Senior associate athletic director Calli Sanders would not give specific reasons why the department decided not to renew the contracts of five members of the coaching staff for men’s and women’s track teams.

She did say, however, that she and athletic director Jamie Pollard looked at a number of factors before making such an important decision.

“The things we evaluate for all of our programs on an annual basis include their competitive success, the success of the student athletes, how they manage their budgets, administrative responsibilities, NCAA compliance [and] student athlete welfare; those are all components of every evaluation,” Sanders said.

“I can’t say specifically what went into the evaluation of the track program – that’s a personnel matter. Obviously we looked at a number of factors.”

Sanders said that at the end of every season she meets with each coach in the program and establishes goals for the next season with them.

She wouldn’t say what specific goals were established for the track programs, but said she had discussions throughout the season about expectations.

“There’s considerable follow-up during the year,” Sanders said.

“We talk about how things are going and the future, we review expectations; so it’s not just a once-a-year kind of conversation.”

Pollard does not meet with each coach individually in many of the Olympic sports programs.

Instead he relies on Sanders and other senior staff members to keep up communications between the coaches and himself, Sanders said.

“I think all of the coaches know that they have access to Jamie [Pollard],” Sanders said.

“Obviously, he has a very busy schedule, and he’s looking at the bigger-picture items with the program, so he delegates the specifics between his senior staff members.”