Director of Athletics Roosevelt Barnes has announced the hiring of Dean Freitag as the department's cross country/track & field coach. Freitag comes to Wilberforce after serving as the assistant director of cross country and track & field at Shawnee State University. 

"We are excited to bring Dean to campus to grow our track & field and cross-country programs," said Roosevelt. "His work at Shawnee State in assisting in laying the groundwork for a successful NAIA program.  

"Additionally, as a high-level student-athlete, Freitag showed the ability to compete on the world stage," Barnes continued. 

Freitag helped build the Shawnee State track & field program, and in its first season of fielding a team, the program sent three student-athletes to compete in the national championships with one earning All-America honors. His women's high jump group was also ranked 17th in NAIA. 

Prior to his stint at Shawnee State, Freitag served as a graduate assistant at the University of Rio Grande. While learning under coaches with more than 100 years of combined coaching experience, Freitag gained experience coaching all the event groups. More importantly, he was responsible for recruiting, including international students. His primary specialization was distance coaching and racewalking.  

"I am beyond excited to be the one tasked to build the cross country and track programs," said Freitag. "At a historic university like Wilberforce, chances to make history don't come often, so this is an opportunity I don't take lightly.  

The support from the University has been amazing and knowing the University is fully behind us helps so much," he continued. "The team is fully bought into the vision we have, which is to be great. We don't plan to start slow; every athlete on this team has the same mindset. The goal from day one is to win the HBCUAC Championships. This conference is full of amazing talented teams; we are embracing the challenge of being the new team, but don't plan to back away from the challenge for a second, we will face it head on. Above all else, we will represent Wilberforce University to the best of our abilities." 

As a student-athlete, he was a two-time racewalking National Champion, five-time All-American with appearance in eight national championships. He recorded his highest world ranking of tenth during points of his career. Freitag also served on the Rio Grande Student Leadership Council, serving as the president for three years.  

Wilberforce begins its 2025 season, hosting the Wilberforce Invitational on August 29th.