Duke Kicinski enters his second season (2025-26) as the Head Coach for track & field and cross country. He served as the assistant coach during the 2023-24 season.
Prior to his time at Texas Wesleyan he recently coached at the University of Alabama Huntsville in 2022. He spent the two years before that alongside two-time World Champion shot-putter Ryan Whiting from Desert High Performance, one of the elite throwing coaches in the United States. Before he started his coaching career, KIcinski was an All-American as well as a National Champion.
At West Texas A&M Kicinski became the first ever Individual National Champion in the program's history in 2016 in the discus throw. He was also named as an All-American twice, first team in 2016 and second team in 2015. After his successful NCAA Division 2 career, he transferred to Texas Tech to throw for Wes Kittley.
Kicinski was the NCAA D1 discus champion in 2019 and helped Texas Tech win the men's NCAA D1 Track and Field National Championship with a throw of 208' 6". He won a pair of discus titles in the BIG XII in two seasons at Texas Tech. Kicniski was also a competitive shot putter with a personal of 62' 8". He currently holds the record for the longest discus throw in program history at 63.45 Meters (208 feet).
After his National Championship in 2019 at Texas Tech, Kicinski became the first athlete since 1987 to win a Division 1 and Division 2 National Championship. After his collegiate career, he qualified for the USA Championship qualifier in 2019 in which he finished in 6th place, he also threw indoor and had a personal best of 64' 10.5", in addition to qualifying for the 2021 U.S Olympic Trials in the discus.
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Kicinski graduated from Texas Tech in 2018 with a major in Kinesiology. He was also named to the Northwest High School Hall of Fame in 2024 and the West Texas A&M Hall of Fame in 2025.
