Laura Igaune begins her sixth season as assistant track and field and cross country coach at Elon after joining the programs in October 2016. She serves as the Phoenix's throws coach for track and field while also working with the Elon men's and women's cross country program.
During the 2021 outdoor season, Igaune helped Lauryn Carlton win the CAA title in the discus at the league championships, the second CAA discus championship won under Igaune's guidance. Igaune also helped her throwers set new personal-records during the 2021 season with members breaking into the program's top-10 performance list in the discus, hammer, shot put and javelin throws including top-three performances for Charlotte Bradsher in the hammer throw and Kathleen Collins in the discus.
In 2018-19, Igaune helped Skylar Barthelmes break the school-record in the weight throw and earn a trip to the ECAC Indoor Championships. Rookie Kristine Strazdite also earned a trip to the ECACs in the shot put after throwing the fourth-best mark in school history. During the outdoor season, Igaune saw Barthelmes and Autumn Cope earn All-CAA honors in the javelin throw after posting the second and third-best marks in school history, respectively. Barthelmes also set the new program record in the hammer throw at the CAA Championships, also earning All-CAA recognition.
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Igaune saw her throwers make great strides in 2017-18. During the indoor season, Igaune helped Bryanna Hames set the indoor school-record in both the indoor shot put and the weight throw as well as seeing her finish second overall in the shot put at the ECAC Indoor Championships. She also tutored Skylar Barthelmes to new personal-best marks into the program's top-five performance list in both the shot put and weight throw. Igaune then saw Hames earn a CAA championship in the discus and Bre'anna Warren receiving All-CAA honors in the event with her third place standing. Both Hames and Warren would also qualify for the NCAA East Preliminaries for the second straight season.
During Igaune's first season with the Phoenix in 2016-17, she guided her throwers to a number of school records and individual accomplishments. She helped three of her athletes set new indoor personal-bests during the indoor season while also leading three All-CAA performers during the outdoor season. Igaune's guidance also helped Bryanna Hames become the program's first-ever athlete to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships with Hames earning honorable mention accolades.
Igaune arrived from Tiffin University where she served as assistant track and field coach and recruiting coordinator since 2013. While with the Dragons, she coached 38 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champions, 121 GLIAC point scorers in various events and helped foster the success of 96 NCAA Division II National Qualifiers. Under her tutelage, she coached 47 All-Americans as well as 48 Academic All-Americans. Recently, she helped the Tiffin’s men’s team to the 2016 Indoor National championships and as the national runner-up during the outdoor season. She also served as an adjunct professor at Tiffin in 2016.
A native of Latvia, Igaune was a member of both her country’s junior and national teams. She claimed the Latvian Junior Championship title in the triple jump and has won multiple titles as the Latvian National Champion in both the discus and hammer and still holds the Latvia national record in the hammer. She was also a European Championship qualifier in the hammer throw in 2012. In the fall of the 2019, Igaune competed at the IAAF World Athletic Championships in Doha, Qatar, in the hammer throw.
Igaune represented her home country in the hammer throw at the Olympics games in Tokyo during the summer of 2021. Her personal-record throw is 73.56m in the women’s hammer.
Igaune received her bachelor's degree in physical therapy and health care from Rigas Stradins University, Latvia, and her master’s degree in exercise physiology from Western Kentucky. She is married to her husband Nolan Hill and they reside in Elon, N.C.Â
