Coyote alum, three-time Olympian and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Derek Miles enters his 24th season with South Dakota track and field in 2025-26. Miles is the associate director of track and field, working with the pole vault and multis.
Miles has turned the South Dakota vault program into one of the premiere programs in the nation. His men’s and women’s pole vault squads were ranked in the top-two nationally by the USTFCCCA for five of the last eight years. The Coyote women finished the 2025 and 2023 seasons ranked first.
Miles is coach to 2020 Olympic silver medalist Chris Nilsen, a Coyote alumnus who won three NCAA titles (2017, 2018, 2019) while at USD. Miles’ athletes have accumulated 48 All-America honors at the Division I level with four national titles between Nilsen and Bethany Buell (2013). Emily Grove joined Nilsen on Team USA at the 2017 IAAF World Championships.
Under Miles' direction, Nilsen vaulted his way onto the NCAA record books. He broke the NCAA indoor pole vault record with a vault of 19 feet, 5 ½ inches, at the Nebraska Tune-Up on Feb. 21, 2020. Nilsen also set the NCAA Outdoor Championship meet record with a career best of 19-6 ¼ in 2019 en route to winning his third national title. He ranks third all-time in NCAA outdoor history with the height. Nilsen went on to take gold at the 2019 Pan American Games for Team USA. He’s captured four total medals at the international level post collegiately.
South Dakota has qualified 82 pole vault entries to the NCAA West Preliminary since the program moved to Division I in 2011. The Coyotes sent five or more vaulters to the preliminary meet 10 out of the last 11 years, including a program high of nine twice (2021, 2025). USD’s nine pole vault entries were the most in the country both times.
The South Dakota men swept the indoor and outdoor Summit League Field Athletes of the Year in 2025 with Eerik Haamer receiving the indoor honor and Tre Young picking up the outdoor honor. In 2024, Marshall Faurot single handedly swept the men's Summit League Field Athlete of the Year honors and Gen Hirata won her second consecutive outdoor Summit League Field Athlete of the Year honor.
The Coyotes swept the women’s indoor and outdoor Summit League Field Athletes of the Year in 2023 with Marleen Mülla earning the honor indoors and Gen Hirata capturing the outdoor award.
USD's all-time charts have been dominated by Miles' athletes in the pole vault. All 10 marks on the women's indoor and outdoor lists were jumped in the last decade. The men's side includes eight of the top-10 marks since 2011, with the exceptions being 2006 NCAA Division II Champion Sam Pribyl and Miles' own collegiate marks.
Miles, a native of Citrus Heights, Calif., was a five-time All-American in the pole vault at USD. He also qualified for the D-II National Championships in the long jump, triple jump and decathlon during his collegiate career.
Post-collegiately Miles was one of the best professional pole vaulters in the world for over a decade. A three-time Olympian (finishing 3rd in Beijing 2008, 7th in Athens 2004 and qualified for London in 2012), Miles has represented the United States on six world championship teams and been a 3-time U.S. National Champion. Over his lengthy career, he was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. four times and top-five in the world six times by Track and Field News Magazine. He also organized the Miles Pole Vault Summit which brought 10 of the top vaulters in the world, including four U.S. Olympians and 2 Olympic medalists to Vermillion in 2007. Miles retired with a personal best of 19-2 1/4 (5.85m).
On April 17, 2017, Miles was presented with his reallocated Olympic bronze medal. The International Olympic Committee stripped a handful of athletes, including initial pole vault bronze medalist Denys Yurchenko of the Ukraine, of their medals after banned substances were found during retests of samples from the games. Miles, who initially took fourth in the competition, moved up to medal position.
He was inducted into the Henry Heider Memorial Coyote Sports Hall of Fame in the fall of 2006 and the USATFCCCA DII Hall of Fame in May of 2013. Miles was inducted to the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 2018.
Miles earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1996 and a master's degree in athletic administration in 1998 from USD. He met his wife, Tori (Devericks), while in school. Tori was also a track and field All-American for the Coyotes.
Miles and his wife, Tori, reside in Tea, S.D., with their son, Ariston.
Miles File:
- Olympic Bronze Medalist in the pole vault at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
- Three-time Olympian in the pole vault (2004, 2008, 2012)
- Coached Olympic Silver Medalist Chris Nilsen at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
- Four NCAA Championships (Bethany Buell, 2013(o); Chris Nilsen, 2017(i), 2018(o), 2019(o))
- 48 All-America honors in the pole vault since the move to NCAA Division I
- 6 Academic All-Americans
- 82 NCAA West Preliminary qualifiers
- 18 Summit League Field Athlete of the Year honors
- 46 Summit League Champions
- 117 All-Summit League honors in the pole vault
- Coach for six men’s and four women’s Summit League team titles
