Kelsey Bruce came to Midwestern State in 2021 after a stellar collegiate career and nearly five seasons as assistant coach at her alma mater -- Dallas Baptist.
Bruce raised the bar during her career at DBU earning United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association All-America honors on four occasions including finishing fourth place at the NCAA Championships in cross country in 2015, as well as All-American in the steeplechase in 2014 and 2015 and the indoor 5,000-meter run in 2015. She also claimed four conference individual titles in Cross Country.
As an assistant coach, she was instrumental in helping head coach and mentor Jacob Phillips guide the Patriots to qualify for three NCAA national cross country meets (two times for the women and once for the men) and claim three conference titles. She helped direct one cross country All-American and lead seven others to NCAA qualifying performances.
Bruce has been one of the premiere distance runners in the United States.
She is a three-time Olympic Trials qualifier and represented Team USA in the 2019 IAAF World Championships. She also competed at the 2019 World Cross Country Championships and was the top American finisher in the Houston Marathon later in the same year.
She has finished among the top 10 in the United States Track & Field Road Championship on six occasions. She also won the Austin Marathon, setting the course record in 2022.
Bruce holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Master's degree in Kinesiology from DBU, and she is pursuing a doctorate in leadership.
Since Bruce took over at Midwestern State, the team has consistently moved up in the ranks. The Mustangs finished as runners-up in the Lone Star Conference Cross Country Championships in 2025 after a pair of podium third-place finishes in 2024 and 2023.
In 2025, the track and field team finished fourth at the outdoor championships.
Since 2021, MSU has had conference medalists in the Triple Jump, 800, 4x400, 4x100, 400m Hurdles, Distance Medley Relay and 10,000m.
Midwestern State has achieved multiple provisional qualifying marks in the 800, Triple Jump, 4x100, 4x400, 400, Distance Medley, and 400m Hurdles.
Under Bruce, Nidhi Sigh finished fifth among NCAA Division II runners in the 800m, with a time of 2:06 — indoors, and Kennedy Johnson achieved All-American honors in the Triple Jump, jumping just over 40’7”.
