Jelen brings a plethora of experience and knowledge to the Tornado from his running days at Liberty University to serving as an assistant at South Dakota State University and his stint last season as the head cross country coach at Cedar Crest College in Pennsylvania.

In his lone season as the head cross country coach at Cedar Crest, five of Jelen's six runners set personal records and one earned all-conference honors. Prior to his first head coaching job, Jelen served as the graduate assistant for the track and field and cross country programs at South Dakota State. While with the Jackrabbits, he helped recruit student-athletes to come run at the school as well as developed a training plan and helped teach the student-athletes the proper techniques and racing strategies.

While at South Dakota State, Jelen helped guide the men's cross country team to the 2013 Summit League championship while the women's cross country and track teams both finished as conference runners-up. During that year, the Jackrabbits had 10 all-conference cross country runners and eight all-conference track honorees.

Prior to coaching in college, Jelen was an assistant cross country coach at Sioux Falls Lincoln High School and Liberty Christian Academy. He also served as a camp counselor at the Bear Mount Cross Country Camp in Black Hills, S.D., Augustana College HS Running Camp in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Greeno Elite High School Running Camp in Chester, S.D.

During his college career at Liberty, Jelen was named to the Big South Conference Cross Country All-Decade team for the 2000's. He earned all-conference honors six times in cross country and track while earning All-Region honors in cross country in 2007. In 2004-05 he earned academic All-American honors while at Augustana.