Mitchell College Men's Cross Country

Bannon enters her first season as head coach of the Mitchell College men's and women's cross country teams in 2015. She will make her head coaching debut with the Mariners. A member of the cross country and track & field teams at the College of New Jersey, Bannon specialized in middle distances and earned numerous honors. She twice raced at NCAA National Championships (1500m and distance medley relay), earned All-America honors (2011) for indoor track, was named USTFCCCA All-Atlantic Region (2010) for cross country, was NJAC Conference champion in the 1500m (2012), and was the anchor leg for the distance medley relay team that owns the school record. Bannon also excelled in the classroom and was awarded USTFCCCA Academic All-American honors in 2012. She was active in the Student Athletic Advisory Committee as the representative for the womens cross country team for two years, then later as the representative for all of TCNJ's womens teams in the New Jersey Athletic Conference SAAC. Bannon's passion for running has continued past her college days. She has run two half-marathons and recently completed her first marathon (3:27) in April, which qualified her for the 2016 Boston Marathon. After graduating from TCNJ in 2012 with a degree in elementary education and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), Bannon taught fifth grade in New Jersey for two years before relocating to Connecticut.