Elon University Athletics

Laura Igaune Hill, a 2020 Olympian in the hammer throw, is in her 10th year with the Elon track & field and cross country programs. She currently serves as the associate head coach and director of operations for the track & field program, having been elevated to that position in August 2024 after originally arriving at Elon as an assistant coach in September 2016.
 
In Igaune’s tenure on Mark Elliston’s staff, the Phoenix have reached tremendous heights with 12 total Coastal Athletic Association championships between Outdoor Track & Field (4; 2021-23, 2025), Indoor Track & Field (2; 2023, 2025) and Cross Country (6; 2019-23, 2025).
 
Igaune specifically serves as Elon’s throws coach, overseeing a group that has won six individual CAA titles across the hammer throw, weight throw and discus events under her guidance.
 
From 2022 through 2026, Igaune’s throws group has continued to play a major role in Elon’s conference championship success while producing conference champions, NCAA qualifiers and multiple school-record performances. The 2025 season saw Adriana Clarke capture the CAA hammer throw title with a mark of 55.94 meters, while teammate Isabella Johnson added points with a fifth-place finish and a personal-best that moved her onto Elon’s all-time list.
 
The success carried into 2026 when Clarke won the CAA Indoor weight throw title, breaking her own school record with a mark of 20.04 meters, while Johnson finished second with a personal-best that ranks second in program history.
 
In 2023, the throws group again helped fuel a historic season as Elon captured both the CAA Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Hammer thrower Kaitlin McGoogan advanced to the NCAA East Preliminary Round and ranked among the program’s top performers in the event.
 
Elon throwers contributed key scoring performances in the 2022 campaign to help the Phoenix secure its second consecutive CAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship while also producing NCAA East Preliminary qualifiers in the throwing events.
 
During the 2021 outdoor season, Laura Igaune helped Lauryn Carlton capture the CAA discus title, marking the second conference championship in the event under Igaune’s guidance. Elon throwers also produced several personal-best performances during the season, with athletes moving onto the program’s all-time top-10 lists in the discus, hammer, shot put and javelin, including top-three marks from Charlotte Bradsher in the hammer throw and Kathleen Collins in the discus.
 
In 2018-19, Igaune guided Skylar Barthelmes to a school record in the weight throw and a berth at the ECAC Indoor Championships, while rookie Kristine Strazdite qualified for the ECACs in the shot put with the fourth-best mark in program history. During the outdoor season, Barthelmes and Autumn Cope earned All-CAA honors in the javelin, posting the second and third-best marks in school history. Barthelmes also set a new program record in the hammer throw at the CAA Championships.
 
In her first two seasons with the Phoenix (2016-18), Igaune coached multiple school records, All-CAA performers and NCAA East Preliminary qualifiers.
 
Prior to arriving at Elon, Igaune was at Tiffin University, where she served as an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator for the track & field program from 2013-16. During her time at Tiffin, 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. The Dragons had 47 All-Americans and 48 Academic All-Americans during Igaune’s tenure as well. Tiffin’s men’s track & field team was the 2016 outdoor national runner-up and also reached the 2016 indoor national championships.
 
Igaune was an adjunct professor at Tiffin in 2016.
 
A native of Latvia, Igaune represented her home country in the hammer throw at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Her personal-record hammer throw is 73.56 meters. 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 received her bachelor’s degree in physical therapy and health care from Riga Stradinš University in Riga, Latvia. She holds two master’s degrees – one in kinesiology and exercise science from Western Kentucky (2012) and one in forensic psychology from Tiffin University (2015).
 
Igaune is married to Nolan Hill.
 
Last updated: March 12, 2026