St. Olaf College Women's Cross Country

Daymont is in her 35th season at St. Olaf in 2015-16. She was inducted to the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame on Dec. 15, 2014 and is a member of the St. Olaf Athletics Hall of Fame.   In 1976, Daymont was hired as the varsity women's cross country coach at St. Olaf.  In her time as a coach, Daymont has mentored more than 1,200 female student-athletes.   Daymont has led St. Olaf to nine conference championships in her tenure, the second-most of any MIAC school. The Oles captured five consecutive titles from 1998-2002, and had their best NCAA finish in that stretch, fourth-place in 1999. Daymont has accompanied athletes to the NCAA National Championships 18 times (ranks seventh in all-time appearances), 11 of those with team finishes in the top 10. She has coached over 32 different athletes to 81 All-American honors.   Voted NCAA Division III Central Region Coach of the Year three times, Daymont has also earned MIAC Coach of the Year honors twice. She also serves as the meet director for many major cross country and track and field events, most notably hosting the NCAA National Cross Country Championships in 2002 and 2007.   The arrival of the Minnesota State High School Cross Country Championships on the St. Olaf campus were facilitated by Daymont. She also has made her mark as a leader in water training. She serves as a distance and middle distance clinician around the region and worked as a co-director for the 1982 Associated for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women track and field championships.   A graduate of the State University of New York-Cortland, Daymont went on to earn her master's from Syracuse University. Daymont had a five-year hiatus from St. Olaf (1981-86) and taught and coached at Bloomsburg State (PA) and Macalaster.   Daymont teaches in the exercise science department as an associate professor, specializing in exercise physiology. She and her husband Dick live in Northfield. All three of their children -- Sara, Megan and Tommy -- attended and were student-athletes at St. Olaf. Megan and Chris were inducted to the St. Olaf Hall of Fame on the same day in 2013.

Bretscher was named head coach for the St. Olaf women's track and field program on Aug. 20, 2015. Bretscher, who had been on staff at Cornell College (Iowa) for the previous three-plus seasons, is an assistant for the Ole women's cross country team as well. Bretscher coached the sprints, jumps and hurdles and was an assistant cross country coach at Cornell. Prior to her time there, she was an assistant track and field coach for two seasons at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., where for one year she also served as a compliance assistant. Bretscher has a USA Track and Field Level 2 (sprints, hurdles and relays) certification and is a member of the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.  Bretscher was track and field student-athlete at DePauw University. She was the team's most valuable track performer in 2007, a coach's award winner in 2006 and broke five school records in her career. Bretscher stayed at DePauw as an assistant coach in 2009-10 and was an intern for the 2010 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships. She graduated cum laude from DePauw with a B.A. in mathematics. She earned her M.Ed. in educational leadership from St. Lawrence in 2012.