Eastern Kentucky University Women's Cross Country

Cory Erdmann was promoted to Director of the Track and Field and Cross Country program in July 2022 and is in his third year in the role. In the 2023-2024 season, Erdmann helmed the men's cross country team to their second-straight ASUN championship. Six runners finished in the top ten with seven being named all-conference, while the women's team finished third place once more with three all-conference honorees. The men would go on to finish second place at the NCAA Southeast Region Championships and 31st at the National Championships. Four runners were named USTFCCCA All-Region. In the Indoor track & field season, the Colonels claimed individual conference champions in the 800m, the 3000m, and the 5000m for the men, as well as the distance medley relay for both the men and women. During the outdoor season, the EKU men were individual conference champions in the 1500m and 3000m as well as sweeping the podium in the 5000m. Both the men and the women qualified athletes for the regional preliminary rounds with three athletes advancing to the NCAA championships, where Hakim Abouzouhir finished fourth and claimed First-Team All-American honors. With the 2022-2023 season came the program's first-ever ASUN conference championship in men's cross country, nearly sweeping the top 10 with seven Colonels within it and eight All-Conference selections. The women finished third place with two runners named to All-Conference. Both teams qualified for the Southeast Region Championships where the men would finish sixth place and the women 12th out of 32 teams. In the track & field seasons, Erdmann coached individual conference champions in the indoor men's Mile and conference medalists in the outdoor season in the men's 800m, 5000m, and 10,000m, as well as a sweep of first-through-fourth place in the 3000m steeplechase. Seven athletes qualified for regional prelimiaries with three advancing to nationals in the 3000m steeplechase, earning three honorable mention All-American honors. Erdmann was named head coach of the Eastern Kentucky University cross country and track and field program on July 6, 2018. In his first three seasons, Erdmann led the Colonels to five OVC cross country titles and an OVC men's indoor title, earning five OVC Coach of the Year awards (two for men's cross country, two for women's cross country and one for men's indoor track and field). During the 2021-2022 season, Erdmann led the team to break ten school records, including Ahmed Jaziri in the men’s outdoor 3K steeplechase (8:18.7) to win the National Championship. Jaziri would go on to race for his home country of Tunisia in the 2024 Paris Olympics, finishing in 5th place in the same event. In March of 2021, Erdmann led the EKU women's cross country team to its 14th OVC title in the last 15 years. Laura Taborda won the individual conference title and became only the fourth EKU woman ever to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships as an individual. One of the biggest highlights of 2021 was the development of Ahmed Jaziri. Jaziri ran at all three NCAA Championships during a three-month span in 2021. The native of Rades, Tunisia earned first team All-America honors after finishing sixth in the 3,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships with an EKU-record time of 7:53.1. Two days later, he represented EKU at the NCAA Cross Country Championships as an individual, finishing in the top third of the field. Jaziri was one of only 47 student-athletes nationally to race at both the NCAA Indoor Championships and NCAA Cross Country Championships during that week in March. In the fall of 2019, Erdmann led the EKU men's and women's cross country teams to their eighth consecutive sweep of the OVC Championships. The Colonel men ran away with the title, defeating their nearest competitor by more than 40 points. The women's team's win was even more impressive, as the Colonels edged Eastern Illinois by only six points with a top-five that featured four freshmen and a sophomore. Following the OVC Championships, freshman Ezekiel Rop qualified for the NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships as an individual, finishing eighth at the NCAA Southeast Regional with a 10K time of 29:58.3. In his first season as head coach, Erdmann led  the EKU men's cross country team back to the NCAA Championships. The Colonels earned an automatic bid by placing second at the NCAA Erdmann led the Colonels to six conference titles while in the OVC Southeast Regional. They followed that up by taking 16th at the national championship meet, the second-best finish ever by an EKU team. Redshirt freshman James Sugira led the way for EKU all season, earning All-America honors by finishing 14th at the NCAA Championships. He was also the 2018 NCAA Southeast Region and OVC individual champion. Erdmann then led the EKU men to another OVC Indoor Track and Field title in February of 2019. The Colonels ran away with the trophy, scoring 128 points. Before being named head coach, Erdmann had served as Eastern Kentucky's recruiting coordinator since 2009. In that role, he helped bring to EKU some of the top student-athletes in program history, including Soufiane Bouchikhi (a six-time All-American and 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championship participant), Ole Hesselbjerg (a two-time NCAA bronze medalist in the steeplechase and a 2016 Olympian), Thijs Nijhuis (IAAF World Half-Marathon Championship participant), Wade Meddles (NCAA cross country All-American), Jaime Escriche (NCAA cross country All-American), Charlotte Imer (two-time All-American) and Jamaine Coleman (the 2018 national runner-up in the steeplechase). Erdmann has extensive experience recruiting, particularly distance runners, on a national and international level.   Since Erdmann joined the staff in August of 2009, EKU won 22 OVC titles, including the last 10 men's cross country titles and nine of the last 10 women's cross country titles. During that time, EKU cross country teams have become and stayed fixtures on the national scene. Over the last eight years, the men's cross country team has qualified for the NCAA Championships six times. Between 2011 and 2015, Eastern Kentucky was one of only 10 schools in the country to qualify each and every year. In 2017, the EKU women became the first OVC team ever to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships, finishing 23rd.  In 2013, the men's cross country team won the NCAA Southeast Region for the first time in school history, defeating schools such as Virginia, North Carolina and North Carolina State to advance to the NCAA Championships for the third consecutive year, ultimately concluding the season with a 15th place finish. "EKU is a special place and we have a special program," Erdmann said upon being hired. "I am grateful for this opportunity, and I, along with everyone on our staff, will work very hard to help our student-athletes become the best versions of themselves possible.  This includes helping them achieve success athletically, academically and socially."    

After 39 years of unprecedented success, Rick Erdmann announced his retirement as Eastern Kentucky University cross country / track and field head coach in May of 2018. He was named Head Coach Emeritus of the program in June of 2018.   Erdmann concluded his distinguished career having won 73 Ohio Valley Conference championships and 70 OVC Coach of the Year awards.   He built his program around the simple premise: 'If better is possible, good is not enough.'   Erdmann's final season will go down as one of his best. In 2017-18, he led EKU to conference titles in men's cross country, women's cross country, men's indoor track and field (the Colonels' first since 2008) and men's outdoor track and field (the Colonels' first since 1957).   The EKU men recorded their first-ever OVC 'Triple Crown,' becoming the first men's team since 2003-04 to sweep all three conference titles (cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field) in a season.   The women's cross country team recorded a perfect score of 15 points at the 2017 OVC Championships (the first team to achieve that dominant feat since Samford in 2004), and became the first OVC women's team ever to advance to the NCAA Cross Country Championships, where the Colonels finished 23rd.   In all, Erdmann won 31 OVC women's cross country titles – including 19 straight from 1981 to 1999 and 11 of the last 12 – 23 OVC men's cross country titles – including the last 12 – nine OVC women's outdoor track and field titles, four OVC women's indoor track and field titles, five OVC men's indoor track and field titles and one OVC men's outdoor track and field title.   "I have had the privilege of working with some wonderful people and coaching many very talented and successful student-athletes here at EKU," Erdmann said. "However, all of the championships won and awards achieved do not compare to the feelings of pride I receive watching student-athletes excel in life after graduation. No trophy brings me joy like hearing the news that a former athlete landed their dream job, or got married, or had their first child.  Those are the moments that bring me the greatest sense of accomplishment."    Erdmann's teams dominated on a conference level; however, they also consistently made noise on the national scene. The men's cross country team, in particular, was ranked as high as No. 8 in the country (2016) and qualified for the NCAA Championships in five consecutive seasons (2011 to 2015), one of only 10 programs nationally to accomplish that feat during that time frame (BYU, Colorado, Iona, Michigan, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Syracuse, Texas and Tulsa).   The 2013 men's cross country team will go down as one of Erdmann's finest. The Colonels were ranked as high as No. 11 in the country that fall and won the NCAA Southeast Region for the first time in school history, defeating schools such as Virginia, North Carolina and North Carolina State to advance to the NCAA Championships. Erdmann was voted the NCAA Southeast Region Men's Coach of the Year, while a school-record six EKU runners earned All-Southeast Region honors. The Colonels took 15th at the NCAA Championships that season, defeating traditional powers such as Stanford, Michigan and Princeton en route to the highest finish in program history. Senior Soufiane Bouchikhi led the way, placing 26th out of 254 competitors to earn All-America honors.   In all, Erdmann coached 10 Division I Cross Country All-Americans, the most notable of whom is probably Jacob Korir. Korir ran at the NCAA Championships all four years he was at EKU, finishing seventh overall in 2006 and sixth overall in 2007. In 2016, Charlotte Imer earned All-America honors by finishing 31st at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. It was the best national finish ever by an EKU woman and the second best national finish ever by an OVC woman.   Colonels also achieved national success on the track under Erdmann, most recently in the form of Tequan Claitt. Claitt – a former walk-on – earned first team All-America honors by finishing fifth in the men's high jump at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas. In 2017, Claitt broke EKU's high jump record with a leap of 7'5.75". That was the top jump by an NCAA Division-I athlete and the sixth best jump by an American, at any level, that year.   Claitt's NCAA performance harkened back to the days of one of Erdmann's first EKU standouts, Kenny Glover. Glover jumped 7'5" and finished second in the men's high jump at the 1981 NCAA Outdoor Championships.   Imer earned second team All-America honors in the women's 5,000 meters (15:59.3), while Jamaine Coleman earned second team All-America honors in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase (8:34.1) at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Ole Hesselbjerg, a native of Denmark, was a three-time first-team All-American in the 3,000-meter steeplechase under Erdmann. He took bronze in the event at the 2014 and 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships at Historic Hayward Field in Eugene. His EKU personal-best of 8:33.22 is a school record and was the second-fastest time in the country during all of 2015.   In 2008, Korir was less than two seconds from winning Erdmann an NCAA individual title. He finished second in the men's 5,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships, barely losing to Texas A&M Corpus Christi's Shadrack Songok at the line. Claitt, Imer, Coleman and Korir are just some of the latest in a long line of EKU track and field All-Americans. Erdmann has produced 35 of them during his storied tenure, consistently sending Colonels to the biggest stage in all of collegiate track and field.   Three of Erdmann's former athletes reached the biggest stage in all of sports – the Olympics. Jackie Humphrey won the women's 100-meter hurdles at the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials and competed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Former sprinter Dallas Robinson competed on the men's U.S. Bobsled team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Hesselbjerg raced in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2016 Rio Olympics.   Before becoming EKU's head coach in August of 1979, Erdmann spent eight years as the cross country / track and field head coach at Hagerstown Junior College in Maryland. During those eight years, he meticulously built HJC into one of the top junior college programs in the country.   Erdmann's tenure at the school culminated in his being named the 1978 National Junior College Cross Country Coach of the Year after guiding his team to a second place finish at the National Junior College Championship meet in Champaign, Illinois.   A native of Ligonier, Pennsylvania, Erdmann competed in track as a sprinter at Ashland (Ohio) College, where he graduated in 1965 with undergraduate degrees in physical education and biology. He went on to earn his master's degree in physical education from Eastern Kentucky in 1966.     A former football player during his high school days in Ligonier, Erdmann accepted the football and track head coaching jobs at Hamden Hall High School in Hamden, Connecticut at the age of 24.     After three years at Hamden (1967-69), Erdmann accepted the football head coaching position at Forbes High School in Kantner, Pennsylvania, where he stayed for two years before moving on to Hagerstown.   Erdmann was one of six people inducted into the Kentucky USA Track and Field/Kentucky Track and Cross Country Association Hall of Fame at the association's second annual banquet on January 9, 2007.

LaVoie is now in her fifth season as an assistant coach for the EKU cross country and track and field program. She works primarily with distance and mid-distance runners. The native of Newport News, Virginia has played an integral role in the recent success of the EKU cross country and track and field teams. Since she joined the coaching staff in 2011, the EKU men's cross country team has won four consecutive OVC titles and qualified for four consecutive NCAA Championships. The EKU women's cross country team has won three of the last four OVC titles (2010, 2012-14) under Lavoie's tutelage. Lavoie has also helped several Colonels qualify for and compete at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, including eight in the last three years. She most notably played a key role in the development of freshman sprinter Carina Schrempf in 2015. Schrempf came to EKU as a quarter-miler (and ran 54.01 in that event during the spring), but developed into a half-miler under Lavoie's tutelage. Schrempf ran a personal-best and school-record 2:04.76 in the 800 meters at the NCAA East Regional to qualify for the NCAA Championships. She finished 15th in the event at the national championships in Eugene, Oregon, earning second team All-America honors. She finished the year as the No. 3 freshman in the country in the 800 meters. Academic success has also been at the forefront of the EKU cross country and track and field program since Lavoie joined the staff, illustrated by senior Ann Eason being named a Capital One first team Academic All-American by CoSIDA in 2014-15. Lavoie competed at EKU from 2004-07 and finished eighth in the mile at the 2007 Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She was also a member of the winning distance medley relay team at the 2006 OVC Indoor Track and Field Championships. She ran a career-best 4:52 in the 1,500 meters during the 2005 season.