Grace Oetting joined the Lipscomb Cross Country and Track & Field staff as an assistant coach in 2021, focusing primarily on coaching distance runners. She joined the staff after four years running for the Bisons prior to the 2021-22 season.
Since joining the staff, Oetting has helped the program produce several individual NCAA Division I Cross Country Championship qualifiers - Courtney Brenner 2021, Grant O'Callaghan 2021, Lydia Miller 2022) before helping coach the women's cross country team to their first team appearance at the national meet in 2023. The squad earned 11th place out of 31 teams with 353 points behind Lydia Miller's program-record-setting 38th place finish from a time of 20:06.3 to claim the highest finish by any Lipscomb runner at the meet in program history and the second-best finish by a women's runner from the Atlantic Sun in conference history.
While competing for the Bisons, Oetting collected Second-Team All-ASUN honors in 5000m run at the 2020 ASUN Indoor Championships. She also earned Second-Team All-ASUN for the 2020 cross country season. A competitor in the classroom as well as on the track, she was also named to the 2020 ASUN All-Academic team.Â
Over the course of her collegiate career, Oetting ran in eighteen cross country meets and seventeen track meets. She ran her fastest 5k cross country time in the 2019 ASUN Cross Country Championships with a 17:45.5. Oetting competed in the 5000m, the 3000m, the mile, and the 800m run during the indoor season. During the outdoor season, she ran the 5000m, the 3000m and the 1500m.Â
Oetting collected ten top-10 finishes over her career and put up her best finish at the 2019 ASUN Cross Country Championship with a second-place finish. Her next best was a third-place finish in the 2019 Tiger Track Classic in the 5000m run with a 17:22.42 time.
A Charleston, Illinois native, Oetting prepared for her collegiate career at Charleston High School under coach John McInerny where she set the school record in the mile, the three miles and the 3200m run. She was also named to the All-State team in 2014 and was named an Illinois State Scholar and a National Honor Society member.Â
The Lipscomb alumna graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and a Master of Business Administration and now possesses her USATF Level I coaching certification.
Grace is married to Alex Franke.
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