Portland State University Men's Cross Country

McCaffrey joined the Portland State track & field and cross country programs in August 2015, and will enter his second season as an assistant coach in charge of distances for the 2016-17 academic year. McCaffrey led several athletes to breakout performances in his first season as an assistant during the 2015-16 season. McCaffrey guided Amanda Boman to All-Big Sky honors in his first fall cross country season with the Vikings, as she became just the second Viking since 1999 to crack the top 10 at the conference cross country meet. Boman also earned All-Big Sky honors with a second-place finish in the outdoor 5,000 meters, the longest distance at which any Viking had earned All-Big Sky honors. Additionally, Boman qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in the 10,000 meters, the fourth straight season the Vikings have had a runner qualify in the longest event.   No athlete made a bigger jump under McCaffrey than Ben Richardson, however, who earned All-Big Sky honors in with third-place finishes in both the indoor and outdoor 800 meters in 2016. Richardson was a surprise third-place finisher in the indoor 800, as he entered the Big Sky meet ranked 14th in the conference within the event, only to beat the form chart by 11 spots. Richardson then kept up that momentum during the outdoor season, when he shaved more than a second off his personal best while cracking 1:52 at two different meets. For McCaffrey, his arrival at Portland State marks a reunion with his mentor and old collegiate coach Brent Ericksen. McCaffrey captained the Southern Oregon men's outdoor track and field team to the 2010 NAIA national championship under Ericksen, and then coached under Ericksen at Morehead State. More recently, McCaffrey served as an assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky for the 2015 track and field season. During the 2014 cross country season, McCaffrey was an assistant at Michigan State where he helped lead the Spartans womens team to the Division I national championship. McCaffrey is a native of Ashland, Ore., and graduated from Southern Oregon University in June 2011. He also went on to earn a Masters in Teaching (MAT) at Morehead State in 2012.  

Ericksen Brent Ericksen assumed the leadership of the Portland State track & field and cross country programs on Aug. 10, 2015, and will enter his second year at the helm for the 2016-17 season. Ericksen led the Vikings to several individual successes in his first year at the helm in 2015-16, including multiple historic accomplishments. The Vikings won five Big Sky titles between the indoor and outdoor seasons, while the Vikings earned 19 All-Big Sky honors (1 cross country; 9 indoor; 9 outdoor), broke four school records, tied a Big Sky Championship meet record and had five athletes qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in 2015-16.   Genna Settle qualified for the NCAA West prelims in the 100 and 200 meters, becoming just the fifth athlete to qualify for both events in the same season. Additionally, Settle nearly pulled out the 100-200 title sweep at the Big Sky outdoor meet, as she won the 100 and came within a hundredth of a second of winning the 200 as well. Settle won the 100 in 11.46 seconds, tying the Big Sky Championship meet record in the event and moving her up to third all-time at Portland State. Settle then broke the school record with her second-place finish in the 200 meters, finishing in 23.42 seconds to break the record former world outdoor qualifier Karene King set at 23.46 seconds in 2011.   ChaQuinn Cook, meanwhile, became just the second Viking ever to sweep the Big Sky indoor and outdoor titles in the triple jump, as well as the first freshman ever to do so, and qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in the triple jump. Cook also hit the USATF Junior Outdoor Championship qualifying mark in the triple jump on the back of her Big Sky-winning mark of 41-02.50 (12.56m).   Amanda Boman also had a banner year in the distances, qualifying for the NCAA West prelims in the 10,000 meters, while also earning All-Big Sky honors in cross country and in the outdoor 5,000 meters. Bomans All-Big Sky honors in cross country made her just the second Viking to earn All-Big Sky honors in cross country since 1999, joining Sarah Dean in 2013. Bomans all-conference honors in the 5,000 meters also marked the longest distance at which any Viking had earned All-Big Sky honors, as she placed second in the event.   Additionally, Spenser Schmidt broke out on the mens side in his first season under Ericksen, as he won the Big Sky title in the mens indoor long jump, and then followed it up with a second-place finish in the outdoor long jump. Schmidt was also the Vikings one mens qualifier for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, becoming the Vikings first male athlete to qualify for the regional meet since 2012. Ericksen came to the Vikings as a two-time national championship-winning coach as well as a two-time national coach of the year.   Ericksen won his first national coach of the year honor in 2007 after leading the University of Wisconsin La Crosse mens team to the NCAA Division III outdoor track & field national championship. Ericksens team won the 2007 title by a record margin of 65 points, and finished as the national indoor runners-up during the same year.   Ericksen won his second national title and national coach of the year honor at Southern Oregon in 2010, when he led the Raiders mens cross country team to the NAIA national championship. Ericksens womens cross country team also placed seventh nationally in 2010, giving Southern Oregon the combined team title as well.   Additionally, Ericksen served as the sprints and hurdles coach for the country of Estonia at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ericksen has proven himself as a program builder at his various coaching stops, starting with his first head coaching job at the University of Texas A&M-Kingsville. Ericksen took over a program that had only eight men and five women in 2000 and turned it into a program that placed in the top 10 nationally in five of the next six seasons, and produced 77 NCAA Division II All-Americans and 10 NCAA Division II national champions by the time he left in 2006.   Ericksen faced a similar situation when he took over the Southern Oregon track & field and cross country programs in 2008. Given only one scholarship per gender, Ericksen grew the SOU programs from a low of 16 members in 2008 to 80 members by the time he left in 2011.   Ericksen turned the Raiders around nearly instantaneously, as he took the 2008 Southern Oregon mens cross country team that was picked to finish fourth in its conference and led them to a fourth-place finish in the nation.   Ericksen also led the Morehead State mens and womens cross country teams to their highest finishes in program history, and saw his athletes set 15 new outdoor track records during his tenure from 2011-14. Ericksen led a turnaround academically at Morehead State as well, as his mens track & field team improved from a 2.42 GPA to a 3.50 GPA in his time at the school, while his womens team posted the fifth-highest team GPA in NCAA Division I track & field. Additionally, nine of Ericksens athletes at Morehead State posted a 4.0 during the 2014 spring semester.   Ericksens time at Morehead State was his second foray into Division I athletes, as he also served as the associate head coach of cross country and track & field at Texas A&M Corpus Christi from 2007-08. There, Ericksen coached Shadrack Songok to the NCAA outdoor 10,000-meter title, and to a seventh-place overall finish at the 2007 NCAA cross country national championships.   Most recently at Pacific for the 2014-15 season, Ericksen oversaw 16 new school records in his one season with the Boxers, and coached the first athlete in Northwest Conference history to win all three jumping events at the conference championships. Ericksen also produced Pacifics first mens individual conference cross country champion in 38 years in the fall.   Overall, Ericksen has coached 16 national champions and 141 all-americans across all levels of his 16-year collegiate coaching career, and earned a total of 11 coach of the year honors.   COACH ERICKSENS PROFILE Coaching experience Head Mens and Womens Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Pacific University, 2014-15 Head Mens and Womens Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Morehead State University, 2011-14 Head Mens and Womens Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Southern Oregon University, 2008-11 Associate Head Mens and Womens Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 2007-08 Head Mens Track & Field Coach, University of Wisconsin La Crosse, 2006-07 Head Mens & Womens Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, University of Texas A&M-Kingsville, 2000-06 Assistant Coach, sprints and hurdles, Estonia, 2004 Athens Olympics   Coaching highlights Two-time national champion (2007 NCAA Division II outdoor track & field with Wisconsin La Crosse; 2010 NAIA cross country with Southern Oregon) Two-time national coach of the year 141 all-americans coached 16 national champions 11 total coach of the year honors