Coaching Staff
Coach Bingham (Pole Vault + Multi's)
This man loves to train champions for Christ.
While serving as Liberty's associate head coach during the 2004-16 seasons, Bingham helped guide Liberty men's and women's track & field teams to a combined 33 conference titles. Bingham has been a part of the Liberty coaching staff for all three IC4A championship seasons (1996, 2007 & 2008) in program history.
In 2009-10, Bingham helped Liberty become only the ninth school in NCAA Division I history to complete a conference "Double Triple." The Flames captured Big South titles in men's cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field, in addition to women's cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field.
During his last time at Liberty, Bingham's coaching responsibilities included the hurdles, pole vault and multi events. During eight of his 12 seasons, Bingham helped Liberty send at least one athlete to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
In 2012, Bingham coached Kolby Shepherd (pole vault) to a tie for fifth place and All-America honors at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Shepherd arrived at Liberty with just a 14-0 high school pole vault personal record.
Off the track, Bingham accompanied Liberty student-athletes on a number of foreign missions trips. During the summers of 2009, 2012 and 2015, he and his wife, Kelly, were part of the Liberty track & field group which traveled to Kenya.
Three of Bingham's charges (Jon Hart, Clendon Henderson and Brandon Hoskins) qualified for the 2008 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Additionally, Henderson took part in the U.S. Olympic Trials that year.
As a result, Bingham was duly recognized as the 2008 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Southeast Regional Men's Assistant Coach of the Year.
Coach KD (Sprints)
AFormer Abilene Christian associate head coach Kristian Dillard has joined the Liberty track & field coaching staff as an assistant, where he will reunite with Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Lance Bingham. Dillard will primarily work with the Flames’ sprinters.
Dillard spent the last five years (2018-23) as a full-time assistant at Abilene Christian, the first two of which were spent under Bingham’s direction. Dillard coached the Wildcats’ sprinters, assisted with the multi-event athletes and oversaw weight training for the sprinters, jumpers and distance runners.
Dillard helped coach Abilene Christian to its first-ever Southland Conference women’s indoor track & field team title in 2021. That meet saw Taylor Tolen race to the women’s 200 title, her first of five individual conference victories. Tolen, who improved her 100 time from 12.04 in high school to 11.34 at ACU, also led the Wildcats to the 2022 WAC women’s 4 x 100 relay crown.
On the men’s side, Dillard also oversaw a considerable amount of relay success. Abilene Christian clocked 3:07.76 for third place at the 2019 Texas Relays 4 x 400 during a stretch of three straight Southland 4 x 400 titles for the Wildcats (2019 indoor, 2019 outdoor and 2020 indoor). Most recently, ACU took fourth place in the 2023 Texas Relays men’s 4 x 200 final.
Dillard also helped guide JJ Ply to an eighth-place finish in the decathlon at the 2022 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Ply became Abilene Christian’s first-ever first team All-American at the NCAA Division I level and recorded a personal-best score of 7,857 at the 2022 Mt. SAC Relays.
Dillard served as a volunteer assistant at Abilene Christian during 2017-18, the year he and wife Aleah first arrived in Abilene to work with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). Prior to that, the Dillards worked for FCA in El Paso, Texas from 2014-16.
A native of Argyle, Texas, Dillard was a sprinter for the UTEP men’s track & field team for two seasons (2012 and 2013). He helped UTEP claim the team title at the 2013 Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and made two NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round appearances (2012 – 4 x 100 and 2013 – 200). Dillard’s top times included 10.74 (100), 21.26 (200) and 48.62 (400).
Coach Venable (Jumps and Hurdles)
Shawn Venable joined the Liberty track & field staff as an assistant coach for jumps and hurdles in the fall of 2016, after spending the previous four seasons at Oral Roberts. In January 2018, he added the title of recruiting coordinator.
In 2020, Jovaine Atkinson and Makenzy Mizera headlined Venable's training group. Atkinson won the ASUN men's 60 hurdles title and ranked No. 18 nationally in the event. Mizera was the ASUN women's long jump champion during a season where she took down program records in both the long jump (19-4.75) and triple jump (41-10.75).
Venable also the rapid development of a trio of men's freshmen. Erick Johnson added a foot to his long jump personal best to win the ASUN title at 23-8.75. Felix Lawrence dropped his 60 hurdles time from 8.21 to 7.95 during the season. Meanwhile, high jump novice Quinten Clay reached 6-8.75.
During 2018, Venable coached Jovaine Atkinson to a fourth-place finish in the NCAA men's 60 hurdles final and a record-breaking time of 7.64. He also helped Darrel Jones close out his collegiate career with a trip to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the men's triple jump. Kimone Green and Branson Rolle swept the Big South women's and men's 400 hurdles title and each qualified for the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet, with Rolle doing so as a true freshman.
Venable enjoyed immediate success at Liberty, as his athletes won six Big South event titles in 2017 and broke six different school records. These included the men's 60 hurdles (Jovaine Atkinson), men's 110 hurdles (Atkinson), men's indoor shuttle hurdles relay, men's indoor triple jump (Darrel Jones), women's indoor triple jump (Janae Jones) and women's 400 hurdles (Mary Witmer).
Coach Wendland (Distance)
Former Liberty standout Isaac Wendland returned the Flames as an assistant track & field/cross country coach in January 2019. In his role, he primarily works with the men's distance runners.
First-year Flame Ryan Drew swept the ASUN indoor men's mile and 3K titles, headlining the distance crew's abbreviated 2020 campaign.
During Wendland's first track & field season on the staff, he coached Felix Kandie (steeplechase) and Azaria Kirwa (10K) to All-America honors at the 2019 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Kandie lowered the program steeplechase record to 8:32.
Since graduating from Liberty in 2013, Wendland gained experience coaching high school runners in the Lynchburg area. For five seasons (2014-18), Wendland worked as an assistant coach for the Jefferson Forest boys' and girls' cross country teams.
Wendland's stellar senior track & field season at Liberty in 2013 took him all the way to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the men's 1,500. That spring, he also won the IC4A men's 1,500 title and swept the Big South men's 800 and 1,500 crowns. Wendland was named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team for the second time in his career (also 2010).
Wendland ranks among Liberty's all-time top five performers for three different events, including the outdoor 1,500 (No. 3, 3:43.91), indoor 1,000 (No. 3, 2:24.74) and outdoor 800 (No. 5, 1:50.22). He was a seven-time All-Big South performer on the track during his career.
Coach Heather Zealand (DISTANCE)
Liberty Athletics Hall of Famer and All-American Heather Zealand is returning to her alma mater as a track & field/cross country assistant coach. This marks Zealand’s second stint on the Liberty track & field/cross country staff, as she previously spent nine years (2002-11) as an assistant.
In her role, Zealand primarly works with the Liberty women’s distance runners, who made the program’s first-ever appearance at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships this past season.
During her previous time coaching at Liberty, Zealand helped guide the Liberty men’s and women’s cross country squads to 10 Big South Conference titles. She also oversaw the Liberty teams which recorded the program’s best-ever finishes at the NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships (men – fifth in 2007 and 2008 and women – seventh in 2007).
Zealand captured Liberty’s first NCAA Division I national title in any sport, racing to victory in the women’s mile at the 2002 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. That was one of two All-America honors she earned during her collegiate career, also including a runner-up finish in the women’s 1,500 at the 2002 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Zealand was a 14-time Big South champion and became the first Lady Flame ever to win an ECAC event title (2002 indoor mile). As a senior in 2002, she became the first collegiate athlete since 1987 to capture the Olympic Development mile title at the Penn Relays. Zealand still owns four program records, headlined by her clockings in the outdoor 1,500 (4:14.71) and indoor mile (4:38.52).
Zealand was also a standout in the classroom, graduating in 2002 with a 3.88 GPA as a secondary education major. She was named to the 2002 CoSIDA Academic All-America women’s cross country/track & field squad and was the 2002 USTFCCCA Division I Women’s Track & Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Zealand was additionally named 2002 Virginia NCAA Woman of the Year and Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
After graduation, Zealand represented the United States at the 2003 World Cross Country Championships and made the women’s 1,500 finals at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. She was inducted into the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
Zealand is married to former Liberty men’s track & field/cross country runner Josh Zealand. The couple has four children—Allie, William, Piper and Owen.