Mary Duerbeck just completed her second season as the head coach for the men's and women's cross country programs and led the teams to solid finishes at the GLVC Championships during the 2022 campaign.
Missouri S&T's men's team finished third at the GLVC Championships to match its highest-ever finish as a member of the conference and had three individuals earn All-GLVC honors, the first time the Miners had three in one season in the conference. All three -- Hayes Pateidl, Andrew Lofgren and Lucas Rackers -- finished among the top 10 overall at the meet. Meanwhile, S&T's women's team rose two spots to sixth in the GLVC in the 2022 season.
Duerbeck also serves an assistant coach for the S&T track & field programs working with the distance runners and will be in her sixth year in that role during the 2022-23 season.
"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."
In Duerbeck's time on the staff, the Miners have captured four Great Lakes Valley Conference championships in men's track & field, doing so in the 2018, 2021 and 2022 outdoor seasons as well as winning the 2020 indoor title. She has also helped guide the Miners to six top-four finishes in cross country between the two programs. Over the last five-plus seasons, S&T had had 10 all-conference performers in cross country and has won 66 All-GLVC honors and 22 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 26th 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.
