Concordia University Chicago
Track & Field Camp of Champions
Additional Camp Staff May Include
Andrew Tirmenstein
Assistant Men's Track & Field Coach
Andrew Tirmenstein has coached four seasons as an assistant coach for the track team, working with horizontal jumps and hurdles.
Tirmenstein now coaches full-time at CUC, and is excited about his additional responsibilities with the team. "I look forward to seeing where this program could go in the next couple of years."
"I am very excited to have the chance to work with this coaching staff and these athletes," says the former Cougar. "I look forward to seeing where this program could go in the next couple of years."
Tirmenstein returned to his alma mater after serving as an assistant coach for two years at Walther Lutheran High School. In 2005, he took two seniors to the Illinois state meet in the long and triple jump with one of the long jumpers finishing ninth. Two of his triple jumpers reached the state meet in 2006.
Tirmenstein competed in the Cougar track program for four seasons between 2003 and 2006 as a sprinter and jumper. During the indoor season of 2003, he ran the 400-meter leg as part of the distance medley, and that foursome holds the school record to this day with a time of 10:54.72.
Tirmenstein also played three years of soccer at Concordia and was a key contributor to the 2005 conference-winning team.
A native of St. Louis, Tirmenstein lettered four years in both track and soccer at Lutheran North High School. He was part of the 2001 Missouri state champion team, competing in relays and hurdles.
Tirmenstein graduated Concordia in 2006 with degrees in secondary education and visual arts. He also works at Run Chicago in the neighboring suburb of Forest Park and continues to pursue his goal of making it to the Olympic trials in the long jump.
Andy Chizzo
Assistant Men's Track & Field Coach
Andy Chizzo has coached six seasons as a member of the Cougar coaching staff. He will assist the team in the pole vault and pentathlon/decathlon/heptathlon events.
Chizzo was a five-year Division I athlete at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he excelled in the pole vault, hurdles, javelin and decathlon. By his senior year of 1994, Chizzo was captain of the track team and recorded a 15'9" pole vault, a record that stood for the next 10 years. His mark of 170' 2" in the javelin, recorded that same year, remains among the school's top 10 in that event. He graduated in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in graphic design.
Chizzo currently resides in Oak Park with his wife Sara and four daughters; Natalie, Evelyn, Audrey and Vera.
Katie Kloess
Assistant Men's Track & Field Coach
Katie Kloess coached two seasons with the Concordia track team as a graduate assistant and assistant coach for the team's throwers.
Kloess lettered in track and volleyball for four years, serving as team captain for each sport. She held school records in the indoor 20-lb. weight throw and outdoor hammer throw while a student-athlete at Concordia.
In 2009, she too became one of a select few to receive both the A.W. Gross and the Terry-Schubert Awards. She is currently working on her Master's degree in exercise science.
Tom Sisulak
Assistant Men's Track & Field Coach
Tom Sisulak begins his second year with the Cougar coaching staff.
Sisulak is an experienced track coach of 42 years who is sharing his knowledge with the Cougar athletes in multiple events. A native of Riverside, Illinois, Sisulak attended Riverside-Brookfield High School and Carthage College before beginning his coaching career at West Aurora High School in 1969.
In 1971, Sisulak took a teaching and coaching position at LaFollette High School in Madison, Wisconsin. Over the next 31 years, his track, cross-country and gymnastics teams earned a combined five state championships and 25 conference championships. Sisulak coached over 200 individual conference champions, 40 individual state champions, 19 individual national competitors and one individual world competitor.
Sisulak returned to Riverside in 2002 and established the Riverside Sports Academy. Over the past eight years, he has offered private coaching for high school, college, post-college and professional track and field athletes.
Sisulak has served six-year terms as president for the Wisconsin Cross-Country Coaches Association and the Wisconsin Gymnastic Coaches Association, and a two-year term as vice-president for the National High School Track and Cross-Country Coaches Association.
In 1998, Sisulak was honored by the United States Congress for Outstanding Leadership in Teaching and Coaching. In 2002, he was named by Who’s Who in American Education as one of America's Outstanding Teachers and Coaches. Sisulak was also named the National Coach of the Year by the National High School Gymnastics Coaches Association in 1985.
An avid runner who has completed 31 marathons and hundreds of 5K, 10K and 20K races, Sisulak has earned three USA National Championships and national records in the 1,500 and 5,000 meters. He continues to train for state and national competitions in the marathon, half-marathon, 10K and 5K races, and track events.
Floyd Turner
Assistant Men's Track & Field Coach
Floyd Turner has coached two seasons with the Cougar coaching staff. He is the head throws coach.
Turner competed in track and football at Iowa Wesleyan College. He is IWC's record holder in the discus (184'2" in 2005) and the hammer throw (167'1" in 2007), and he was in the U.S. top 40 in the discus in 2005, 2008 and 2009. Turner has achieved personal bests of 191' 4" in the discus, 61' 3 1/2" in the shot put , 167' 1" in the hammer, and 52' 8 1/4" in the 35-lb. hammer throw. Turner competed at the VISA U.S. National Indoor Track & Field Championships, held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2010 and placed 12th overall in the shot put. He is training for the 2012 Olympics where he hopes to compete in the discus.
Turner coached strength and conditioning at Iowa Wesleyan and, more recently, served as the assistant throws coach at Iowa Central Community College. For the latter, he coached five NJCAA national qualifiers and four school records.
Turner is the 2003 Illinois State champion in the shot put and discus, and the 2007 Midwest Collegiate Conference Track and Field Athlete of the Year, and an NAIA national qualifier in the shot put, hammer and discus.
Turner graduated Iowa Wesleyan in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in exercise science and wellness.
