Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Omaha Athletics

Cliff Cisar

Cliff Cisar

Experience
  • Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Omaha (NCAA Division I – Summit League) – 2024-Present
  • Head Cross Country Coach and assistant Track & Field Coach, Omaha (NCAA Division I – Summit League) – 2017-24
  • Part-time assistant Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Omaha (NCAA Division I – Summit League) – 2015-17
  • Volunteer assistant Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Omaha (NCAA Division I – Summit League) – 2010-15
Personal
  • From Omaha, Neb.
  • Bachelor of Science, Exercise Science, University of Nebraska-Omaha (2012)
  • Married to Lucia Zamecnik (Omaha ’12 and ’16) who was standout on the Omaha swim team. They have one daughter, Aspen.
at Omaha
  • During his tenure, Cisar has coached athletes to 52 marks on the program’s Top Ten list between Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field. 18 of those marks came in his first year at the helm of the program.
  • Cisar has coached all 60 times in the Top 30 list for both Cross Country distances (5-kilometer and 6-kilometer). Nine were in his first year as head coach.
  • During the winter and spring of 2024, Cisar coached Lauren Metzger to school records in the 3,000 and 10,000 meters and Kamryn Ensley to school records in both the Indoor and Outdoor 5,000m. 
  • In the fall of 2022, he coached Ensley to a 4th place finish in the Summit League Cross Country Championships which garnered her a First Team All-Summit honor and the Newcomer of the Year award. Ensley went on to finish 32nd in the NCAA Division I Midwest Region Cross Country championships, the highest finish by a freshman in Maverick history.
  • In the fall of 2019, he coached Emily Johnson to a third-place finish in the Summit League Cross Country Championships which garnered her a First Team All-Summit honor. Johnson went on to finish 26th in the NCAA Division 1 Midwest Region Cross Country championships, the highest finish in Maverick history.
  • During the spring of 2019, Cisar coached Johnson to school records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the Summit League Outdoor Championships, including a runner-up finish in the 10,000 m.
  • Also on the track, Cisar has coached All-Summit performers Alyssa Thavenet, who had a third-place finish in the 800-meters in the 2017 indoor championships, and Lauren Houston who was a three-time runner-up in the league championships in the 800 meters. Houston and Thavenet also were members of the 2017 4x800-meter relay team with Anita Jenkins and Kayla Sabotin that broke the indoor school record at the SDSU Indoor Classic, a record that had stood since 1984.
  • Cisar worked as a volunteer Cross Country and Track & Field coach for the Mavericks from 2010 to 2015. During this time he assisted in coaching runners to seven program records in distance and helped the program through the transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I.
  • Cisar also spent 11 years working at Peak Performance, improving Omaha area runners by conducting gait analysis and developing 10k through marathon training clinics.