Vincent Walker was hired as the distance coach and head cross country coach in April 2022, was named Interim Director of Track & Field and Cross Country in July 2022 and had the interim tag removed from his title in March 2023.
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During the 2025 cross country season, Walker coached Karson Hollander, who became just the fifth Valpo runner to earn first team all-conference honors in the program’s Division-I history. Hollander, who had top-10 finishes in each of his first five races of the season, was named the MVC Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the first Valpo runner to earn that distinction.
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Walker led the men’s and women’s programs to their best-ever NCAA Regional finishes in 2025 and guided the women’s squad to its best conference-championship finish since 2014. The men’s team was ranked 15th in the final Great Lakes Region U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association 2025 rankings, marking just the second time in program history and first since 2019 that the Valpo men were regionally ranked.
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The 2025 cross country season featured five program record book entries. Through 2025, eight of the top 10 men’s 10k times in program history have come since Walker took over the program prior to the 2022 season. Five of the top six men’s 8k times have come during the Walker Era.
The cross country and track & field programs boasted 46 entries into the program record book during the 2024-25 season (eight cross country, 23 indoor track & field, 15 outdoor track & field; 23 men’s, 23 women’s) including nine program records (seven men’s, two women’s; two cross country, six indoor track & field, one outdoor track & field). The program turned in conference championship point scorers in the indoor long jump, outdoor javelin, outdoor long jump, outdoor decathlon and outdoor 4x100 relay.
The cross country and track & field programs totaled 37 entries into the program record book and 10 program records during a strong 2023-24 campaign. The men’s track & field team scored 31 points at the Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Championships, the program’s highest total in a conference championship (indoor or outdoor) since joining the league. Walker oversaw 32 all-time top five times/marks in track & field including nine program records (two women, seven men; five indoor, four outdoor) while coaching Micah Mullings (indoor long jump, indoor triple jump) and Ethan Litavecz (outdoor javelin) to All-MVC honors and podium finishes at the league championships.
During the 2023 cross country season, Walker instructed Evan Walda, who established new program records in both the 8K (24:22.9, Bradley Pink Classic) and 10K (31:13.1, NCAA Regional). During the NCAA Regional meet, three Valpo men finished ahead of the previous 10K program record and now rank one through three in program history – Walda, Simeon Ehm (31:19.8) and Joseph Scheele (31:28.4). Walda, who earned All-MVC Honorable Mention based on his 13th-place finish at the MVC Championship, was named the MVC Runner of the Week on Sept. 6, becoming the first Valpo runner to earn that award since joining the MVC and first in any conference since 2014. Grace Aurand became the first Valpo woman in nearly a decade to crack the all-time top five in the 6K on Oct. 27 at the MVC Championship.
Under Walker’s guidance, Valpo boasted 15 performances that ranked in the top five in program history during the 2023 indoor track & field season, including four program records – Ignacio Veloz Bonilla in the 800 (1:51.70), Veloz Bonilla in the 3,000 (8:15.19), Evan Walda in the 5,000 (14:38.04) and Rhena Kiger in the pentathlon (2,577). At the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships, the Valpo men had their highest finish since joining the league.
During the 2023 outdoor season, Veloz Bonilla shattered a program record in the 800-meter run (1:50.52) to highlight seven entries in the men’s program record book and nine total additions to the men’s and women’s program record books (all-time top 5). Freshman Micah Mullings achieved All-MVC honors in the high jump to help the men’s team exceed pre-championship poll expectations at the MVC Outdoor Championships. This was the first time since joining The Valley that the Valpo men finished ahead of multiple teams at the MVC Outdoor Championships.
Walker’s first cross country season at the helm was also a memorable one, as the Beacon men boasted the highest NCAA Regional finish in program history. During that event, five Valpo men cracked the program record book in the 10K, with Walker’s group accounting for five of the seven best 10K times in program history. The Bradley Pink Classic marked another highlight of the cross country docket, as four Beacons (three men in the 8K and one woman in the 6K) turned in all-time top-10 times, including the second and third fastest 8K performances in Valpo men’s cross country history.
Walker made an immediate impact on the distance group during the 2022 track & field season. His first spring with the team culminated with Veloz Bonilla placing third in the 1,500-meter run at the Puerto Rico National Championships.
Walker came to Valpo after gaining experience in the Big Ten Conference at the University of Minnesota, where he had served as an assistant cross country and track & field coach since 2018. He began his coaching career in the Missouri Valley Conference, where he was part of the cross country and track & field staffs at his alma mater, Southern Illinois University, from 2016 to 2018.
During his time at Minnesota, the program boasted eight NCAA First-Team All-Americans, two Olympic Trials qualifiers, two USA Championship qualifiers, one NCAA indoor national runner-up, 19 NCAA Division-I First Round qualifiers, four Big Ten champions, three Big Ten team championships, 14 All-Big Ten honorees, six NCAA cross country national team qualifiers, 14 NCAA cross country all-region honorees, two Big Ten cross country champions, four All-Big Ten cross country honors, two Big Ten Cross Country Athletes of the Year, one Midwest Region Track Athlete of the Year, one NCAA Elite 20 Award, one Midwest Region Cross Country Athlete of the Year, one NCAA Elite 90 Award and five school records.
During his stint at SIU, Walker instructed two MVC runner-up teams, two NCAA Division-I first-round qualifiers, one MVC track & field champion, four MVC runners-up, four MVC all-conference honorees, one NCAA all-region honoree and four MVC Elite 18 award winners.
Walker graduated from Southern Illinois in May 2017 with a degree in university studies and a minor in coaching and philosophy. His high school alma mater is LaSalle-Peru Township in La Salle, Ill.
