Bowling Green State University Men's Track

Snelling has overseen the restoration of four programs and has built a foundation to revive the programs to a championship level of performance that honors the teams rich tradition and history.   When Snelling began at Bowling Green at the beginning of the 2011-12 season, he set in motion a plan to build a new culture within the programs. While redshirting a high number of talented student-athletes, the programs struggled at times to find consistency in competition. But the 2014-15 school year saw each of the four teams reach milestones and individual marks that had not been seen in many years.   In 2014, the womens cross country team climbed to fourth in the conference standings, completing a three-year stretch that saw the program improve eight spots from a 12 th place finish in 2011. It was the best result at the MAC Championships for the program since 2006 and the first time the program had finished in the top half of the league standings in back-to-back years since 1997 and 1998. At the NCAA Regional championship, the team placed 13 th , improving four spots from a year prior and 20 spots from 2011.   The mens cross country program continued to develop in 2014. BGSUs overall average time at the MAC Championship was 26:34, a 27-second improvement over 2013. Six out the eight BG runners, who were all freshmen or redshirt freshmen, set new personal best individual times.   In womens track and field, Snelling has seen his programs make comparably impressive strides. In back-to-back years, the indoor program scored 38 and 35 points at the Mid-American Conference championships, continuing the steady improvement. BGSU scored just 12 points in 2013 and only one point in 2012 when Snelling began the overhaul.   The 2015 outdoor season was also one to be proud of. The Falcons ended just five points shy of a top half finish in the league standings and Brooke Pleger won her third consecutive MAC championship in the hammer throw. Four student-athletes qualified for the NCAA Regional Championships in five events and Pleger set both a meet and stadium record to earn a third straight trip to the NCAA National Championships. With a third place finish at the NCAA National Championships, she became the first female in BGSU history to become a three-time first team All-American. The Falcons tied for 35 th nationally with six teams points.   In just a short time, Snellings athletes at Bowling Green have begun to receive recognition at a pace that has not been seen in quite some time. In 2013, Jason Salyer became the first Falcon to earn first team all-conference honors in mens cross country since 1999. Jeanette Pettigrew added a first team all-conference medal during the 2014 indoor season and was second team all-conference during the outdoor campaign. Brooke Pleger was a three-time first team all-conference student-athlete for outdoor track and field.   Pleger, in fact, became one of the most decorated athletes in BGSU history. She is the first female in school history to be named a three-time All-American. Following both the 2013 and 2015 track and field season she was named the Mid-American Conferences Field Athlete of the Year. She also earned the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Associations Great Lakes Region Field Athlete of the Year honor in both 2014 and 2105. She was a 10-time MAC Field Athlete of the Week (nine times during the outdoor season and once during indoor).   Pettigrew became the first BGSU sprinter to be honored in more than a decade with a MAC Track Athlete of the Week honor during the 2014 outdoor season.   Snelling himself is no stranger to earning accolades. In November of 2013, he was named to the All-Time Southland Conference Cross Country Honor Roll in recognition of the leagues 50 th anniversary. He was one of eight coaches recognized for their historic contributions to the sport.   While the team has made strides in competition, academic success has not fallen behind. Following the 2014 cross country season, a program record 11 Falcons were named Academic All-MAC (seven women and four men) with six of those being named Distinguished Scholar-Athletes (a MAC-best four from the womens side and two in mens). Following the 2015 indoor season, the program tied for MAC honors with 17 Academic All-MAC award winners. After the outdoor campaign, 17 were again named Academic All-MAC. In total, the track programs earned 13 Distinguished Scholar-Athlete awards (six during indoor and seven during outdoor). Over the course of the past two years, eight of the nine competitors at the NCAA Regional preliminary meet were named USTFCCCA All-Academic.   The womens cross country team earned All-Academic Team honors for the 14 th consecutive season following the 2014 campaign, while the mens cross country team was honored for the fifth consecutive year. The womens track and field team also earned the honor following the 2014 season, marking the eighth consecutive year that they have been recognized.   Pleger was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, earning third team honors in 2014 and second-team laurels in 2015.   Snelling arrived in Bowling Green in 2011 after spending eight seasons at Stephen F. Austin State University, where he served as head coach of the cross country team and assistant coach for the mens and womens track and field programs. While at Stephen F. Austin, Snelling led his athletes to a level of success that rivaled any program in the region. During his tenure, his teams won a combined 15 conference championships, and his athletes won 32 individual Southland Conference crowns. In just the 2010-11 season, his teams won four of six possible championships SFA womens teams won the cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field titles, the first conference sweep in school history. Also making history, the mens track and field team won the SLC outdoor championship for the first time. Snellings athletes completed 221 track and field scoring performances at conference championship meets. They also set 26 separate school records and combined for eight NCAA individual qualifying performances. His athletes were no strangers to honors and awards, either. Snellings runners won six SLC Athlete of the Year awards, four SLC Student-Athlete of the Year awards, and five SLC Freshman of the Year awards. His teams also featured three conference outstanding track performers and a high point scorer from an outdoor conference championship meet. As SFAs cross country coach, Snelling was honored as SLC Coach of the Year six times. In his first season at SFA, Snelling led the womens cross country team to the conference championship and lowest team score in school history (42 points) and then guided the mens squad to a third-place finish at the NCAA regional meet. The finish was the schools best ever and their score was their lowest in team history for a regional meet. The 2005 mens and 2011 womens cross country squads currently hold the school record for lowest point total at a conference championship (28 Men, 34 Women). In 2004 and 2005, he guided Ashley Monteau to SFAs first-ever individual berth in the NCAA Championships; she is the only cross country runner in school history to qualify for the national championship on multiple occasions. Also in this period, track and field distance runner Ana Rodriguez qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 5,000 meters three consecutive years (2003-2005). Only three other women in the country matched that feat in the 5,000 meters during that time frame. Prior to his stint at Stephen F. Austin, Snelling spent three years as a volunteer assistant coach for nationally-ranked mens track and cross country programs at Indiana University. While a Hoosier, he prepared practice and competition schedules for freshmen, facilitated day-to-day responsibilities for the programs, and spent time as recruiting coordinator. During the 2002-03 season, Indianas cross country team ranked in the top 20 nationally and produced two All-Big 10 conference runners. The mens track and field team finished in the top ten during the indoor season, and that team featured the NCAA runner-up in the mile (John Jefferson). Snelling earned a masters degree in public affairs from Indiana in 2003 and a bachelors degree in political science and history from the University of Central Florida in 2000. Snelling competed as a member of the cross country and track teams while an undergraduate student at UCF. As a Golden Knight, he served as captain and won all-conference awards. Snelling is married to the former April Vitori. The couple has two children, Louie and Madie. The family resides in Bowling Green.