackett retired from international competition but still made her third Olympic appearance for Barbados by serving her native country as its head track and field coach at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As a collegiate coach for Rice in 2007, Blackett was responsible for the development of freshman Shakera Reece, who set a school-record in the 100 meters (11.34), and she also coached Chandra Ewing to a Conference USA title in the 400m hurdles, an event Blackett dominated in her competitive career at Rice from 1994-97.

During that time, Reece set Rice records in both the 100m and 400m hurdles. She joined Melissa Straker, TaNisha Mills and Margaret Fox in the 4x400m relay to win the first NCAA indoor relay title for the Owls in 1997, setting a school record of 3:34.44.

As a collegiate athlete, Blackett was a six-time All-American for Rice, including back-to-back All-American performances in the 400m hurdles in 1996 and 1997. She qualified for the NCAA championships all four years of her collegiate career. She still holds the school record in the 400m outdoor hurdles, as well as the indoor hurdle mark for the 55m.

Blackett was inducted into the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame individually in 2005 and again in 2007 as a member of the 1997 NCAA champion 4x400 relay.

Blackett graduated from Rice in 1997 and went on to earn a master's degree in hotel management from the University of Houston.