Lipscomb University Women's Cross Country

Evans Assistant Coach (Men's and Women's Sprints and Hurdles) Marcus Evans returns for his sixth season with the Lipscomb University track and field staff again serving as the assistant coach working primarily with the sprinters, hurdlers, relays, pole vault, throwers, jumpers, and multi-event athletes. During his five-year tenure, Evans has helped athletes break 26 school records including the mens and womens 4x400m relays, 110m Hurdles, 400 hurdles, 100m, 200m, and 400m. With Evans as coach, the Lipscomb sprinters and hurdlers turned in several podium finishes to help both the mens and womens teams earn their highest conference finishes in school history. Under Evans training and tutelage Tucker Peabody qualified for the NCAA East regional in 100m and 200m three times and the USATF National Championships once. Wayne Newman also qualified for the NCAA Preliminary Round for the 110m Hurdles twice and 400m Hurdles (51.59). Evans has also assisted with steeplechase/hurdling technique contributing to both the mens and womens 3000m Steeplechase records being broken. Marcus specific work with Madi Talbert has contributed to her 3x time qualification to the NCAA finals in Eugene Oregon where she has been awarded All-American status. Evans has also assisted in all eight of the Cross Country Championships for the men (3) and women (6 consecutive). Before his time at Lipscomb, Evans was an assistant coach at NCAA Division III Adrian College in Michigan, where he helped the sprinters, hurdlers and high jumpers. During his year at Adrian, Evans coached five MIAA conference champion sprinters and a NCAA Division III high jump qualifier. Evans competed in track and field as a hurdler for Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville as a hurdler during the schools transition from NCAA Division II to Division I. Evans was a team captain and served as vice-president and member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Evans is a two-time Division II NCAA provisional qualifier and Division I regional qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles (52.20). Evans is also a SIUE record holder as a member of the sprint medley relay. Evans earned GLVC all-conference honors as a 200-meter hurdle indoor champion and was member of the 4x400-meter relay team. In 2010, Evans earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications with an emphasis in television and radio from SIUE. Evans earned a Masters degree in Conflict Management from Lipscomb University.  Evans is a USATF Level 1 certified coach, and he also has Track and Field Coaching and Sprint, Hurdle, and Relay Specialist certificate holder from the USTFCCCA. Coach Evans resides in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Megan. Evans is from Skokie, Ill., where he competed in basketball, track and field, and cross-country for Niles North High School. Evans was born in Chandler, Ariz. where he competed in club track and field for the Arizona Cheetahs beginning at the age of 6 years old.  

Reed Assistant Coach (Men's Distance) Benton Reed begins his third year with the Lipscombs cross country and track & field coaching staff. He is an assistant coach for distance and is the Operations Coordinator.  Since joining the staff, Reed has helped elevate the mens program in several areas. They have won two consecutive cross country Atlantic Sun Conference Championships. In the past two cross-country seasons, 11 runners earned all-conference honors. Two student-athletes earned all-region honors in cross-country as well. On the distance side of the mens track program, Reed has guided his athletes to break 11 school records in the indoor and outdoor seasons. At the 2015 Atlantic Sun Outdoor Championships Christian Freeman won the 3k Steeplechase. In the last two years, 11 other distance performances have earned a podium finish for all-conference honors at the championship meets. Before Lipscomb, Reed served as an assistant coach at The University of the South, in Sewanee, Tenn. During his time with the Tigers, The womens cross country team matched the highest finish in school history in conference. He also coached eight all-conference men and women in events ranging from the 800 meters to the 10,000 meters. As an athlete Reed competed for Lipscomb, and was a member of Coach Bill Taylors first recruiting class in 2008. He served as a team captain for three years.  He also served on the Spiritual Direction Team through the years and was one of the leaders on the team mission trip to Belize in 2011 and Dominican Republic in 2014.  He graduated from Lipscomb in 2012 with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Corporate Management and is currently pursuing his MBA.  Reed holds a USTFCCCA Program Management & Technical Coaching Certification.  A native of Scottsboro, Ala., he is married to a former Lipscomb distance runner, Emily (Longden). They live in Nashville with their dog, Dakota.

Randolph Assistant Coach (Women's Distance) Jenny Randolph begins her fifth year on the XC/Track & Field coaching staff at Lipscomb University. Randolph has helped lead the Lady Bisons to four straight Atlantic Sun Conference Cross Country Championship titles. The men joined the women as champions in 2014 for back-to-back podium sweeps. Randolph moved to Nashville in 2007 to begin her undergraduate studies and collegiate running career at Lipscomb University. She was a captain of the XC/Track & Field teams for three years. Randolph improved tremendously as an athlete running under head coach Bill Taylor and broke several school records during her time as a Lady Bison. Her teammates votes awarded her honors at the end of each season throughout her four years on the team including the Total Commitment, For the Team, and Fightin Bison awards. Randolph was one of four senior athletes at Lipscomb to earn the A-SUNs Presidents Scholar Award. She earned Academic All-Conference honors every semester. Heavily involved in the teams Discipleship and Outreach Commission, Randolph has participated in or helped lead every mission trip the team has gone on: Los Angeles in 2010, Belize in 2011, Haiti twice in 2012, Jamaica in 2013, and the Dominican Republic in 2014. Randolph holds USATF Level 1 coaching certification. She graduated from Bearden High School in Knoxville, Tenn. in 2007. She graduated magna cum laude from Lipscomb in 2011 with a B.S. in Biology. She completed her M. Ed in Instructional Practice in 2013 and her M.S. in Psychology in 2015.  

Taylor Director of Men's and Women's Cross Country and Track and Field, Women's Distance Coach   Bill Taylor enters his tenth year as the Head Mens and Womens Cross Country and Track and Field Coach at Lipscomb University. During his time at Lipscomb the program has seen a dramatic rise into the regional and national picture at the NCAA Division I level. Taylors womens cross country teams have won five consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference Championships (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), while the Mens Cross Country team has won the past three Atlantic Sun Championships (2013, 2014, 2015).  Taylors highlights at Lipscomb include: -ASUN XC Champions: Women: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015  Men: 2013, 2014, 2015 -Five NCAA Division I All-American honors in track and field -Madi Talbert, 2016 US Olympic Trials Qualifier, Steeplechase -NCAA Division I Indoor National Championship qualifiers: Gemikal Prude: High Jump, 2014 -NCAA Division I Outdoor National Championship qualifiers: Madi Talbert: Steeplechase, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. Gemikal Prude: High Jump, 2014. 2015. -NCAA Outdoor National Championship Prelim qualifiers: Madi Talbert, Steeplechase 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 & 5000m 2015, Barbara Lee Ball 10,000m 2016. Paige Stoner, Steeplechase 2015 & 5000m 2015, Sally Larson, 5000m 2015 & 10,000m 2016, Karly Hibbard, Javelin 2015, Gemikal Prude, High Jump 2014, 2015, 2016. Wayne Newman, 110m High Hurdles 2015, 2016 & 400m Hurdles 2016, Colin Dempster, 400m 2014, Tucker Peabody, 100m 2014 & 200m 2012, 2014. Kendra Lobley Steeplechase 2012, Dani Walker, 5000m 2012. -65 ASUN individual champion honors. 372 All-ASUN athlete honors. -ASUN COY honors for women's XC 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and men's XC 2013, 2014, 2015. -79 of 92 men's and women's school records have been set. -USTFCCCA National Academic Honors for all teams every year. Women ranked first in the nation 2015 NCAA Division I Track and Field for team GPA. Men ranked first in the nation 2009. -Team has conducted seven mission trips in the past six years to LA, Belize, Haiti twice, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic twice.   Outside of the competitive arena and the classroom, Coach Taylor has built a unique culture that emphasizes team environment, total person development and service. Team environment means that high character is emphasized in recruiting and in being a part of the program. The result has been the strongest team environment in the nation, where the athletes love to be around each other, motivate each other and take care of each other.  By having a culture of high character and creating a team family, the Lipscomb athletes have more fun and achieve more in every aspect.  The team environment is a large reason for the rapid success the program has achieved, as well as the gigantic PR rates. A Total Person Development philosophy of coaching emphasizes academic success, spiritual development and personal growth in addition to high athletic success. This means striving to be the best in the world athletically, while keeping athletics in perspective. It also means that Taylor and his staff believe that athletics are a tool for growth, and that their job is to help their athletes grow in every aspect of their lives. As a service culture, the cross country and track and field teams are active in the community on a regular basis. Every semester the teams organize and conduct at least two Community Service projects. This has taken many forms, ranging from Habitat for Humanity builds, to Special Olympics help, to storm clean-up, to making sandwiches and handing them out to the homeless, to working with an inner-city youth organization and so many more. The Lipscomb Cross Country and Track & Field teams have also done seven mission trips the past six years, and will continue return to the Dominican Republic again this year. Prior to Lipscomb, Taylor coached 11 years at the collegiate level, five years at the high school level and two years privately coaching elite runners. From 1994 to 2004 he created and guided the Northwest University (Kirkland, WA) Cross Country and Track programs to national prominence. In particular, the women's distance program at Northwest rose to an elite level. His 2002 Womens team won the NAIA National Cross Country Championship and his 2003 team finished second in the nation. From 2000 to 2003 (his final season at Northwest), his women finished in the top seven nationally every year and added two top ten national finishes in indoor track as well. From 1999 to 2003 his women's cross country teams boasted a 98 percent winning percentage against all competition and an 84 percent winning percentage against NCAA Division I competition. Along the way his women picked up four consecutive Cascade Conference Championships and two Regional Championships. His peers honored him with 17 Conference, Regional and National Coach of the Year honors. He also had an incredible 100% PR rate at Northwest for 5000m.  Every athlete that joined the program over the 10 years at Northwest PRd, and the average PR rate was just about 2-minutes. This type of improvement is rarely seen on such a scale at the collegiate level. At Lipscomb this trend has continued, with average PR rates for 5000m well over the 2-minute mark.  In total at Northwest, Taylor coached 52 Athletic All-Americans, 31 Academic All-Americans, 201 National Qualifiers and 53 Cascade Conference Champions at Northwest University. Kristina Proticova won individual National Championships in the Indoor 3000m and the 3000m Steeplechase and set the Slovakian National Record for the steeplechase while at Northwest.  In the Spring of 2012, Taylor and his 2002 Northwest University NAIA Womens Cross Country National Championship team were inducted into the Northwest University Athletics Hall of Fame. In 2006-07, Taylor served as an assistant coach with the women's cross country and track programs at Belmont University, helping them regain the Atlantic-Sun Cross Country championship. A native of the Seattle, Wash., area, Coach Taylor and his family moved to Nashville in 2006. Taylor has a Bachelor's degree from Belmont University, is completing a Masters degree in Conflict Management from Lipscomb University,  and holds USATF Level I and II Coaching certification.  When he has time, he enjoys reading, writing, hiking, outdoor sports, marksmanship, fitness, and relieving stress on a set of drums.  In the past he served six years as a 19D Cavalry Scout with the Washington Army National Guard, and volunteered for 11 years with Snohomish County Search & Rescue. Most of all, he enjoys spending time with his family.  He and his wife Tabetha have been married for 28 years. They have two daughters, Bella and Ellie and Golden Retriever named Wiley. They reside in Franklin, Tennessee.