Lananna leads Oregon to second straight title, while Metcalf wins first-ever championship at Washington
NEW ORLEANS – Oregon’s Vin Lananna and Washington’s Greg Metcalf picked up more cross country coaching honors on Monday as the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced the Division I Cross Country National Athlete and Coach of the Year honors.
Oregon head coach, Vin Lananna, was named the Division I Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year after leading his Ducks to their second consecutive team championship. Oregon went undefeated during the season and was ranked No. 1 nationally from the preseason poll through the final standings. The team title was Oregon’s sixth overall and first back-to-back championship since 1973-74. Lananna also led his team to the Pac-10 Conference title and West Regional titles. He was named Division I Men’s West Region Coach of the Year in November.
After the most impressive season in school history, Washington Huskies head coach Greg Metcalf, was named the Division I Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year. His Huskies capped an undefeated season in 2008 by winning the Division I Cross Country title. Metcalf’s program finished eighth a year ago, which was the best finish for the Husky women at the time, before winning this year’s title, Washington’s first cross country championship. The Huskies dominated the meets they competed in this season. The women posted a perfect 15 points at the Pac-10 Conference Championships and scored 25 team points to win the West Regional title in November. Metcalf was earlier named the Division I Women’s West Region Coach of the Year.
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Courtesy: GoDucks.com
Release: 08/14/2008
The tremendous scope of Vin Lananna’s accomplishments has established him as one of the premier leaders in track and field in the United States. Named Associate Athletic Director at the University of Oregon in July 2005, Lananna has been guiding a vision for the Oregon track and field program and Hayward Field as the center of track and field in the country.
Hosting the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials was a giant leap forward in Lananna’s grand plan for Track Town, U.S.A., as a pair of UO student-athletes qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Andrew Wheating in the men’s 800 meters and Galen Rupp in the 10,000. However, it served only as a benchmark for the ambitious visionary who has recaptured the glory of Oregon’s proud running tradition both in terms of the teams’ performance on the track, as well his leadership in the running community of Eugene.
The 2007-08 season marked an ascension back to the top of the collegiate running world for both programs. The men won the NCAA championship in cross country and took Pac-10 team titles in both the track & field and cross country seasons. The women’s program continued its resurgence as well, with runner-up finishes at both the NCAA and Pac-10 Championships in cross country, and a third-place showing at the Pac-10 meet on the track. Lananna was recognized as the NCAA Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year, his fifth time to be so recognized. The two programs combined for 11 All-America honors at the NCAA Track & Field Championships in June, the school’s highest total in 17 years.
Lananna has also led the establishment of a new post-collegiate club, the Oregon Track Club Elite, that provides a new opportunity for American middle distance/distance athletes to train with the goal of being competitive on the world stage.
The 2006-07 season exemplified Lananna’s ability to extend the reputation of the University of Oregon, Hayward Field and Eugene as the nation’s most vibrant setting for collegiate track and field. On the track, the Ducks celebrated their third Pac-10 men’s team crown as UO individuals combined for five victories. The Duck women added two Pac-10 individual track and field titles and collected five All-America honors to go along with seven combined men’s indoor and outdoor honors.
Just a few months after his arrival in July 2005, Lananna’s leadership helped the University of Oregon and the City of Eugene win the right to host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team Trials -- something the University again won the right to do in 2012, and the 2006 outdoor track and field season featured more than a doubling of season ticket holders, home meet attendance records, and a surge of enthusiasm for the sport throughout the campus community, city, and state. During the indoor and outdoor seasons, Oregon men and women claimed three individual NCAA championships and 25 All-America awards. In July 2006, a two-year renovation began to prepare historic Hayward Field to host the most exciting meets in the country.
Lananna is experienced as both an administrator and a coach at the highest levels. Prior to his arrival at Oregon, Lananna served as athletic director at Oberlin College in Ohio. At the internationally-renowned liberal arts institution, he led the revitalization and reorganization of the department of athletics and physical education. His efforts to improve fundraising and enhance the department’s resources allowed Oberlin to increase staffing and upgrade facilities, including the construction of a new stadium for soccer, lacrosse, and track and field.
Renowned for his ability to develop talent, Lananna’s reputation as an exceptional coach was secured during his tenure as director of track and field at Stanford University from 1992 to 2003. In his time at Stanford, Lananna built one of the nation’s elite programs. His cross country and track and field teams claimed five NCAA team championships, 35 top-10 NCAA finishes, and 22 NCAA individual titles. The Cardinal men and women also won 17 Pacific-10 Conference team titles and 45 individual conference crowns in addition to 15 West Regional cross country championships. His athletes excelled in national and international competition, representing Team USA at the Olympic Games and the IAAF World Championships.
At Stanford, Lananna received three NCAA Coach of the Year cross country honors, nine NCAA West Region Cross Country Coach of the Year awards, 10 Pacific-10 Cross Country Coach of the Year honors, and two Pacific-10 Track and Field Coach of the Year awards. He also served on the NCAA Track and Field Committee from 2001-03. In 2004, Lananna traveled to Greece as an assistant coach for Team USA at the Olympic Games in Athens. He has also served as an assistant coach at the 1999 Track and Field World Championships and as head coach in the 1990 and 1996 World Championships and 1994 World Junior Championships in cross country.
Lananna’s leadership and vision for the future of track and field positioned Stanford as a destination for elite collegiate and post-collegiate competition. Athletes from across the country came to “The Farm” to participate in high performance invitationals designed to optimize athletic performance. His commitment to advancing the sport also led to the creation of a post-collegiate club team based at Stanford, and the University hosted the 2002 and 2003 USA Outdoor Championships and an annual IAAF Grand Prix meet.
Lananna arrived at Stanford after serving as assistant athletic director and head coach for cross country and track and field at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.
From 1980 until 1992, his men’s and women’s cross country teams posted a combined seven NCAA top-20 finishes—including men’s runner-up efforts in 1986 and 1987—and 37 combined All-America cross country and track and field awards. The men’s team won 13 Heptagonal League titles and the women had six runner-up finishes. In recognition of the teams’ accomplishments, he was named the 1986 NCAA Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year and was a seven- time New England Region Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year and a four-time New England Track and Field Coach of the Year.
His coaching career began in 1975 when Lananna was named head coach of cross country at his alma mater, C.W. Post in Greenvale, NY. As an athlete (1971-75), he ran cross country and track and field and was captain of the 1974 team that finished fourth in the NCAA Division II Championships. He received his master’s of arts degree from Long Island University in 1989.
Lananna and his wife, Elizabeth, reside in Eugene, Oregon. Their sons Brian and Scott are recent graduates of Dartmouth College.
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Over the past 18 years, Greg Metcalf has come to epitomize Washington cross country and track. A product of Ephrata, Wash. near the center of the state, Metcalf made his mark as a Husky All-American distance runner from 1990-93. His boundless passion for the sport led him into coaching, and soon he was back at his alma mater working with the distance program.
On Aug. 13, 2002, having served five years as assistant coach, Metcalf was named Washington's 12th head track and field coach, and just the fifth since Clarence "Hec" Edmundson took the helm in 1919.
An energetic presence, Metcalf immediately installed a new set of expectations that the team has already taken steps towards reaching. NCAA championships are the goal, and Metcalf's successes thus far have been nothing short of remarkable.
Metcalf's work with the men's and women's cross country teams have developed each into national contenders in recent years, capped off by historic finishes for each team over the past two seasons.
The 2007 Husky women's team set a new program-high with an eighth-place finish at NCAA's, and for the first time ever had two All-Americans in the same season in junior Anita Campbell and sophomore Katie Follett. Follett placed 19th at NCAA's and Campbell was 20th, as the two crossed the finish in identical times.
The women's cross country squad has now reached the NCAA Championships in nine of Metcalf's 11 seasons, including six top-20 finishes. The UW men, meanwhile, have competed for national titles three times in the past five years, including a 12th-place national finish in 2006. UW's star in 2005 was senior Mark Mandi, whom Metcalf transformed from the state's 43rd-place finisher as a prep in 2000 into a two-time first-team All-Pac-10 performer.
In addition, at least one Husky has qualified for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in eight of Metcalf's first 10 seasons, including Campbell, a 2008 Canadian senior team member, and Lauren Saylor, a 2008 U.S. Junior team member. More than a dozen have placed in the top-10 at the USATF Junior Nationals.
Metcalf also continues to direct a renaissance of the track and field program, with the past three seasons ranking among the greatest in Washington's storied history. In 2008, the men's team scored its most points at the NCAA Outdoor meet since 1983, finishing 16th. That marked the fourth-consecutive NCAA meet where the UW men placed in the Top-20, something that had not happened since 1978-79. The men racked up eight All-American honors indoors and out, and were named the USTFCCCA National Scholar Team of the Year for possessing the best balance of athletic and academic achievement of any team during the outdoor season.
The Husky women's distance runners carried their fall success over to the track as well. Follett, Amanda Miller, and Michelle Turner all finished in the Top-10 in the mile run at 2008 NCAA Indoors, all earning All-America honors. Washington was the only school to have three All-Americans in one event. Follett then proceeded to win the Pac-10 1500-meter title, the first by a UW woman on the track since 2001. Turner followed that up by winning the NCAA West Region title at 1500-meters, and Miller capped off her track career with her fourth All-American award, placing 11th in the 1500m at NCAA Outdoors.
In 2007, Washington's men earned all-time best finishes at both the NCAA Indoor (7th) and NCAA Outdoor (15th) Track and Field Championships, while half-miler Ryan Brown captured his second NCAA 800-meter title and led 10 total Huskies to top-10 NCAA Championships finishes. Washington's men also earned their second-straight MPSF Indoor conference title, placed among the top-four teams at the NCAA West Regional for the second-straight year and handed cross-state rival Washington State its worst Husky Stadium defeat in 85 years.
Metcalf was recognized for his coaching excellence in 2007 with his second-straight MPSF's Men's Coach of the Year honor, and was honored by his coaching peers as the 2007 West Region Indoor Men's Coach of the Year.
All that came on the heels of a 2006 season in which two UW distance runners won NCAA track titles, while an additional 17 Huskies earned All-America honors. That total of 19 All-Americans was a UW record -- in fact, the past three seasons rank as the three most prolific in UW history in terms of All-America honors earned, with a combined 65 All-America honors since 2005.
In addition to their All-America prowess, Husky individuals in Metcalf's tenure have combined for six NCAA titles, nine Pac-10 crowns and 133 NCAA Championships appearances, while breaking school records on 60 separate occasions.
The wins by Ryan Brown (800m) and Amy Lia (1,500m) at the 2006 NCAA Championships were truly representative of Metcalf's coaching prowess. A former walk-on who competed just one year of high school track, Brown blossomed under Metcalf's tutelage into a two-time Pac-10, two-time Regional and two-time NCAA Champion, and won nine-career All-America honors.
Lia, meanwhile, developed into one of the nation's premier distance runners, placing 55th at the 2006 NCAA Cross Country Championships and earning back-to-back All-America honors in the 1,500 meters in 2005 and 2006. Her time of 4:14.63 in the 2006 NCAA final was seventh-best in Pac-10 history, and the fastest in the nation during the 2006 college season.
In all, Metcalf's distance runners have earned three NCAA track titles, eight Pac-10 titles, 38 All-America awards, 109 NCAA Championships bids and 21 school records in his 11 years with the program.
Another indication of Metcalf's success lies in how his athletes have performed in the professional and international ranks.
The U.S. Olympic Trials this past summer featured several Husky distance runners in action, including the trio of Follett, Miller, and Turner, who all competed in the 1500-meters alongside new freshman Christine Babcock. Ryan Brown advanced into the semifinals of the 800-meter run, and current Husky assistant coach Kelly Strong ran in the steeplechase. 2007 graduate Mike Sayenko bettered Olympic "A" qualifying standard in his first-ever marathon race in 2006, then placed 29th at the Olympic Marathon trials in 2007.
Two-time Pac-10 steeplechase runner-up Christian Belz has won numerous national titles and set two national records in his native Switzerland, and has represented the Swiss at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, and former Husky Sabrina Monro won the 2005 NACAC Cross Country title against an elite international field.
In addition to their athletic prowess, Metcalf's teams have been among the brightest at a school renowned for its high academic standards. His teams are eight-time recipients of the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic honor, including the men's team being named the 2008 Outdoor Scholar Team of the Year, and six UW individuals have earned Academic All-America. UW placed 44 athletes on the Pac-10's All-Academic cross country or track teams in 2007-08, and has boasted the most academic honorees of any Pac-10 school in nine of the past 18 years.
Washington is the second head coaching position for Metcalf, who served in 1996-97 as the head cross country and assistant track coach at Auburn University. His Tiger athletes accumulated four All-America awards and seven NCAA Championship berths. Additionally, he coached the Auburn men to second at the 1997 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Metcalf received a bachelor's degree in geography from UW in 1993 and completed necessary coursework for a master's of science in exercise physiology at Auburn.
A four-time Academic All-Pac-10 honoree at Washington, Metcalf earned All-American honors at the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Championships. His best collegiate mark of 8:41.17 ranks fourth all-time among Husky steeplers. He also was a steeple finalist in the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Metcalf was also a memorable figure at the state prep level, winning state titles in both cross country (1987) and track (1,600m, 1988) as a senior at Ephrata (Wash.) High School.
Metcalf, 37, resides in Seattle with his wife Kristin, a former Husky distance runner and assistant track coach at Seattle's Bishop Blanchet High School, and their four-year-old daughter, Mackenzie.
Source: Washington
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