Juris Silenieks was named assistant coach for RMU cross country and track & field in October of 2022.
"We couldn't be happier to add Juris to the RMU cross country and track & field program as an assistant coach," RMU head coach Bryan Delsite said at the time of his appointment. "Juris has a wide range of experience both as a coach as well as during his time competing at collegiate, regional and national levels, and I know he's going to be a huge boost for our student-athletes. We have a young group of distance runners with a lot of potential, and I can't wait to watch them develop under his guidance."
In his first year with the cross country programs, Silenieks made an immediate impact, tutoring Skyler Vavro for the men and Grace Mason for the women as they developed into the top harriers for the Colonials. Vavro earned a top 15 finish at the 2022 #HLXC Championships to earn All-Horizon League honors, the first student-athlete in program history to garner postseason honors from the league. Mason, meanwhile, in addition to her breakout season in cross country, established a new school record in the 800-meter with a time of 2:15.09 at the 2023 #HLTF Outdoor Championships. She broke a record that had stood for almost 20 years.
Silenieks, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., joined the RMU coaching staff after spending 2021 as an assistant coach Pine-Richland High School, where he facilitated daily workouts and strength routines to help maximize performance.
In February of 2021, Silenieks founded The Pittsburgh Track Club, which supports the grow of the Pittsburgh running community by building partnerships with local businesses to provide support for elite athletes in the region. Also as part of The Pittsburgh Track Club, Silenieks helped create cross country and track & field opportunities at inner city schools in Pittsburgh and also coached elite team members to qualifying marks for the Olympic Trials.
During the 2020-21 academic year, Silenieks served as the cross country head coach at Southwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac, Mich., recruiting student-athletes, organizing training routines and arranging travel for a program that has claimed 23 Michigan Community College Athletic Association (MCCAA) titles as well as five junior college national championships.
A 2016 graduate of Syracuse University, Silenieks earned a Bachelor of Science in exercise science with a minor in food studies. While a student-athlete with the Orange, Silenieks was a member of the cross country squad that claimed the 2015 NCAA national championship. A member of the 2015 All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Academic Team, Silenieks also qualified for the 2020 Olympic Trials in the marathon.
Silenieks is in his second stint with the Colonials, as he began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at RMU from 2016 to 2018. During that stretch he helped develop Maggie Prorok (2014-17), who earned 2016 All-Northeast Conference accolades after finishing fourth at the NEC Cross Country Championships and also owns one of the top 10 times in program history for track & field in the 10,000-meter.
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