Houghton College Women's Cross Country

Coach Hager enters his 12th season as the Director of Cross Country/Track & Field in 2025-2026.   Since assuming the helm, the Highlander cross country men's and women's squads have more than doubled in size and risen in the Empire 8 rankings virtually each year.  In the Fall of 2024, Noelle Linenfelser became the first Houghton female athlete to qualify for the NCAA Championships by finishing 14th at the regional championships.   The Houghton men captured their first team Empire 8 championship in 2023, winning the 5th Empire 8 title for Houghton athletics since joining the NCAA Division III.  For the past six seasons the men have finished in the top three in the Empire 8, and last season earned a top-10 regional placement. In 2019, the Highlander women won the first team title for Houghton since joining the Empire 8 in 2012, highlighted by an individual title by Shelby Langlois. Amanda Burrichter followed with an individual E8 title in 2022, and Noelle Linenfelser won in 2023. In the last 11 years Coach Hager's athletes have produced 56 individual Empire 8 titles, and 58 indoor/outdoor track & field school records.. More recently, since the formation of the All-Atlantic Region Conference five years ago, Houghton has had 21 All-Regional performances at the All-Atlantic Regional Championships. Hager came to Houghton from Messiah (College) University where he served for two years as a graduate assistant for the Cross-Country and Track & Field teams. In his role, he served as recruiting coordinator, assisted with administrative duties, coordinated practice and competition schedules, constructed and administered training programs, and led meet management for home competitions.   Hager holds Level I and Level II (Endurance Coaching) certification from U.S. Track and Field and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He earned his master’s degree in Higher Education, with a concentration in College Athletics Management, from Messiah in May 2014.   While at Messiah as a student-athlete, Hager competed in cross-country and track & field. He was captain his senior year for both squads, and had many first-team all conference performances. His college personal bests are 26:56 for 8k, 4:03.95 for 1500m, and 1:59.18 for 800m.  After graduation, Hager co-founded Team S.W.I.F.T (Strength, Wisdom, Integrity, Faithfulness, and Truthfulness), a racing team of mostly Messiah alumni founded to give runners a chance to stay connected to their teammates after graduation and to glorify God with the blessing He has given in running.  He holds post-collegiate personal bests with S.W.I.F.T. of 15:25 (5k), 32:07 (10k), 25:40 (5 miles), 1:12:03 (half-marathon), and 2:35:54 (marathon). Patrick and his wife Sarah were married in 2012 and live in Houghton with their son Miles and daughter Emilie.