Augustana College Men's Cross Country

Olsen. The Vikings have placed second 33 times under his tutelage. Only once during the last 47 years has one of his teams finished as low as fourth in the conference. Five individual Augustana runners have won a total of seven league titles and in national competition the Vikings have garnered 24 All-America certificates and three individual national titles.   He has served as meet director of the NCAA Division III national meet five times and his team has hosted the Midwest Regional 23 times since 1979. In 1996 and 2001 the Vikings hosted both the NCAA Midwest Regional and the NCAA Division III national meet.   His track & field resume is just as impressive. He has led Augustana to 14 CCIW titlesincluding both indoor and outdoor championships in 2016and 44 runner-up finishes, 33 in the outdoor meet and 11 during the indoor championships. In the spring of 2010 the Vikings won the CCIW title for the second time in three years and finished the year ranked third in the NCAA Division III Power Rankings. In addition, Olsen was named the NCAA Division III Midwest Regions Coach of the Year by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. He was that organizations Division III National Coach of the Year in 2008.   A total of 275 individuals and 44 relay teams have won league titles in indoor and outdoor track & field during Olsens tenure.   Olsen has also coached a total of 243 NCAA Division III All-America selections in both indoor and outdoor track and 25 times Viking athletes have been crowned national champions. The Blue and Gold has placed in the top 10 in a national meet 19 times including second place finishes in 1975 and 1981. In 2016, his team was 16th at the indoor national championships and 60th outdoors. Olsen was inducted into the Illinois Track & Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame in January of 2004 and went into the Augustana Tribe of Vikings Hall of Fame in October of 2005. Olsen was also a member of the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame class of 2013. A native of Onamia, Minnesota, Olsen came to Augustana after a teaching and coaching stint at Lincoln High School in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. During his first couple of years at Augustana he served as an assistant in both football and basketball before assuming full time duties in track and cross country. Olsen is a man of many talents and interests. As a professor in the English Department at Augustana, Olsen ranks as one of the most popular teachers in the entire school with his classes in Black Literature and the Sacred and Profane consistently filled to capacity. In 1989 Olsen was one of just 120 teachers nationwide who were honored at the American Association for Higher Education convention in Chicago. He was the only Augustana faculty member named to the elite group. He has been selected by the seniors at Augustana to give the final lecture 11 times during his career. At one time he used to perform a one-person play entitled Pilgrimage with Poets that was highly acclaimed. Olsen is a graduate of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he was captain of the track team and a starter for the football team as a defensive back. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Oregon. He resides in Bettendorf, Iowa with his wife Jeanne, who is a hospital Chaplin in Davenport. The couple have a pair of sons - David, a former United States Navy S.E.A.L. who currently works in Los Angeles as an entrepreneur for the U.S. State Department, and Eric, who is an actor and a graduate of Pepperdine University. Eric has appeared in several movies, including Pearl Harbor, Not Another Teen Movie and Arthurs Quest, and television shows, such as ER, Smallville, and Get Real. He is currently starring as lead detective Marty Deeks in CBSs NCIS-Los Angeles.   THE PAUL OLSEN RECORD AT AUGUSTANA