Paul Thornton - Assistant Coach - Multis - Track & Field Coaches

Paul Thornton

Title:
Assistant Coach - Multis
Email:
pwthornton@ku.edu
Phone:
864-3486

Bio

Paul Thornton is in his eighth season with the Kansas track & field program during the 2025-26 seasons after being hired in September of 2018 by head coach Stanley Redwine. Thornton serves as an assistant coach for the Jayhawk track & field squads where he works with the combined events athletes.

In his first seven seasons, Thornton has led the Jayhawks to success in the horizontal jumps and combined events with 11 All-American awards achieved, two Big 12 Conference individual champions (Alex Jung, outdoor decathlon and Cordell Tinch, 110-meter hurdles) and one Freshman of the Year in Tinch.

Thornton guided Jung to an outstanding career at Kansas that consisted of the best performance in school history in the decathlon. At the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship Jung scored 7,746 points, placing seventh overall and breaking his own school record. Jung owns six of the school’s top-10 decathlon performances. In addition, Jung is the Kansas heptathlon record holder with 5,797 points as well as seven of the top-10 marks in school history.

Andover, Kansas, native Taylor Klein looks to take over the combined events for Kansas with Jung’s graduation. The senior has qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in each of his first three seasons as a Jayhawk in the decathlon. He has also earned a spot at the national meet in the long jump with a notable performance of 7.70m (25-3.25 ft.). He, too, owns three of the top-10 decathlon performances in school history.

In his first year at KU, the horizontal jumps took a big leap under Thornton, including Treyvon Ferguson’s 10th place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the triple jump, where the freshman jumped 16.18m (53-01 ft.) to earn second team All-American honors. From there, Ferguson went on to win the triple jump at the USATF U20 Outdoor Championships by leaping 16.13m (52-11 ft.) under Thornton’s guidance.

Thornton comes to Kansas after 10 years at Minnesota coaching the men’s sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers and multi-event athletes, the last two of which he held the title of associate head coach. In his decade with the Gophers, Thornton coached student-athletes to a total of 56 All-America honors and 16 individual Big Ten titles, including 2015 NCAA heptathlon champion, two-time First Team All-American and Minnesota school heptathlon record holder Luca Wieland. He was also heavily involved in developing the most decorated All-American in Minnesota program history, Harun Abda, who earned 13 All-American accolades as well as six Big Ten titles while also breaking six school records.

While with the Gophers, Thornton helped the team to three-straight Big Ten indoor titles from 2009-11, as well as back-to-back Big Ten outdoor titles in 2009 and 2010. During his second season in Minneapolis, Thornton was named the Midwest Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for the indoor season.

A native of Northfield, Minnesota, Thornton took the job with the Gophers track & field program after spending five years as the head men’s and women’s track & field coach at NCAA Division III power Washington University in St. Louis. While at the helm of the Bears’ program, he led the women’s team to a third-place finish at the 2008 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships which helped earn him USTFCCCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year honors.

Washington won 14 University Athletic Association (UAA) team titles, with the women’s team capturing UAA titles in nine of the 10 total championships under Thornton’s tutelage. The Bears swept the men’s and women’s UAA team titles three years in a row from 2005-07.

Thornton started his coaching career at Illinois State, first as a graduate assistant before being promoted to assistant coach and eventually associate head coach for four seasons (1996-2000). He then moved on to St. Mary’s (Minn.), where he spent three seasons as the head men’s and women’s track & field coach prior to his time at Washington.

Before his coaching career began, Thornton was a three-time Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Association honoree as a member of the track & field team at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He helped the Oles’ 4×400-meter relay team to an NCAA Championships appearance in 1993 and was voted the team’s most valuable runner that season. Thornton earned four varsity letters in both cross country and track & field at St. Olaf while being coached by his father, Bill.

Thornton earned a bachelor’s degree in sports science in 1993 from St. Olaf and a master’s degree in exercise physiology and biomechanics from Illinois State in 1995. He and his wife, Dr. Julie, have been married for 31 years. The couple has two children, Marissa (27) and Zach (23). Marissa, an interior designer, is married to Jackson Cloud, a commercial airline pilot. In 2023, Zach was a fifth-round pick of the New York Mets organization. The southpaw is currently climbing the ranks of the minor league. In his spare time, Thornton enjoys playing golf and mowing his lawn.

THE THORNTON FILE
Alma Mater: St. Olaf, 1993; Illinois State, 1995
Experience: Eighth season at Kansas
Wife: Julie, Ed.D
Children: Marissa (27), Zach (23)

COACHING EXPERIENCE
2018-Current, Kansas (Men's and Women's Multi-Events)
2009-18, Minnesota (Men's Associate Head Coach - Sprinters, Hurdlers, Jumpers, Multis)
2004-08, Washington University in St. Louis (Men's and Women's Head Track & Field Coach)
2001-03, St. Mary's (Minn.) (Men's and Women's Head Track & Field Coach)
1993-2000, Illinois State (Associate Head Coach)