Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Cross Country & Track
- Title:
- Assistant Coach - Sprints
- Email:
- diego.flaquer@okstate.edu
Diego Flaquer is in his third year as the Oklahoma State sprints coach.
Flaquer contiued the upward trend of the Oklahoma State Sprints program during the 2014-15 season, highlighted by an impressive season by John Teeters. Teeters set the school record 6.52 in the 60-meter dash, a time that was the fastest in the NCAA, third fastest in the United States and sixth fastest in the world for the year. Teeters finished runner-up in the event at the NCAA Indoor Championships and was an All-Big 12 performer in the 60, 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x100. All told, 11 different athletes between the men’s and women’s teams earned 21 all-conference honors under Flaquer’s guidance last season.
In his first year at OSU, the Cowboys had one of their best sprint seasons in recent memory. Under Flaquer’s guidance, Tyreek Hill set school records in the indoor 60 meters and 200 meters, claiming the conference title in the 200 and finishing as runner up in the 60, where he was joined as an All-Big 12 performer by John Teeters. Hill also finished as an All-American in the 200 meters with a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Teeters was also an all-conference performer in the 100 meters at the 2014 Big 12 Outdoor Championships, and followed that by winning the NCAA West Preliminaries and earning honorable mention All-American honors at NCAAs.
Prior to OSU, Flaquer spent three years as an assistant coach and one as a graduate assistant at Auburn, primarily responsible for the horizontal jumpers. He also assisted Auburn head coach Ralph Spry with Auburn’s nationally recognized sprint group.
In 2013, the Auburn men’s 4x100m relay finished third at the NCAA Championships for the second-straight year. Sprinters Marcus Rowland and Harry Adams finished second and fourth in the 60 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships and also qualified for the U.S. Track and Field Championships in the 100 and 200 meters.
In the jumps, Flaquer guided Siobhan Ford-Holland to a personal best in the triple jump at the SEC Outdoor Championships and her first career berth to the NCAA Outdoor Championships at the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
During 2012 while working with Flaquer, Auburn men’s sprinter Harry Adams posted the top wind-legal marks in both the 100 and 200 meters, including a school-record run of 9.96 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
In 2011, Flaquer was as an assistant coach with the Colombian National Team during the Junior Pan-American Games in Miramar, Fla. Flaquer worked specifically with the sprinters and jumpers. Under his coaching, Colombia brought home three gold medals and one silver.
Prior to his second stint at Auburn, Flaquer coached sprinters and hurdlers at Samford.He coached Morgan Tyler to the SoCon indoor title in the 60-meter hurdleswhile leading the Bulldogs to third-place finishes at both the indoor and outdoor SoCon championships for the 2009-10 season.
Flaquer coached at Troy University in 2008, where he helped his team finish third at the Sunbelt Conference Championships. He coached Desmond Brown, who broke a 20-year-old Troy school record in the 400-meter hurdles and qualified for the Mideast Regional Championships, as well as Leander McKenzie, who broke the school record in the 110-meter hurdles. Flaquer also assisted in the development of Tawanna Meadows, who qualified for the NCAA championships and the Olympic trials in the 100 meters.
Flaquer also coached Sun Belt Conference long jump champion O’Darien Bassett. Bassett went on to win the Mideast Region with a school-record jump of 7.94m, and he would go on to finish 10th at the 2008 USA Olympic Trials with a jump of 7.89m.
In 2006, Flaquer was the head sprints and jumps coach at his alma mater, Virginia Intermont College. That year, he was selected as the NAIA National Assistant Coach of the Year for the sprints area in the indoor season after helping the Cobras to a runner-up finish at the 2006 NAIA Championships.
In 2007, he served as the Virginia Intermont’s interim head coach and had several All-Americans. He also assisted in three consecutive NAIA Cross Country National titles, and served as the interim head coach at the 2007 NAIA Outdoor Championships, where the team finished sixth.
Flaquer is the son of Pedro Grajales, a two-time Olympian in the 400 meters and a previous coach for the Colombian national team. The national stadium in his hometown of Cali is named in his honor. Flaquer, a native of Samson, Ala., graduated from Virginia Intermont College in 2007 with a degree in health and physical education.
