Bri Ratliff enters her fourth season as the head coach of the Texas Lutheran men's and women's cross country programs.
Ratliff took the cross country program to new heights in her third season as the 2025 season saw the Bulldogs shatter records in both men's and women's cross country. Jonas Martinez spearheaded the men's cross country program, becoming the first men's cross country runner to earn USTFCCCA All-Region honors with his 29th place finish at the 2025 NCAA West Regional in Claremont, California. His 8K time of 26:13.8 is the fastest in a regional in program history. The Texas Lutheran men's cross country team earned its fourth Top 3 team finish at the SCAC Championships since joining the conference with Martinez becoming just the third runner in men's cross country history to earn All-SCAC honors. Martinez broke his own program record in the 8K, finishing the race in 25:30.0, to finish in seventh place. The seventh place finish is the highest finish in program history.
The Texas Lutheran women's cross country team earned its fifth Top 3 team finish at the SCAC Championships since joining the conference in 2013, with the Bulldogs earning SCAC runner-up for the first time in program history with Mackenzie Combs becoming just the third runner in women's cross country history to earn All-SCAC honors.
Combs led the Bulldogs with a sixth place finish in 22:55.76. Combs's sixth place finish is the highest in program history and her 22:55.76 finish time is the fastest for the Bulldogs since joining the SCAC and second only to Keelin Treacy's 22:55.4 in 2012's ASC Championship time in a conference championship meet. Combs shattered the Texas Lutheran 6K record at the 2025 Watson Collegiate Classic, finishing with a time of 22:32.26 which is over 20 seconds faster than the previous record.
Ratliff's work has shown as the TLU distance coach with a Distance Medley Relay team that has broken the program record in back-to-back seasons, Aliyah Fonseca's success in breaking the program record in the 3000m steeplechase as well as Combs breaking the TLU 5K and 10K records, making the podium in the 10K at the 2025 SCAC Championship in the process.
The SCAC finishes were the highest championship finishes in Ratliff's tenure. The Bulldogs have also earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors in every season under Ratliff's leadership.
In her second season at the helm, both cross country squads finished sixth at the SCAC Championships and traveled 13 runners to the NCAA West Regional in Portland, Oregon. Angel Miguel Hernandez was a highlight during the 2024 season as he won two races and earned SCAC Runner of the Week honors in September. The men's cross country program turned in four of the 15 fastest times in program history led by Hernandez's 26:06.5 at the OLLU Classic - which ranks second all-time in program history.
In her first season in Seguin, Ratliff had eleven runners qualify for the NCAA West Regional in Riverside, California.
Ratliff came to Seguin after spending the 2022-23 season as an assistant cross country and track and field coach at Allegheny College. In her lone season at Allegheny College, the Gators won three championships in cross country and indoor/outdoor track and field. The women's cross country team won its first ever President's Athletic Conference (PAC) championship in 2022 and had two runners earn All-Region honors at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional. Thirteen runners would earn All-PAC accolades between the Gators' men's and women's cross country teams.
Before arriving at Allegheny, she worked at her alma mater, Trinity University, as both a student worker for the cross country program and as an adjunct assistant cross country coach for two seasons. While at Trinity, Ratliff recruited cross country athletes, assisted with meet and event operations, and worked individually with student-athletes to develop strategies to achieve their athletic and academic goals.
Ratliff, a San Antonio native, attended Trinity University in San Antonio, and ran for the Tigers. Ratliff was a team captain and was a two-time NCAA national qualifier in 2017 and 2019. She was named to the USTFCCCA NCAA Cross Country South/Southeast All-Region Team her junior and senior seasons (2018 & 2019).
Ratliff earned a degree in Psychology from Trinity University in 2020, followed by a master's degree in Kinesiology from Texas A&M-San Antonio in 2022.
