Washington State assistant Ryan Grinnell returns to the University of Georgia...

Confirming rumors that circulated shortly after the NCAA championships, the University of Georgia announced on its Twitter page that the school has hired Washington State assistant coach Ryan Grinnell (left/photo courtesy University of Georgia).

The hiring of Grinnell marks a return to Georgia for Grinnell, who began his coaching career at Georgia in 2010, while training for the US Olympic Trials in the triple jump under Bulldog coach Petros Kyprianou, who coached Grinnell as an undergraduate at Boise State.

At Washington State this season, he coached Robby Flores and Charisma Taylor  to identical sixth place finishes in the Pac-12 triple jump, and Ray Littles to a sixth place finish in the Pac-12 decathlon.

In 2017, Grinnell had a trio of scorers at the Pac-12 Championships: in the women's triple jump Kiana Davis captured fifth and Greer Alsop was sixth while Robby Flores placed eighth in the men's triple jump. Both Davis and Alsop also took leaps in the WSU all-time triple jump records with Davis' 42-8 1/4 (13.01m) second-best and Alsop's 41-8 (12.70m) fourth-best.

Originally from Rexburg, Idaho, Grinnell competed at the University of Montana for two years where he won six Big Sky Conference titles and was the 2006 Big Sky Athlete of the Year as a freshman after winning the high jump and triple jump titles. At Boise State he was a six-time NCAA All-America honoree with four certificates in the triple jump and one each in the high jump and long jump, under the tutelage of Kyprianou.

He won nine Western Athletic Conference titles and had three runner-up finishes. In 2008,  he broke a 28-year old men’s triple jump record at the WAC Outdoor Championships with his wining leap of 54-3 3/4 (16.55m). He advanced to the NCAA Championships in all three jumps, being the first student-athlete to accomplish this feat in over 10 years.

Grinnell’s move to Georgia leaves the Cougars with openings in both the horizontal and vertical jumps, as well as the combined events, as Brad Walker resigned after the NCAA championships.

Walker also is moving to the state of Georgia, and will continue to coach Katie Nageotte, who announced on her social media accounts that she has purchased a house in the Atlanta area.

NOTE:  The sports information offices of the University of Georgia and Washington State University contributed to this report.