LOGAN, Utah – Utah State Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Artie Gulden announced the promotion of Erik Rasmussen to Associate Head Coach on Monday.  The track & field program also added two assistant coaches, DeShaun Jordan and Mason Mahaceck, to the staff.

Eric Rasmussen
Rasmussen is entering his 11th year on staff, coaching jumps and combined events during his tenure. In tandem with his previous duties, he will take on additional administrative responsibilities in the new role.

"Erik's done a fantastic job for us, highlighted by Logan Hammer's performances, along with school records and many USU top 10 marks from his athletes," Gulden said. "He's also proven to be super dependable with other aspects of the program such as being our home meet director for the past number of years. Erik's new title will bring with it additional responsibilities that I look forward to watching him tackle."
 
Under Rasmussen's watch, Aggie jumpers and multis athletes have earned five All-American accolades, 16 individual conference championships, and 53 all-conference honors. Rasmussen's student-athletes have combined for four school records with 53 top 10 marks in Utah State's all-time leaderboards, with pole vaulters holding nearly half of USU's highest clearances with 17.

Highlights of Rasmussen's career include the 2025 season, where he coached the Aggie pole vaulters to a podium sweep of the Mountain West Championships, while 19 of his student-athletes cracked Utah State's top 10 rankings over the course of the season. In 2019, he mentored three conference champions and 12 all-conference honorees across six different events.

Aggie pole vaulter Logan Hammer is the most decorated of Rasmussen's pupils, securing Utah State's highest placement in the NCAA Championships since 2001 with his runner-up performance in 2026. In 2024, Hammer and Rasmussen traveled to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials after Hammer eclipsed the MW Conference record and qualified for the USA Track & Field Championships earlier that season.

Prior to Utah State, Rasmussen spent four-year stints at Eastern Washington and BYU, respectively, coaching multiple student-athletes to podium finishes at the NCAA Championships. As an athlete, Rasmussen competed in multiple events at BYU, including the pole vault and decathlon, among others.

DeShaun Jordan
Jordan joins Utah State's staff as an assistant coach, overseeing sprints and hurdles, while Mahacek will take over as throws coach and assist with jumps and multi-events.

"I am super excited to welcome both Mason and DeShaun to the staff," Gulden said. "They both bring a lot of energy and passion for the sport. We are looking to grow and develop our sprints program and jumps/multis group, and they will be vital to that endeavor."
 
Prior to Utah State, Jordan spent eight years on the Illinois State staff, most recently as associate head coach appointed in 2024. Before stepping up to the role, Jordan spent time as an assistant coach starting in 2020 after joining the staff as a graduate assistant in 2018.

Jordan is a three-time Missouri Valley Conference Assistant Coach of the Year recipient, winning the women's indoor and outdoor honors in 2025, and the men's distinction for the 2024 indoor season. He mentored more than 20 student-athletes who were crowned MVC champions along with 49 MVC medal winners. He brought 19 qualifiers to the NCAA West Regionals and helped the Redbirds secure eight team championships during his time in Illinois.

During the 2026 campaign, Jordan's sprinters broke four school records, including the 4x400-meter relay, which featured incoming USU transfer Reece Curtis. Jordan helped 23 individuals and five relay teams clock times on the Redbirds' top 10 leaderboard. At the MVC Indoor Championships, Jordan's student-athletes locked out the women's 60m hurdles and men's 200m. During the outdoor season, Jordan guided Macee Rivers to the NCAA Championships, where she earned an All-American honorable mention in the 100m hurdles.

Before his coaching career, Jordan was a two-time All-MVC sprinter at Illinois State from 2013 to 2018. There, he ran stints on three different 4x100m teams that sit among the Redbirds' top 10 all-time leaderboards.

Mason Mahaceck
Mahacek (pronounced muh-hah-sek) comes to Utah State after spending a season at Idaho State, where he served as the sprints, hurdles, and multis coach in 2025-2026. During his lone season in Pocatello, he coached the Bengals' two fastest men's 4x100m relay teams in school history, along with the top 4x400m team. 

Multi-event athletes saw success under Mahacek, posting nine point-scoring finishes and three podiums at the Big Sky Indoor and Outdoor Championships, highlighted by Tom Stoelken's gold medal performance in the decathlon. Under Mahacek's tutelage, Stoelken etched his name into the Bengals' record books, ranking among the program's top 10 performers in both the decathlon and heptathlon.

Before his coaching career, Mahacek competed at Washington State while pursuing his master's degree in environmental & natural resource sciences. There, he set the program record in the heptathlon in 2024, scoring 5,762 points to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships, where he received Honorable Mention All-American recognition. He later competed at the USATF Indoor Championships.

As an undergraduate, Mahacek attended the University of Michigan, where he set program top 10s in the heptathlon and decathlon. In 2023, he placed fourth in the decathlon at the Big 10 Championships and was a qualifier for the USATF Championships. He set Michigan's freshman heptathlon record in 2020 and was the team's top performer in four different events that season. He went on to lead the team in seven different events during his career.

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