ROLLA, Mo. – Mary Duerbeck, who spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach for the Missouri S&T cross country and track & field programs, is being elevated to the head coaching position for the Miners' men's and women's cross country programs beginning with the 2021 season.

Shaun Meinecke, who has served as the head coach for the cross country programs over the last four seasons, will remain as the head coach of the Missouri S&T track & field programs.

"Coach Duerbeck has been instrumental in developing our men's and women's cross country and track & field teams in her role as an assistant coach," said Missouri S&T director of athletics Melissa Ringhausen. "She is highly respected by the student-athletes and has a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and passion for student-athlete development.  This change is part of a long-range plan to grow these programs by creating more opportunities for students to compete." 

In Duerbeck's four seasons on the staff, the Miners have captured three Great Lakes Valley Conference championships in men's track & field, doing so in the 2018 and 2021 outdoor and 2020 indoor seasons, while also recording five top-four finishes in cross country.  Over the last four seasons, S&T had had seven all-conference performers in cross country and has won 51 All-GLVC honors and 18 conference titles in track & field.

Duerbeck came to S&T from Grand Canyon University, where she spent the 2016-17 season as an assistant coach.  During that year, she helped guide the Lopes' men's and women's teams to Western Athletic Conference championships in the indoor season, as well as a second place finish at the WAC women's outdoor championships while the men's team placed third at that meet.

At the 2017 WAC indoor meet, nine GCU competitors finished among the top three in their respective events and five ended up among the top three at the outdoor championships.  The two teams broke 13 school records and achieved 51 personal bests during course of the two seasons.

Prior to her year at Grand Canyon, Duerbeck spent three years as an assistant coach for the women's cross country and track & field programs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  At UAB, the team established 27 school records and amassed 87 marks that ranked among the top five in school history, while the team's competitors won 12 Conference USA individual championships and had seven All-America award winners – which included a national runner-up finish by Elinor Kirk in the 10,000-meters.

Duerbeck is a native of Chamois, Mo., where she competed on six state championship teams in cross country and track & field at Osage High School.  She began her coaching career as an assistant coach at Butler University and after one year there, she spent a season at McNeese State University and four years at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas before moving on to UAB.

As a competitor at Arizona State University, she was the ninth-ranked runner in NCAA Division I in the 10,000-meters and 26^th among all American women in that event during the 2001 season.  She also competed in a cross country program that went from never competing at the NCAA Championships in that sport to a sixth place national finish in 2000. 

Duerbeck earned her bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Arizona State in 2001 and in her coaching career, has coached over 100 academic all-conference performers and four that have earned Academic All-America honors.