Athletic director Mike Thomas named Ron Garner the head coach of the Illinois women’s track and field team Friday.

Garner will replace Tonja Buford-Bailey who left earlier this month to serve as associate head coach of the combined male and female track team at Texas. Garner returns to Illinois after serving as an assistant coach for the women’s track team from 1991-98. During his first tenure at Illinois, Garner was a part of a combined six Big Ten championships in six seasons, as well as two top-four team finishes in the NCAA.

This will be Garner’s second tenure as a head coach after leading both the women’s track and women’s cross-country teams at Clemson in 1998-99, when he was named the ACC Outdoor Coach of the Year. Most recently, Garner was an assistant for both the male and female teams at South Carolina, focusing on sprints and relays and coaching 20 All-Americans in just two seasons.

Garner inherits a women’s track team that experienced much success under former Olympian Buford-Bailey. The Illini won the team’s first Big Ten title since 1996 earlier this year,led by back-to-back NCAA 400-meter dash champion and 12-time Big Ten champion Ashley Spencer, a rising junior.