Benjamin Richard Dalton was hired as assistant track & field coach/recruiting coordinator in July of 2019. He serves as assistant sprints and hurdles coach as well as the recruiting coordinator.
In the 2024 season, Dalton mentored Nathaniel Ezekiel to a record-breaking 600-yard mark of 1:07.44 during the indoor season. Ezekiel’s mark posted as the best 600-yard time on a banked track in NCAA history. During the outdoor season, Ezekiel rebroke the program record he set in 2022 in the 400m hurdle with a time of 48.29 and placed in third at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational. Ezekiel placed gold at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 48.00, breaking the Big 12, Baylor and Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium records and ranking second nationally. He was also a member of the 4x400m relay team that earned silver at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships. Dalton guided Ezekiel to claim his second-straight national bronze medal at the NCAA Outdoor Championships behind a 48.88 in the 400m hurdles to earn his sixth trip to the national podium in his career. With the help of Dalton, Ezekiel was selected to represent Team Nigeria in the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 400m hurdles.
2023 saw a strong season in the hurdles, highlighted by a bronze medal won in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Championships from sophomore Nathaniel Ezekiel. Dalton also coached Ezekiel for the second-straight with the Nigerian national team to the World Athletics Championships in the 400mH and 4x400.
The 2022 season saw Nathaniel Ezekiel record an All-American finish in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Championships in Eugene. Both Ezekiel and senior Jayson Baldridge saw time at the top of the NCAA DI marks list for the event. Ackera Nugent and Gontse Morake won her their Big 12 titles in the indoor 60-meter hurdles and outdoor 400-meter hurdles, respectively. Nugent also finished in the silver position for the 100-meter hurdles in 12.45 seconds with Alexis Duncan in bronze, while Elijah Morris and Johnny Brackins finished silver and bronze, respectively, at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships in the 110 hurdles final. Morake also set the program record at the Big 12 Championships with a 56.19 400-hurdle race, the fastest time by a Bear in nine years.
In 2021, Dalton coached Deshaun Jones and Elijah Morris as they made their way to the indoor all-time record list for the Bears. Jones sits sixth with a 7.86 time, while Morris eighth with 7.94. Both records were set at the Big 12 Championships.
Dalton also coached true-freshman Ackera Nugent to the NCAA Indoor National Championships, where she won the 2021 60-meter hurdle national championship with a U20 world record time of 7.92. Nugent set the school record and won the Big 12 Women's Outstanding Freshman of the Year honor at the end of the season.
In his first year on the Baylor staff, Dalton saw Elijah Morris earn All-Big 12 in the 60-meter hurdles to highlight the shortened 2020 campaign.
Dalton came to Baylor after one year at Texas A&M, working with sprints, hurdles, and relays for the 2018-19 season. Prior to his time in College Station, Dalton was an assistant coach at Texas in 2017-18 for sprints, hurdles, relays and multi-event athletes winning the 2018 Big 12 Women’s Indoor Championship team title.
After two years as an assistant coach at the University of New Orleans, Dalton was promoted to the position of head coach for three seasons. While at New Orleans, Dalton had international coaching duties at the World University Games as sprint hurdle relay coach for USA as well as at the World Junior Championships with Barbados. Dalton coached three student-athletes to NCAA Championship appearances, guided Michael Nicholls to become a finalist in the 110-meter hurdles at the 2016 World Junior Championships, and oversaw Alexia Fortenberry as she competed in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2015 World University Games.
Before becoming a coach at UNO, Dalton was a volunteer assistant at Texas in 2012 helping with the men’s sprints and hurdles. Dalton also served as a volunteer assistant at LSU from 2009-11 for the sprint and hurdle groups during which period he was a travel coach for Lolo Jones in 2010.
Dalton began his coaching career in England as a volunteer assistant to coach Malcolm Arnold with Olympians Dai Greene, Lawrence Clarke and Craig Pickering.
A native of England, Dalton earned his bachelor of science degree from the University of Bath with a double major in biomechanics and exercise physiology. He also studied abroad at the University of Florida. Dalton received his Master’s degree in kinesiology specializing in Motor Control during his time at LSU. Upon receiving his Master’s degree, Dalton spent time as an adjunct instructor at LSU in the Kinesiology department.