Cutter Bernhard - Women's Track & Field Coach

Cutter Bernhard

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
Cutter.Bernhard@rice.edu

Cutter Bernhard enters his third season with the Rice women's track and field team in 2025-26. With the Owls, Bernhard works with the multis and jumps.

During his second season with the Owls, Alice Taylor returned to the NCAA Championship meet, where she earned Honorable Mention All-American honors for the high jump. Bernhard also developed Julia Johannesdottir, who earned a podium trip with a third-place finish at the AAC Outdoor meet in the heptathlon and was sixth at the AAC Indoor meet for the pentathlon.

In his first season at Rice in 2024, Bernhard saw tremendous success on the track. During the indoor season, Eliza Kraule set a school record in the 60m hurdles and the pentathlon. She won the pentathlon title at the AAC Championships and later placed fifth in the nation at the NCAA Championships, earning First Team All-American honors.

During the outdoor season, Kraule claimed the AAC title in the heptathlon, while Josie Taylor claimed the high jump title. Kaule broke the heptathlon record while Josie Taylor and Alice Taylor continued to break each other's records in the high jump, with Alice Taylor's clearance of 1.91m in the heptathlon at the AAC meet holding as the new record. Kraule and Alice Taylor advanced to the NCAA Championships, where Alice finished ninth, earning Second Team All-American honors, and Kraule finished 20th to earn Honorable Mention All-American honors.

Bernhard joined the Owls after spending 15 seasons at Sam Houston from being a student-athlete (pole vault) from 2008-13, a graduate assistant for the track and field program from 2013-16 and spending the last seven years as an assistant coach.

He was responsible for recruiting and all phases of coaching the men's and women's combined events and vertical jumps. During his seven years he helped produce three Top 3 NCAA Division I Championships finishers, seven NCAA First Team All-Americans (only men's qualifiers in program history), 24 NCAA West Preliminary Qualifiers and 40 All-Conference performances.

As assistant coach at Sam Houston, the Bearkats captured 12 team titles, seven men and five women, in the Southland Conference with the most recent being the 2019 men's outdoor title. Sam Houston was also team runner-up on 10 times, with the most recent being on the women's side at the 2023 Western Athletic Conference Indoor Championships.

The most recent coaching success from Bernhard is shown through Clayton Fritsch, who went from a clearance of 4.98m (16-04) in pole vault to a clearance of 5.80m (19-0.25) under Bernhard's coaching. Fritsch is the current school record holder at Sam Houston for indoor pole vault (5.73m) and outdoor pole vault (5.80m). He is a two-time Southland Conference champion (outdoor-2018, indoor-2021), two-time WAC Champion (indoor/outdoor-2022), four-time NCAA West Prelim qualifier and eight-time NCAA Championships qualifier (four indoor, four outdoor). He was the NCAA runner-up in pole vault in 2022 while finishing third at the NCAA Indoor meet. He also had a fourth-place finish at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships and a third-place finish at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Another coaching success for Bernhard is shown through Tyler Adams, who saw his heptathlon score jump from 5277 points to 6081 points under Bernhard's coaching. Adams has two records at Sam Houston with the heptathlon (6081 points) and indoor high jump (2.20m - 7-2.50). He is a four-time Southland Conference champion and won three event titles at the 2018 Indoor Southland Championships (heptathlon, high jump, long jump), earning Adams the 2018 Southland Conference Indoor Men's Track Athlete of the Year. Adams also finished third at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships in the heptathlon while also finishing 10th in high jump.

As a member of the Bearkats track & field team, he registered five top-10 finishes at the Southland Conference Championships. As a senior in 2012, he placed sixth at the Outdoor SLC Championships jumping 16-0.75. During his career, Bernhard served as a team captain for three seasons and a member of the Student Athlete Advisement Committee for three years.