Azusa Pacific University Athletics

Sara Almen enters her first year as an assistant coach at Azusa Pacific. Prior to Azusa Pacific, Almen spent two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach at Auburn University, where she worked with jumpers and multi-event athletes. During her time on the Auburn coaching staff, Coach Almen was a part of five Top 20 NCAA finishes, three for men’s team and two for the women’s team.  On the track, Almen assisted in developing SEC scorers in the high jump, triple jump, heptathlon and decathlon.  Administratively, she assisted the day to day operations of the program including home meet management, team travel, and on-campus recruiting.  

Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Almen had a stellar collegiate career which included a trip to the 2016 US Olympic Trials in the high jump. She began her collegiate career at Oregon State, where she was a standout two-sport athete. Almen competed in both volleyball and track & field for the Beavers, earning All-PAC 12 honors. She began study for her master’s degree while finishing her collegiate eligibility at Auburn.  
 
While at Oregon State, she became OSU’s first female field event participant at an NCAA postseason event since 1988 when she competed in the high jump at the West Regional in Austin, Texas and was the top freshman finisher. She was Oregon State’s second-highest finisher in any event at the conference championships since the reinstatement of the program in 2005. Her performance at the 2013 Pac-12 Championships was the best for any freshman since Brigetta Barrett (2012 Olympic Silver Medalist) placed third in 2010. Almen still stands as sixth on OSU’s all-time outdoor list and fourth on the all-time indoor list.
 
Almen received her undergraduate degree in digital communication arts (minor in business) from Oregon State in 2016, while earning her master’s in adult education from Auburn in 2017.

A native of Albany, Oregon, Almen won four state titles in track & field (3x High Jump, 1x 4x100m) and two in volleyball.  She is the daughter of Beverly and Kevin Almen and has three siblings, sisters Hanna and Mary and brother, Ryan.