Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Cross Country & Track
- Title:
- Assistant Coach - Throws/ Multis/ Vault
- Email:
- josh.langley@okstate.edu
- Phone:
- (405) 744-8765
Josh Langley came to Stillwater from North Carolina, where he was the assistant head coach, specializing in multi-events, javelin and pole vault, as well as throwing events. In the summer of 2023 after seven years with Oklahoma State, Langley was promoted from assistant coach to associate head coach and oversees multis, throws and vaults at OSU.
Langley’s work with the Pokes has redefined what it means for multis athletes and throws events specialists to compete at Oklahoma State. He has coached Cowgirl great Bailey Golden to three straight appearances at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, becoming the first woman in program history to accomplish that feat in the Heptathlon. Golden earned the program’s first All-America honor in the event in 2024 with her sixth-place finish at the national meet.
During her time with OSU, Golden would break four school records and left the program still holding three of them (indoor and outdoor Long Jump and Heptathlon). At the Big 12 Indoor Championships in 2023, Golden completed a Herculean effort as she competed in seven events overall, scoring a combined 21 points to help the Cowgirls secure their first-ever track & field conference title.
Olivija Vaitaityte also qualified for her second NCAA Outdoor Championships and first NCAA Indoor Championships in 2024, becoming the first Cowgirl multi to qualify for both the indoor and outdoor championships. Vaitaityte earned a pair of second team All-America honors and broke the school record in the Pentathlon with her mark of 4,162 points at the Razorback Invitational.
Since joining the Cowgirl program, Vaitaityte has become a five-time All-Big 12 honoree (2x Pentathlon, 3x Heptathlon) in addition to her pair of second team All-America finishes at the national championships. She was also the highest-scoring freshman in the NCAA at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Internationally, Vaitaityte represented Lithuania on the Under-23 National Team.
On the men’s side, he guided Texas transfer Philip Frank to a pair of All-Big 12 finishes in the Heptathlon and Decathlon in 2024 to add to his All-Big 12 honor in the Dec in 2023. Frank left the Cowboy program holding both school records in the Hep and Dec with marks of 5,687 and 7,450, respectively. His Heptathlon score of 5,687 points at the 2024 Big 12 Indoor Championships earned him a second-place finish overall, which was the best-ever finish at the conference meet by a Cowboy multi.
In the throws ring, Rachel Neaves burst onto the scene during her true freshman campaign in 2023, finishing as the third-highest freshman at the NCAA West Prelims with a throw of 60.28 meters in the Hammer. Her toss ranked as the third longest in Cowgirl history at the time. From there, Neaves would go on to improve that mark to 60.86 meters during her sophomore season that culminated in a third-place finish at the Big 12 Championships in the Hammer Throw.
Hannah Bradford wrapped up her storied career with the Cowgirls in 2023 with her best campaign yet, qualifying for the NCAA West Prelims in both the Discus and Hammer Throws in her final season. Bradford finished as a three-time All-Big 12 honoree in the Weight and Hammer Throws and owns three marks inside the top 10 on OSU’s all-time list (Weight, Hammer and Discus Throw).
On the men’s side, Sam Mason has developed himself into one of the best all-around throwers in program history during his time with the Cowboys. Heading into his senior season, Mason is a six-time All-Big 12 honoree across three separate events (Weight, Discus and Hammer Throw). He also holds top 10 marks in all three events including the No. 2 spot in the Weight and Hammer Throws, behind only Cowboy Olympian Nick Miller.
Mason’s teammate Zac Robbins has also turned into one of the best throwers in program history under Langley’s tutelage. Robbins is an All-Big 12 honoree in the Weight Throw and sits third on OSU’s all-time list in the Weight and Hammer Throws.
During the 2021-22 season, Langley guided Golden and Olivija Vaitaityte to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, becoming the first two Cowgirls to ever qualify for the national meet in the Heptathlon.
Golden, Vaitaityte and Maddie Meiner boosted the Cowgirl multi program into the national spotlight as all three qualified for NCAAs as underclassmen. Each of the three held the school record in the Pentathlon at some point, with the trio being the only three Cowgirl multis in program history to break the 4,000 point mark in the Pentathlon. During the 2022 season, OSU was the only school in the country to have three different women qualify for NCAAs in the multis events.
Quick to make an impact upon her arrival in Stillwater in 2020, Ariadni Adamopoulou quickly rose to the top of the Cowgirl history in the pole vault. The then-freshman from Athens, Greece, in the second collegiate meet of her career, earned the title No. 1 all-time Cowgirl in the event. On account of Langley’s tutelage, Adamopoulou went on to best her own school record on four separate occasions; she set the record at a towering 4.37m and earned First Team Indoor All-American Honors as the fifth-place finisher at the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championship. Following her time with the Cowgirls, Adamopoulou would go on to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in the Pole Vault, where she placed 20th overall.
Langley aided Washington State transfer Kelsey Kehl to a Big 12 title in the javelin throw in her first and only year in the orange and black. Kehl broke the program record during the 2021 regular season, then bested her own mark later that same season, solidifying her name and a 50.57m mark atop the Cowgirls’ all-time list. Her claim to the Big 12 javelin crown came courtesy of a 50.03m throw.
Langley coached a pair of Cowboy multis in William Edmonds and Max Braht to All-Big 12 Honors in the heptathlon at the indoor conference championships in 2021. In the process of their podium-worthy performances, both Edmonds and Braht finished with top 10 all-time performances in program history in the event.
Langley was also able to guide Braht to a program record of his own: the javelin specialist claimed a school record in the javelin throw as a part of the men’s decathlon during the 2021 regular season.
However, Braht would return for his senior season and rewrite the record books under Langley’s leadership. He became the program’s greatest multi-event athlete at the time after setting the school record in the indoor Heptathlon and outdoor Decathlon during the 2022 season to go alongside his Javelin record.
During his time at Oklahoma State, he has helped Blake Scott earn second-team All-American status in the Pole Vault. Scott became the first Cowboy to earn All-American honors in that event since Cowboy great Joe Dial did so in 1986.
During the 2019 outdoor season, Langley led Scott back to the NCAA West Regional for the second consecutive year. Scott also earned two all-conference honors under Langley’s watch in 2019.
Langley guided Torrey Hickel to a breakout season in the 2019 outdoor campaign where Hickel earned all-conference honors in the shot put. Langley led Hickel and Michael Releford to the 2021 NCAA West Preliminary Championships; the duo became the first two first round qualifiers in the same throwing event in program history.
Three of the four multi-athlete events saw school-record performances in 2019 under Langley as well.
He has also guided the Cowgirls to national success. In 2017, Langley coached Ieva Zarankaite to an Honorable Mention All-American honor in the discus. Following her collegiate career with OSU, Zarankaite went onto become a two-time World Championship qualifier and 2024 Olympic qualifier representing her home country of Lithuania.
Before coming to Stillwater, Langley was on the staff at North Carolina, where he was honored as the 2015 USTFCCCA Southeast Region Women’s Coach of the Year for the indoor season. During that banner year for Langley, he coached Xenia Rahn, who scored 4,450 points in the pentathlon en route to a 3rd place finish at the NCAA Championships. Rahn’s mark ranked as the 7th-highest in NCAA history at the time. During the outdoor season, she would break the ACC Record at the time in the heptathlon with a score of 6,057.
Rahn would later go onto make the Thorpe Cup team for Germany in 2015.
Langley and his athletes were huge staples for the UNC program, earning 44.5 of the Tar Heel women’s team’s 62.5 points at the ACC Indoor Championships back in 2015.
All-in-all, during the 2015 seasons, he coached two athletes to three ACC titles in the women’s pentathlon and heptathlon, and the men’s heptathlon.
Langley served as the Acting Head Coach in 2012 of the Tar Heels’ program. In his debut season with the Tar Heels, two of Langley’s pupils earned All-America honors in the decathlon.
Kwabena Keene broke the Ghanian national record in both the Shot Put and Discus Throw while at UNC and later competed at the African Championships.
Langley also coached former MiLB player Houston Summers to three All-ACC honors in the Javelin, where he finished with a personal-best throw of 71.01 meters.
In the Pole Vault, Parker Smith was a five-time All-ACC performer as well as a two-time All-American under Langley. Sandi Morris was also a three-time All-American in the Pole Vault while coached by Langley, including a silver medal at the Pan American Championships.
Prior to his time at UNC, Langley spent three seasons at Clemson and two at Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.
At Clemson, he coached the men’s field events, all multi-events and the men’s and women’s pole vault. He had athletes qualify for the NCAA Championships in each year of his tenure, including Mitch Greeley, who finished as the national runner-up and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2008.
While with the Tigers, Langley found a star at an unlikely place. He saw Kat Majester cheering on the sidelines at a football game and convinced her to try out pole vaulting. Majester went on to finish fifth at the U.S. Olympic Trials just three years after learning how to vault.
Back in 2007, Langley received USTFCCCA honors for the first time as he was named the East Region’s Coach of the Year.
While at Gardner-Webb, Langley coached Cody MacArthur, who was named Field Event Performer of the Meet at the 2006 Atlantic Sun Championships after scoring 32 points in the throws events.
Langley earned his master’s degree in Sports Science – Pedagogy from Gardner-Webb in 2005 while he was an assistant coach for the Bulldogs and helped them to the 2006 Atlantic Sun Conference men’s outdoor crown, with his men’s throwers scoring 92 points. He graduated from Western Carolina in 2003, where he was also a javelin thrower and a part of two conference titles. Langley is married to Layna, a former WCU volleyball standout, and they have three kids: Jayden, RJ and Lilly.
