Monika Kalicinska is in her second year as an assistant cross country and track & field coach at Lakeland College. She specializes in coaching the Muskies’ distance runners.
Kalicinska is a native of Poland and was a decorated runner in her home country, winning a number of the biggest races there. She placed first in the Lower Silezie cross country meet in 2007 and was also first in the PZLA cross country race-one of the biggest national cross country meets-in 2008.
Kalicinska graduated from University of Physical Education in Wroclaw, with a Licentiate Degree in Physical Education. For her senior year of college, she then transferred to St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla. She claimed the school’s first-ever individual women's national title at the 2013 NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships, finishing first in the marathon with a time of 2:50:52, nearly eight minutes in front of her nearest competitor. Because of her finish, Kalicinska also earned All-America status. She also qualified for NAIA nationals in cross country in Nov. 2012 and indoor track in Feb. 2013. Kalicinska was named the Sooner Athletic Conference Women's Track Athlete of the Week for April 22-28 after she earned an automatic national qualifying standard by completing the Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon in 1:23:57.
Kalicinska eclipsed the world's fastest marathon mark on an indoor track on Jan. 4, 2014, at the Run4RKids Indoor Marathon in Toronto, Canada, where she was the overall winner in 2:53:53. The time was nearly four minutes faster than the previous record. The story on her race is available here:
http://www.runnersworld.com/races/new-fastest-indoor-womens-marathon-253.
During her college study in Europe, Kalicinska worked as a physical education teacher assistant in primary and secondary school and also served as an assistant coach for Portuguese Modern Pentathlon CNIN Club Nataca~o Interior Norte.
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Kalicinska is currently training and competing nationally and internationally. She is pursuing her master’s degree from Lakeland in business administration.
