In his eighth season with the Rainbow Wahine track and field program - fourth as associate coach - Garrett Collier has made the Rainbow Wahine throwers a reputable contender in the West Region.
During his tenure at UH, Collier has coached athletes who have broken every school record in the discus, shot put, hammer and weight throw events. His athletes made 15 NCAA Regional appearances and captured 16 medals at both the WAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships.
In recent years, Collier has mentored Novelle Murray to a phenomenal final season both at the conference and national level. During the indoor season, Murray repeated as WAC champion in the weight throw and finished with a school record and NCAA provisional mark of 64-1.75 in 2007.
During the outdoor season, Murray repeated as WAC discus champion for the third time with a lifetime best of 185-2 in 2007. At the WAC Championship, Murray was also the only Rainbow Wahine athlete to triple medal during a conference championship. In the hammer with a second place effort, Murray re-broke her school record with an NCAA regional qualifying mark of 196-1. In the shot put, Murray placed third with a throw of 46-9.5 narrowly missing the NCAA regional qualifying standard.
After success at the WAC championships, Murray placed second at the 2007 NCAA West Regional Championships in Eugene, Ore., and in the process became the highest finisher in school history. With her second place finish, Murray earned a trip to the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif., where she finished in ninth place.
Under Collier, Murray was a three-time WAC discus champion, two-time weight throw champion and tallied a count of 10 conference medals. She was the first Rainbow Wahine athlete to qualify for the NCAA Regional Championships in 2003 during her freshman year.
In 2006, Collier also mentored then-sophomore thrower Meghan Weaver, who is the only athlete to qualify in three field events at the Regional Championships. During that season, Weaver threw 48-7 in the shot put, 156-4 in the discus and 180-4 in the hammer. Later that year, Weaver went on to win the Canadian National Championships in the shot put with a throw of 50-7, also breaking the school record in that event. Weaver also set a UH indoor shot record at the 2006 WAC indoor championships with an effort of 47-4.25.
The UH throwers have also experienced success on the international stage. Murray (also a Canadian Junior Champion) qualified for the World Student Games in Izmur, Turkey. Murray also was a two-time member of the NACAC Canadian team with a third place finish at the 2005 NACAC Championships in the Dominican Republic.
Collier graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002 with a degree in history. He immediately came back to Hawai‘i to work as a graduate assistant with the Rainbow Wahine track and field program. While at Cal, Collier qualified for four Pac-10 Championships and was named team captain for the 2001 season.
As a thrower in the NCAA, he lettered all four years at Cal, finishing third in the Pac-10 Championship in his final year. He has lifetime best throws of 203-6 in the hammer, 170-6 in the discus and 61-4.75 in the 35lb weight.
Honolulu-born, Collier has been excited to help build track and field in Hawai’i and was the director of the 2005 USATF level 1 coaches education school held at the University. Collier himself is Level 1 certified and a member of the National Throws Coaches Association.
As associate coach, Collier also acts as the recruiting coordinator for all event areas. Collier resides in Honolulu with his wife Mareike, who begins her first season a team manager for the track and field program.
