Cross Country Coaching Staff

Ben Welch

 

Head Coach

18th season - Kansas (1988)

Welch enters his 18th year at the helm of the men's and women's cross country teams and 2009 will mark his 7th year as head coach of track & field team.

In that time, he has guided the men's team to the NAIA National Cross Country Championships 14 out of the last 17 years, where they have finished in the top-20 twelve times and the top-10 seven times, including a second place finish in 2002.  In 2004 they placed 7th out of the 28 team field. In 1993 and 2000 the men placed 6th, in 1994 they finished 8th and 10th in 2001 & 2003. 

En route to the national meet, the men have won two NAIA District II Championships and 12 of the last 15 Cascade Conference titles, including the 2007 title. Along the way, the Men’s Cross teams have earned their coach two NAIA District II, 12 Cascade Conference, and four NAIA Regional Coach of the Year honors.

On the women's side, Welch has guided the team near the top of the NAIA cross-country ranks. In 1995, EOU'S women's team earned their first national ranking in school history and in 1996 qualified for their first trip to the NAIA National Championships. The 1997, 1998 and 1999 teams all advanced to the national meet where they finished 6th, 9th, and 3rd, respectively. Along the way, the team won five consecutive Cascade Conference titles from 1995-1999. The women’s teams have earned Welch eight conference Coach of the Year awards, one women's conference All-Sport award, and one NAIA National Coach of the Year honor. 

In 2004, the women finished 16th at the NAIA National Championships after a second-place finish in the conference that earned Welch his sixth CCC Coach of the Year award.  They then followed up with a Conference title, Conference Coach of the Year award, and 22nd place National finish in '05. 

The Lady Harriers followed those successes up with a runner up Conference finish in ’06 and a Conference title in ’07, once again finishing 22nd at the National meet in ’07.

On the track, both the men and women have set over 83 (50 indoor & 33 outdoor) school records, rewritten EOU'S top-five performance lists, qualified over 100 athletes for the NAIA Indoor and Outdoor National Championships, and have finished either first -'03 & 07- or second -'04, '05, '06 & ‘08- at the men's Cascade Conference meet and in '06 & ’07 the women finished 2nd.

 

Welch has seen his Cross Country & Track Athletes earn 59 performance All-American honors, 45  Scholar Athlete honors, and five men's and eight women's Academic Team Awards in Cross Country and Track & Field.  Adding to those stats included the top Men's Cross Country Team Academic Award at the ’01 National Meet.

 

Prior to coming to EOU, Welch spent three years as the men's cross country and track coach at Highline Community College in Des Moines, Washington and two years at the University of Kansas in Lawrence as a student assistant cross country and track coach.  Welch and his wife Talia have three children: Amanda, Nick, and Bennett."

 

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