Bridgette Owens is entering her second season with the SMU Track & Field program and her first year as Assistant Coach for Sprints and Hurdles. She continues to serve as the team’s Director of Operations, a role she held exclusively during the 2024–25 season.
Owens served a vital role in bringing track and field back to Dallas in her first year as part of the program. SMU hosted its first track meet in 27 years during the 2024-25 season, and she held the role of Day Of Meet Director for the SMU Invitational.
Before joining SMU, Owens served as an assistant coach at the University of Illinois during the 2023–24 season. While in Champaign, she played a key role in guiding the Fighting Illini to the 2024 Big Ten Indoor Championship title. That same year, she coached the women’s 4x100-meter relay team to a school-record time of 43.50, breaking a 28-year-old program mark and advancing to the NCAA Final Round for the first time since 2016.
Prior to Illinois, Owens was an assistant coach at UTEP for the 2022–23 season. She helped the Miners sweep the 2023 Conference USA Track Athlete of the Year honors, mentoring women’s honoree Marissa Simpson to C-USA titles in the 60m and 100m hurdles, along with second-team All-America honors at the NCAA Championships.
Owens previously spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Western Michigan (2019–2022) and began her collegiate coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Cal State Northridge.
As an athlete, Owens was a seven-time NCAA All-American at Clemson University and the University of Florida. She graduated from UF as the school record holder in both the 60-meter hurdles and 100-meter hurdles. A Detroit native, she competed in the 2012 and 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials and placed 10th at the 2019 USA Outdoor Championships under the coaching of Olympic coach Lawrence "Boogie" Johnson.
Owens holds a bachelor’s degree in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in business administration and human resources from DeVry University.
